The first G20 Summit on African soil in Johannesburg, and the first since the AU became a permanent member of the G20 in 2023, is framed as Africa’s moment to deliver Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.  The Summit comes on the heels of the Sevilla Commitment, where African countries advocated for ownership over their own resource mobilisation. The outcome pledged a doubling of support for Domestic Resource Mobilisation (DRM), while also shining a light on the bias affecting African sovereigns in global credit ratings and strengthening tax cooperation to address illicit financial flows. Meanwhile, the Doha Political Declaration, adopted at the Second World Social Summit, underlines how resilience and inclusion are intrinsic to sustainable development, while deliberations at COP30 have underlined how critical climate action is to delivering on the promises of Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030.

Africa’s G20

With its motto Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability, the South African Presidency has put sustainable development at the centre stage - positioning the Johannesburg Summit as Africa’s G20. This is crucial since the summit took place with only five years to go before the 2030 deadline for achieving the SDGs. 

Ambitious priorities… 

South Africa’s G20 Presidency has focused on four high-level priorities: 

• Strengthening global disaster resilience and response to address the growing impact of climate-induced disasters; 

• Advancing debt sustainability for low-income countries by promoting fair and transparent sovereign credit ratings, reducing the cost of capital, and extending debt relief; 

• Mobilizing finance for a just energy transition through enhanced climate finance flows, stronger multilateral development banks, and leveraging private investment; and 

• Harnessing critical minerals as a driver of inclusive growth and sustainable development, ensuring resource-rich countries and communities benefit from the energy transition. 

Supported by groundbreaking initiatives 

• The G20 Africa Engagement Framework (AEF) was endorsed by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in October 2025.  The Framework predominantly focuses on (i) addressing Africa’s fiscal and macroeconomic challenges, (ii) its regional infrastructure development aligned with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), (iii) improving  Africa’s institutional and governance architecture, (iv) reducing the cost of capital,  enhancing private sector finance, and strengthening the DRM capacity, and (iv) strengthening the role of International Financial Institutions (IFI) in Africa’s development. The South African Presidency has committed to support the framework through financial resources, coordination and collaboration with the AU and other African institutions until 2030, thereby securing the legacy of Africa’s G20.

• The Ubuntu Approach: Moving Forward Together: Anchored in the African philosophy of Ubuntu (“I am because you are”), the Ubuntu Initiative is an Africa-led legacy framework created in collaboration with the African Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Development Bank and the World Bank to accelerate cross-border infrastructure projects across the continent.  Specifically, the Initiative aims to transform the G20 Toolkit for Cross-Border Infrastructure into a viable programme of action and assist countries in overcoming shortfalls in managing cross-border infrastructure projects from the initiation to the completion stages. The Ubuntu Approach aims to generate a pipeline of bankable projects and the accompanying tools to overcome regulatory and institutional bottlenecks. 

• The Africa Energy Efficiency Facility (AfEEF):  The G20 South Africa Presidency  launched the AfEEF in partnership with the AU Commission in October 2025. This legacy initiative provides a continental platform to increase Africa’s energy productivity by 12 per cent by 2030,  50 per cent by 2050, and  70 per cent by 2063. The Facility also aims to mobilise $3 billion by 2030 to combat severe energy inefficiencies on the continent by financing green projects, harmonising energy policies, and building technical capacity. 

• The G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality, led by the Nobel laureate Prof. Joseph Stiglitz,   delivered a concrete and action-oriented blueprint to tackle inequality—emphasising that it is not inevitable, but rather the result of policy choices. Their proposals include expanding access to knowledge, food, medicines, and digital technology; rethinking trade and industrialisation models; strengthening macroeconomic policies to rebuild public wealth; and investing in public goods, such as universal social protection and quality public services. To support evidence-based action, the Committee calls for an Intergovernmental Panel on Inequality (IPI), modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to provide timely data and analysis to support real-time policymaking, a landmark initiative to be championed under the South African G20 Presidency and supported by voluntary countries and multilateral organizations. 

A stronger voice and a robust legacy for Africa in global fora 

Research from the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa indicates that over 40 per cent of African countries allocate more funds to debt service than to health, and the high cost of debt servicing is crowding out essential spending in health, education, and infrastructure. In 2024, debt servicing costs reached nearly $90 billion, further limiting investments in critical areas for sustainable development. We have also been advocating for deep reforms within the international financial architecture to address Africa’s debt sustainability, including reforms to G20’s Common Framework to make it more transparent, faster, and inclusive, ensuring fair treatment and meaningful debt relief for African countries facing severe liquidity and development constraints. This is aligned with the UN Secretary-General’s appeal for structural interventions to the international financing architecture to tackle Africa’s sustainability needs, not simple quick fixes, which perpetuate the status quo.

While the October 2025 G20 ministerial declaration on debt falls short on the levels of ambition needed for African debt sustainability, UNOSAA’s research underlines the need to take a holistic view which addresses the ability of African countries to fully harness their economic and financial flows. The G20 Africa Expert Panel, headed by Mr. Trevor Manuel, former Minister of Finance of South Africa, has issued a Plan for Action calling for a paradigm shift away from aid-dependence towards an African-led investment-driven growth model supported by global partnerships. Such a model would focus, inter alia, on infrastructure, energy, human capital (harnessing Africa’s demographic dividend), climate resilience, domestic resource mobilisation, and stronger country systems and institutions. Such a broad-based approach is commendable as the financing gap for Africa to achieve the SDGs by 2030 is estimated at $1.6 trillion – a gap which cannot be bridged by using Official Development Assistance (ODA) alone.  

Looking ahead- empowering the agents of change

Africa stands at a pivotal juncture:  Despite facing significant challenges, it has tremendous potential for sustainable development thanks to its dynamic young population and vast natural resources.  

If we are to encapsulate the promise of these summits of multilateralism from an African perspective, it would be to underline how the empowerment of the African state and its institutions is crucial to deliver on sustainable development. Empowering Africa is the key to unlocking sustainable development, as illustrated in OSAA’s recent flagship report on financing for development.  Strong and effective states and institutions are the agents of change, supported by an enabling development-focused international financing architecture. 

As the United Nations is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, the UN and the G20 share a common vision: building a fairer, more resilient global system that works for everyone. As the world faces common challenges, such as climate change, debt vulnerabilities, and persistent inequality, the G20’s capacity to mobilise financial resources and its role in shaping the international financial architecture complement and strengthen the UN's efforts in the same direction and its call for inclusive multilateralism as encapsulated in the major UN conferences of 2025. 

Utku Teksoz is a Programme Management Officer at the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA).