ADEKEYE ADEBAJO: SA’s turn as G20 head is a chance to push African priorities

SA takes over the one-year rotating presidency of the Group of 20 (G20) in December as the bloc’s first African host. This group accounts for 85% of the global economy, 75% of international trade and two-thirds of the world’s population.

Founded in 1999 but still lacking a permanent secretariat, the G20 consists of SA’s Brics allies Brazil, Russia, India, China and Saudi Arabia; Western powers such as the US, Germany, France and the EU; and regional powers such as Japan, Indonesia and Turkey. The AU joined the bloc a year ago.

A recent policy dialogue at SA’s department of international relations & co-operation, in collaboration with the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, brought together civil society actors, diplomats, trade unions and the private sector to craft recommendations on SA’s forthcoming presidency.

Despite some of the G20’s successes in co-ordinating global economic policy, promoting debt suspension during the Covid-19 pandemic and leading debates on climate financing, the bloc has recently been beset by geopolitical divisions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. SA’s presidency follows those of three Global South powers: Indonesia (2022), India (2023) and Brazil (2024).

Indonesia touted “inclusive development” and “vaccine equity”; India pushed “the digital revolution” and “sustainable development”; while the current Brazilian presidency under former trade unionist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sought to promote “social inclusion” and “equitable development”. Brazil has also called for a 2% global tax on billionaires to raise $250bn for development, an idea backed by SA, Germany and Spain but opposed by Washington.

Pretoria’s presidency provides it with a great opportunity to push African development priorities such as the suspension of the continent’s $1.1-trillion in external debt, with African countries typically spending 45% of their revenues on debt servicing, and Zambia, Ghana and Ethiopia having defaulted on their debts. The importance of co-ordinating policy effectively between SA’s presidency, foreign ministry and the Treasury was consistently stressed.

One key lesson from Brazil’s current presidency is the need to involve grassroots movements (such as, in Brasilia’s case, indigenous people from the Amazon rainforest) and ensuring an agenda set by the priorities of ordinary citizens, as well as co-ordinating multinational civil society networks effectively. 

Pretoria was further encouraged to work closely with the AU to leverage the 1.4-million-strong African market, aligning its National Development Plan and the AU’s Agenda 2063 to an African development strategy that pushes reforms of institutions of global governance such as the UN, the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organisation. These efforts should be linked to the outcomes of the UN Summit of the Future, taking place later in September.

SA was also urged to harness its “soft power” and moral stature from the genocide case it lodged against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and to act as a bridge between its Brics and Global South allies, and the rich North, in building consensus for issues of development and climate funding.

The G20 has a vital role to play in resolving the world’s polycrisis, particularly in resuscitating the UN’s sustainable development goals, with global poverty, hunger and inequality having increased. SA was thus urged to push to increase Africa’s share of the IMF’s special drawing rights, tackle the annual $88.6bn in illicit financial flows out of the continent, prioritise closing Africa’s $100bn annual infrastructure gap, phase out fossil fuels, pressure the rich world to deliver on annual pledges of $100bn to developing countries to combat climate change, commission experts to reform the IMF to be more transparent and accountable, examine how to achieve an effective division of labour between governments and international financial institutions, and leverage the resources of philanthropists such as the Gates Foundation on global health issues.

•Adebajo is a senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship.