By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The opening two days of the G20 sherpa meeting, led to a proposal to review the bloc’s purpose and mandate over its various presidencies since its inception in 1999.
Zane Dangor, director general of the department of international relations and cooperation and South Africa’s sherpa, told a media briefing late on Tuesday that it was necessary to assess the purpose of the G20, its mandate and what agreements had been made on various tracks over its history.
“We need to look at what has been achieved and what enabled that achievement. We must also look at what was not achieved and what were the disabling factors,” he said.
The G20 presidency rotates annually among the member countries and will go to the US next year.
Dangor said a methodology would be developed for the G20 review so that the right questions were asked to yield the right answers for a proper analysis of the grouping.
“By the time we get to the end of our presidency in November, we can give them clear recommendations on how to improve the G20,” he said.
The G20 was established in 1999 as an informal forum for finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s most industrialised and developing economies to address international economic and financial stability.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told the same event that addressing debt vulnerabilities would be a focus of his country’s G20 presidency.
South Africa will propose creating an expert panel to focus specifically on Africa’s financing needs, he said, adding that “debt sustainability cannot be solved through the Common Framework alone”.
G20 Leaders stated at the Rio Summit last month that they will accelerate the reform of the international financial architecture so that it can meet the urgent challenges of sustainable development, climate change and efforts to eradicate poverty.
The G20 Roadmap towards Better, Bigger and More Efficient MDBs was a milestone achievement under Brazil’s Presidency. Now the focus turns to implementation and monitoring.
The discussions under South Africa’s G20 Presidency will take place alongside the 5th Finance in Common Summit (FiCS) that will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa, from 26 to 28 February 2025 as well as the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Spain in June 2025.