Themed “Unity, equality, sustainability,” this year’s G20 Summit brings together senior leaders from most member countries and organizations, along with several invited nations. The United States, the G20’s largest economy, said it would not attend this year.
Priorities for Africa
Held in Africa for the first time, this year’s Summit is important for host South Africa and the rest of the continent. The Summit’s theme and agenda, which were proposed by South Africa, focus on fostering international solidarity, supporting developing countries in coping with climate change, accelerating energy transition, and easing national debt burdens.
In a report released prior to the Summit, the UN Conference on Trade and Development said the public debt of developing countries has grown twice as fast as that of advanced economies since 2010, reaching 31 trillion USD. The average debt-to-GDP ratio for sub-Saharan African countries is 58.5%, lower than that of developed economies like the US (125%) or Japan (230%). But Africa’s per-capita debt payment exceeds investment in essential sectors.
UN data show that between 2021 and 2023, Africa spent 70 USD per capita on debt interest payments, more than on education (63 USD) or health (44 USD). Debt reduction and restructuring for African countries will undoubtedly be a major theme in Johannesburg.
Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Executive Director of the South African Institute of International Affairs, said that with South Africa hosting the Summit and the African Union now a full G20 member, Africa is well-positioned to drive discussions on reforming the global financial system and advancing its other priorities. Next year South Africa will hand over the G20 presidency to the US.
Busisipho Syobi, a public policy researcher at Good Governance Africa (GGA) in Johannesburg, said Africa possesses essential mineral resources for the global energy transition but gains little benefit from them. The G20 Summit in South Africa presents an opportunity to change that.
“The question now really goes around how do we ensure that the people on the continent are benefiting from these minerals and how are they serving the current energy crises that we have respectively within the continent. As you know, I think the statistics around 600 million Africans live without electricity, so how do we ensure that this transition is also able to speak to the development challenges of the continent?” said Syobi.
On Thursday South Africa and the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding to partner on creating sustainable minerals and metals value chains that are grounded in shared objectives and mutual benefits, and to jointly develop projects to locate, extract, refine, and recycle minerals and metals.
Reshaping the role of the G20
The G20 Summit will also need to address, in addition to African priorities, maintaining multilateralism in a time of geopolitical instability. The absence of US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the leaders of several other countries such as Argentina and Mexico reduces the likelihood that the G20 will issue a meaningful joint statement on climate finance, global trade, or debt relief for developing countries.
Analysts point out, however, that divisions within the G20 stemming from geopolitical competition and trade disputes emerged before the Johannesburg Summit, so the G20 should establish a strategic roadmap before attempting to resolve short-term disagreements.
“The bigger issue that the G20 does have to tackle as it looks forward to its next cycle is exactly how can it refocus to make sure that it plays a role as a useful platform to drive reform, to drive policy processes that help to deal with the big problems that the world is facing,” said Sidiropoulos.
Analysts say that, although the US’s shift in policy will affect the G20’s direction, other members still have the capacity to advance multilateralism and free trade.
In a report released last Friday, the World Trade Organization said imports of the G20 economies quadrupled between mid-October 2024 and mid-October this year, as US tariffs prompted other countries to implement trade-liberalizing measures. This shows that most countries want to lower trade costs despite rising protectionism. Surging demand for AI-related products has strengthened the G20 economies, which lead the world in technology.