News Briefs 09 May 2025
South Africa’s G20 Presidency 2025
G20 conference champions financial inclusion and women’s economic empowerment
Advancing women’s economic empowerment through inclusive financial systems will take centre stage this week, as the G20 Financial Inclusion and Women Empowerment Conference 2025 kicks off at the Sun City Resort, in North West Province.
Hosted by the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD), the event, taking place from 6 to 9 May 2025, brings together the 2nd Empowerment of Women Working Group (EWWG) and the Financial Inclusion Conference under South Africa’s G20 Presidency.
Building on the outcomes of Brazil’s 2024 Financial Inclusion and Women’s Empowerment Conference, this year’s gathering aims to influence future G20 policy through the introduction of a Guidelines Framework for Mainstreaming Women’s Priorities, ensuring women’s financial empowerment remains central to global institutional and economic reforms.
The initiative aligns with South Africa’s G20 Presidency priorities, including the EWWG Priority 2: Promoting the Financial Inclusion of and for Women. It also supports global and continental development agendas, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the African Union Agenda 2063, and South Africa’s own National Development Plan (NDP) 2030.
SA Government News 06 May 2025
South Africa’s G20 sherpa briefs UN plenary on key priorities
An informal meeting of the United Nations General Assembly plenary was held today in New York to hear a briefing by South Africa’s G20 Sherpa, Zane Dangor, as the country assumes the G20 Presidency from 1 December 2024 to 30 November 2025.
The President of the General Assembly, Philemon Yang, emphasised the crucial role of the G20 in advancing global development goals. He stated, “As we advance the implementation of the Pact of the Future, the Group of 20 will be critical to ensuring that inequities are addressed, more resources are provided, and better terms for development lending are negotiated.”
Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and UN Group of 20 Sherpa, underscored the G20’s role in climate action. “The G20, as the world’s largest economies, holds a pivotal role in keeping the 1.5-degree temperature rise limit within reach,” he said. Li added that South Africa’s G20 Presidency presents an opportunity to strengthen collective actions for a successful COP30, particularly through partnerships like the Just Energy Transition Partnership.
South Africa has set the theme for its G20 Presidency as Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability. Addressing the UN plenary, Dangor elaborated on this vision: “Through solidarity, we seek to achieve a future that is people-centred, development-oriented, and inclusive.” He highlighted the interconnectedness of global challenges and stressed the importance of fairness and equality. “By advancing equality, we seek to ensure fair treatment, opportunities, and the advancement of all individuals, peoples, and nations, irrespective of economic status, gender, race, geographic location, or any other characteristics,” he said.
On sustainability, Dangor reinforced South Africa’s commitment to policies that balance present needs with future generations. “We will be working to strengthen disaster resilience and responses. We are also focusing on means to ensure debt sustainability for low-income countries,” he stated. He further outlined plans to assess the high cost of capital for African and developing nations, a significant barrier to their growth. “The aim is to develop a comprehensive strategy to assess why some countries face disproportionately high capital costs that hinder their development potential.”
Africa News 07 May 2025
Through its leadership of the G20, South Africa has the opportunity to champion policies for women’s economic empowerment, implemented nationally and sustained beyond its G20 presidency.
One of the achievements of India’s G20 presidency was putting women’s economic empowerment (WEE) squarely on the table through the establishment of the Women Empowerment Working Group.
This working group subsequently gained momentum under the Brazilian presidency. This year, South Africa is hosting the G20 presidency, the last in a series of Global South presidencies.
Much is expected from South Africa’s presidency given the successes secured by India and Brazil. South Africa has historically had a broad commitment to women’s economic empowerment and gender mainstreaming through various ministries and programmes charged with the mandate to lead socioeconomic transformation through investing in women’s economic empowerment.
Despite this broad commitment, social policy in South Africa has not achieved this transformation, in part due to a bias towards policies of austerity affecting the funding of key ministries and programmes targeting women.
Jamela Hoveni Mail& Guardian 06 May 2025
G20 Working Group advances its 2025 agenda and with Africa at the forefront
The second meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20) Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group put the issues facing Africa in focus as it made progress on its agenda for the year in the lead-up to the Ministerial meeting in October.
Held under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) serving as Secretariat, the Working Group met for two informal days (8 and 9 April) and two formal days of discussions (10 and 11 April) in eThekwini, South Africa.
The centrality of disaster risk reduction to development and prosperity was reaffirmed by the Chair of the meeting, Mr. Mbulelo Tshangana, Director-General of South Africa’s Department of Cooperative Governance, who said at the opening:
“Disaster risk reduction is not merely a technical agenda. It is a development imperative, it speaks to equity, justice, and sustainability. And it requires our unwavering commitment, political will, and solidarity.”
This was echoed by Dr. Abhilash Panda, Deputy Chief of the Intergovernmental, Interagency Cooperation and Partnerships Branch at UNDRR, who emphasised the important role of the G20 in driving cooperation around disaster risk reduction:
“Disasters have far-reaching impacts on growth, stability, and development gains. By embedding DRR into the G20’s economic agenda, we have the opportunity to drive smarter investments, protect livelihoods, and build more resilient economies for the future.”
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) 30 April 2025
The role of C20 in shaping an inclusive G20 2025
As South Africa prepares to host the G20 Summit in 2025, it is essential to ensure that the process leading up to this global event is inclusive and aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The G20’s impact must extend beyond governments and economies—it must address the needs of all people, ensuring that no one is left behind. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by engaging civil society organisations (CSOs) to represent the voices of communities worldwide. These organisations play a crucial role in advocating for those affected by pressing global issues such as climate change, underdevelopment, inequality, poverty, hunger, unemployment, technological advancements, and geopolitical instability.
The theme for G20 2025, “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability,” reflects the commitment to fostering Strong, Sustainable, Balanced, and Inclusive Growth, a core mandate of the G20 since its inception. Achieving this vision requires collaboration among all stakeholders—governments, the private sector, and civil society. Recognising the unique challenges faced by different countries, policies must be developed with an awareness of existing inequalities. This is where the Civil Society 20 (C20) becomes indispensable. As an official engagement group of the G20, the C20 provides a platform for CSOs and social movements worldwide to voice the aspirations of the people to G20 leaders.
The Role of C20 and Its Working Groups
The C20 Working Groups (WGs) serve as thematic spaces where CSOs from both G20 and non-G20 countries—from international NGOs to grassroots organisations—collaborate to develop policy recommendations for the G20. These independent collectives are led by organisations from the host country and work alongside other CSOs from G20 nations to craft formal policy submissions. Since 2013, the C20 has been an open and inclusive community, ensuring that civil society perspectives influence the G20 process.
The C20 emphasises themes such as environmental sustainability, gender equality, human rights, and social, economic, and climate justice. These principles must be integrated into all working groups, from governance to policy recommendations. The C20 Working Groups for G20 2025 include:
- Gender Equity & Feminist Just Economies
- Food Security
- Anti-Racism, Environmental, Climate & Energy Justice
- Peace, Security & Gun Control
- Sustainable & Resilient Cities & Communities
- Integrated Health for All
- Global Financial Architecture Reform & Debt
- Education for All
- Technology & Digitalisation
- SDG16: Delivering & Protecting Democracy and Fighting Corruption
At the heart of the C20 is the principle of “leaving no one behind.” The group works to create a more balanced dialogue between civil society and the G20, ensuring that CSOs have the same level of access to policymakers as representatives of the economic sector.
Malilomo Nkhabu Friedrich Naumann Foundation 24 March 2025