African Currents

G20: 'Africa Does Have Significant Leverage,' Think Tank Chief Says

18:35, 21 November 2025
Chimauchem Nwosu
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Stepping into the G20 presidency role, South Africa is championing the cause of emerging economies, amplifying their voice and prioritizing their needs as the focus of the forum's agenda.
Sputnik
The current juncture in global affairs, marked by profound geopolitical fractures and a crisis of multilateral trust, assigns a unique symbolic and practical weight to this year's G20 presidency. Holding the gavel as the forum's sole African member, South Africa transcends the role of a mere host; it becomes a steward for the long-marginalized aspirations of the Global South. Its central project is to create a more inclusive and equitable framework for cooperation, concretely advancing the African Union's permanent membership, making a case for the reform of 20th-century financial institutions, and demanding a viable pathway for climate justice that acknowledges divergent national starting points. The presidency’s ultimate measure of success, therefore, will not be in the communiques it produces, but in whether it can recalibrate the very foundations of the international order, transforming it from a system dictated to the many into one co-designed by them.
In an interview with African Currents, Dr. Sandy Africa of the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection articulated the strategic significance of South Africa's G20 presidency. She presented it as a crucial platform for Africa and the Global South to collectively reshape global economic rules, rebalance power, and claim the voice they deserve by advancing South-South cooperation and multipolar governance.

"Africa and the Global South cannot be ignored. But I'd like to underscore the fact that South Africa's, and by implication, Africa's involvement in the G20 has a long history and genesis [...]. Over time South Africa and the Global South have in fact followed the approach that the G20 must reflect the aspirations of the peoples that it serves. And it's for that reason that a lot of emphasis has been placed on the engagement groups. And these are so varied, from business to the youth to women to parliaments to labor and so onward. So, they all have a stake in the G20 [...]. But the way in which this has unfolded over the year has been to include the broadest possible set of voices, and this was indeed intended to deepen South-South cooperation and to strengthen multipolar governance arrangements [...]. Africa does have significant leverage. It's for Africa to actually organize itself," Dr. Africa noted.

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