Opportunity: Day two of the G20 Food Security Task Force meeting chaired by the agriculture department’s Mooketsa Ramasodi (second from right). South Africa hosting the G20 is an opportunity to advance issues associated with youth in Africa. Photo: G20 South Africa
The Group of 20 (G20), established in 1999, is an intergovernmental economic forum of the world’s largest economies. The 2024-25 series of meetings is an important moment for Africa.
The African Union’s presence at last year’s G20 summit represented its first participation as a full G20 member while this year South Africa holds the presidency. These two developments are a watershed moment and a test for the group’s avowed inclusivity.
These developments have placed high expectations upon the AU and South Africa pertaining to their ability to effectively amplify Africa’s priorities.
South Africa holds an important position in the G20. As professor of international development law Daniel Bradlow has argued: “South Africa is the only African country that is a member of the G20 and thus participates in all G20 meetings and is eligible to participate in all G20 working groups. This means that although South Africa is not formally the designated representative of Africa in the G20, it is expected to pay attention to the concerns and interests of the rest of the continent in regard to the G20. This places South Africa in an unusual position in the G20 and increases the challenges that it faces as the only African member in the G20.”
South Africa’s tenure is a significant opportunity for advancing the continent’s priorities. But this comes at a complex, geopolitically turbulent time in which years of established foundations for peace and security are daily threatened. Russia’s war in Ukraine, Israel’s in Gaza and the wars in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan are testimony to this turbulence.
Added to this is the pressure from the rising demand for critical minerals and the pursuit of a just energy transition, the pressures of climate change and environmental stress and a general fragility in global governance systems.
All these add to the layer of issues the country must delicately navigate during its presidency. Further to this, the Trump administration’s unequivocal hostility towards multilateralism directly undermines the G20. The US secretary of state and the secretary of the treasury’s snubbing of the G20 foreign ministers and finance ministers’ convenings further erodes confidence. This retrogressive move is intensified by the US becoming the next, 2026 G20 chair and part of the troika responsible for managing the 2025 G20 process.
While South Africa aspires to champion solidarity, equality and sustainability in the global arena, it simultaneously grapples with domestic political issues as it navigates the complexities of its government of national unity. This complex context notwithstanding, the South African G20 presidency, coupled with the AU’s full membership, is an opportunity for targeted advocacy and lobbying in the G20, to advance an African “national” youth-centred interest for the benefit of the continent’s burgeoning population.
It is now less than 100 days to the end of South Africa’s G20 presidency, running under the theme “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”. The end of its tenure will be marked by the 20th heads of states summit to be held in Johannesburg from 22 to 23 November. Meanwhile, South Africa is participating in a broad, multipronged national, regional and global strategy which entails four overarching priorities to be pursued through the permanent working groups’ Sherpa and Finance Tracks:
● Strengthening disaster resilience and response;
● Taking action to ensure debt sustainability for low-income countries;
● Mobilising finance for a just energy transition; and
● Harnessing critical minerals for inclusive growth and sustainable development.
On 10 September, some of the continent’s young people proposed what they argue is a less abstract and more targeted approach during a G20 African youths focused webinar hosted by Good Governance Africa (GGA) and the Mail & Guardian. They tabled education, food security, peace and security, as well as unemployment as among some of the critical issues for South Africa’s attention during its G20 tenure.
Kagiso Pooe, an associate professor at the Witwatersrand School of Governance, also emphasised that South Africa’s G20 presidency is taking place during a difficult time. He underscored that it would yield results for South Africa if its priorities were clearly tied to the national interest, which, as he asserted, is presently too broadly defined and therefore difficult to implement.
The GGA’s head of governance insights and analytics, Mmabatho Mongae, stated that high youth unemployment caused by de-industrialisation has excluded a generation from participating in the country’s labour force and economy.
Mpilo Cele, the South African Youth Association for Global Affairs’ executive chairperson, also observed that this technologically dynamic era has a post 35-year youth segment that has never worked and is now unemployable because their skills are obsolete.
He added that South Africa’s education system is inadequate for equipping young people for a fast-changing world and there is need for targeted educational and employability priorities. These should include support for digital literacy, critical thinking and strengthening Africa’s financial technology infrastructure.
Mahloromela Silas Seabi, the chairperson of the Witwatersrand Postgraduate Association, said USAid funding cuts are a call to action. He said that it is time to map sustainable, homegrown ideas, technology and independent financing.
Moeketsi Koahela, the Y20 South Africa co-chair, cautioned that the growing youth bulge in a context of high youth unemployment was one of the key drivers of young people joining extremist movements.
“We are witnessing the daily consequences of the exclusion of young people,” Koahela warned.
The Mo Ibrahim foundation’s 2019 report also noted the youth bulge as the continent’s first issue in which “informal jobs are the default rather than the exception [with] many young Africans … trapped … in a precarious employment status which contributes to a delayed transition to adulthood — ‘waithood’.”
Lennon Monyae, the African Peer Review Mechanism (AU) Civil Society liaison officer, advised that the G20 should strive to include voices of the continent’s presently excluded young people.
Through the abovementioned tracks, South Africa can use its presidency to address education, food security, peace and security and unemployment problems affecting the continent’s youth. Jointly, with the AU it can influence the G20 towards a targeted African “national” youth-centred interest.
Practically this could entail government-spearheaded and targeted public-private partnerships for systematically investing in public infrastructure for youth reskilling programmes. These should be well-coordinated, robustly financed programmes for a digitalisation, green jobs and entrepreneurship-anchored economy. Successful implementation could provide proof of concept on advancing the youth-focused, economic prosperity and well-being tracks of South Africa’s national interest.
Because such interventions are already ongoing, the AU’s G20 full membership can be an avenue for scaling across member states.
The G20’s proven global fundraising capacity adopted during the Covid-19 response could augment domestic fundraising measures in South Africa and in AU member states. This would be a critical shift where the G20 explicitly responds to African youth needs.
The Youth Development Collaboration (YD CoLab) community manager, Thamsanqa Masingi, urged all on the need to stay solution focused.
He underscored the importance of building institutional foundations and infrastructure for meaningful youth political engagement.
The AU Youth Charter asserts that Africa’s growing youth population is its greatest resource and potential. The AU has the next five years to achieve the United Nations sustainable development goals, a clear mandate to deliver for the youth. This 2024-25 G20 Africa presents that window of opportunity to draw binding commitments from the G20 that include fundraising for the implementation of these youth empowerment interventions. Only then, as noted by the youth, can the G20 ensure that it delivers sustainable development outcomes for Africa’s youth. This confidence building move will ensure that it does not become “just another talk show” while Africa’s youth wallow in deprivation and its accompanying depravity.
Sikhululekile Mashingaidze is the lead researcher in Good Governance Africa’s Peace and Security Programme.