South Africa's hosting of the G20 is an opportunity to represent Africa's interests. Photo: Aditya Pradana Putra/Antara/ Pool/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Amid diplomatic tension with the US and the shock of the high trade tariffs imposed on South Africa by the Trump administration, the country’s position as G20 president is more important than ever. By employing inclusive leadership, President Cyril Ramaphosa can significantly enhance South Africa’s effectiveness as the leader of the G20, fostering global co-operation and sustainable development.
This means prioritising diverse perspectives, equitable decision-making and collaborative problem-solving, which will help South Africa navigate such complex global challenges as economic recovery, climate change and geopolitical tension. With its history of reconciliation and a track record of inclusive governance, South Africa can advise, with some authority, on how to foster unity within the G20, strengthen multilateralism and drive meaningful collective progress on the world stage.
Inclusive leadership is often mistakenly thought of as “soft” as it is more collaborative than authoritarian. But as Mandy Jayakody from Impact Investing South Africa pointed out at a recent G20 dialogue facilitated by the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, in partnership with Africa Forward, Impact Investing South Africa and the Economic Development Partnership, “Thoughts are initiated in the minds of people participating to move something forward.” This highlights the leadership mechanism the G20 organising system enables — a platform for momentum that is inclusive, with an institutional mechanism that works for broad benefit.
Learning from Brazil
Marcel Fukuyama of G20 for Impact believes choosing an overarching focus was an important strategy employed by Brazil as G20 host in 2024. It served to build consensus which resulted in a formal communique being signed by all countries.
The G20 Rio de Janeiro Leaders’ Declaration addressed social inclusion; the fight against hunger and poverty; the taxation of billionaires; measures for the energy transition; global governance reform and the acceleration of climate action. Reaching this consensus was a significant achievement as not all G20 summits agree on a communique.
Brazil also used the G20 presidency to build social capital and is working to retain momentum beyond the presidency. In addition, G20 Brazil introduced an inclusive social summit which brought together 45 000 participants from across society, for broad participation in the G20 process. The social forums took the G20 dialogue into diverse spaces, reaching many stakeholders to grow participation.
South Africa’s G20 priorities
Each country sets an agenda to address the priorities faced. At the recent G20 dialogue, ambassador Xolisa Mabhongo, South Africa’s G20 sous-sherpa and deputy director-general of the department of international relations and cooperation, highlighted the four priority areas South Africa has tabled to focus participation in the G20 process. These are strengthening disaster resilience and response; ensuring debt sustainability for low-income countries; mobilising finance for a just energy transition and harnessing critical minerals for inclusive growth and sustainable development.
These priority areas are informed by the social and political context South Africa is grappling with. Mabhongo noted that green industrialisation is driving a scramble for critical minerals, with demand likely to far outpace supply by 2040. He warned that if this situation is not guided by good policy, it is likely to fuel conflict and exclude broad-based beneficiation.
Decentralised and inclusive
The size of the G20 programme and its decentralised and devolved nature makes it easy to miss the importance of the many institutional mechanisms it provides, including its rotating presidency. Each year there is continuity in the way the G20 functions while dialogue and discourse are also infused with the local priorities or concerns of the country holding the presidency. This allows for inclusivity and a stable mechanism to develop global policy with broad benefits.
Another way of appreciating the G20 is to look at the leadership mechanism it facilitates. Leadership is commonly understood as something an individual provides and it often amounts to wielding power over a followership to provide direction and momentum through coercion. This person-focused view of leadership needs to be complemented and enlarged to appreciate the mechanism of leadership the G20 provides as producing direction, momentum and consensus through a dialogic process.
Building consensus
Complex issues, contestations and social innovations need durable processes to foster changes in social trajectories. This depends on an enlarged form of leadership to avoid blunt responses like violent conflicts or filibuster. The G20 ethos expects rational engagement to inform perspective and allow for consensus building, around regional priorities, that often also have global significance.
In the panel discussion, Anton Cartwright, from UCT’s African Centre for Cities, highlighted the need for African development banks to have dedicated funding for urban spaces that are not dependent on the borrower from the local region having a good fiscal record. He argued that, in most African contexts, this does not exist and that policy to fund infrastructure for urban spaces must use a different logic — such novel thinking depends upon empathy and dialogue to appreciate and grapple with enlarging a worldview.
On another cross-cutting issue, Luvuyo Rani, chief executive of Africa Forward, is putting social entrepreneurship on the G20 agenda as a critical area of focus for skills development, financial support and growth, given the many social needs in Africa, as well as the job-creation potential if more social initiatives are run as effective and sustainable small enterprises.
The G20 is a historic opportunity for South Africa to demonstrate leadership on the global stage to steward an institutional mechanism that grows leadership inclusively.
Collaboration across sectors and elevating the voices of all stakeholders can catalyse inclusive and impactful engagement. Without these mechanisms, there will be more of a tendency to resort to blunt instruments.
The G20 platform offers a different organising structure to grow leadership momentum. Together, we can ensure the continued development of this global governance system with an annual mechanism to steward efforts to reduce inequality and advance sustainable development for all.
To harness this platform, a broad coalition of actors and leaders — including the private sector, public institutions, civil society, philanthropy and think tanks — must engage in shaping its priorities and outcomes.
Dr Kosheek Sewchurran is professor of leadership and strategy at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business and Dr Solange Rosa is the director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UCT’s Graduate School of Business.