Safeguarding G20 for the Global South

The only way to protect the grouping’s interests is for each member to embed Johannesburg Declaration’s outcomes into its national policy

- Sreeram Chaulia

The recently concluded summit of the Group of 20 (G20) nations and organisations in Johannesburg, South Africa, marked two special milestones in the evolution of an international institution that is crucial for global governance and world order.

First, itended one full cycle of all G20 member countries hosting a summit each since 2008, when the first gathering of heads of government happened in the United States (US) amid the emergency of the international financial crisis. By rotation, the G20 baton has been passed around and given every host country a sense of visibility, ownership and responsibility to steer the world economy through multiple challenging phases.

South Africa’s G20 summit was particularly special as it was the first to happen in Africa and included participants invited from several non-G20 African countries and sub-regional bodies. Host leader president Cyril Ramaphosa’s agenda-setting for the summit, seeking solutions for Africa’s pressing problems, brought the world’s poorest continent to the centrestage. If India’s historic G20 presidency in 2023 gave the African Union (AU) full membership, then South Africa's presidency ensured that the interests of 1.5 billion African people cannot be ignored.

Second, from a broader Global South perspective, the South African G20 summit was the culmination of a four-year stretch of presidencies held by developing countries. The journey from Indonesia (2022), India (2023) and Brazil (2024) to South Africa (2025) was one of cumulative gains for rendering the world economy fairer and more just towards the weakest and most vulnerable.