Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the G20 High Level Opening Session

25 September 2024

President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Philémon Yang,
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr António Guterres,
President of the Republic of Brazil, Mr Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 
Your Excellencies, Foreign Ministers
Ladies and gentlemen,

Allow me to begin by expressing my appreciation to Brazil as the current President of the G20 for convening this meeting.

We further commend the excellent manner in which Brazil has been steering the work of the G20 during its Presidency. 

It has been an auspicious start to the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly.

We convened the Summit of the Future, at the end of which the Pact for the Future was adopted. The Pact is a blueprint for a sustainable, just and peaceful global order for all peoples and nations.

Mr. Secretary-General,

In your address to the General Assembly yesterday you highlighted the fragilities that fray at the seams of our global order. A world of impunity, of inequality and of deep uncertainty.

We concur with your sentiment that the challenges our world faces may be daunting, but they are surmountable.

Our meeting today reaffirms our conviction that as we strive to overcome these challenges, the United Nations must remain the centrepiece of multilateralism.

At the same time, it must be modernised to make it fit-for-purpose and more effective, agile and forward-looking. 

The UN needs to be inclusive. It needs to represent current geopolitical relations and the prevailing international realities. 

The G20’s Call to Action on Global Governance Reform that will be adopted at today’s Foreign Ministers’ meeting is therefore timely and necessary. 

South Africa is committed to the reinvigoration of multilateralism and the reform of global governance institutions to make them more representative.

It is not without significance that the countries of current troika are all from the Global South.

The reform of the global financial architecture in particular must be the rising tide that lifts the fortunes of the most needy and vulnerable. 

Deepening inequality and chronic under-development are the cost if we fail to act now.

The quest for mutual, shared and equitable prosperity necessitates that we undertake bold and decisive reforms to create a stable and inclusive international financial architecture.

These reforms are urgently needed to broaden and strengthen the participation of developing economies in international economic decision-making.

South Africa is concerned about the slow progress in reforming the Multilateral Trading system. 

While the WTO’s Ministerial Council 13 has registered some progress, much work remains to be done to ensure global trade is development focused and sensitive to climate change imperatives. 

South Africa assumes the G20 Presidency from 1 December 2024 to November 2025.

This is approximately five years before the deadline of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

The next five Presidencies of the G20 must focus their efforts on accelerating progress towards the attainment of the SDGs 

At the launch of the the Special Edition of the Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report on 25 April 2023, the Secretary-General drew attention to the gravity of the situation.

Just 12 per cent of the SDG targets are on track. Progress on 50 per cent is weak and insufficient. On more than 30 per cent of the SDGs we have stalled or gone into reverse.

If we are to meet the 2030 deadline a paradigm shift is necessary.

South Africa has adopted as the theme for its G20 Presidency: ‘Solidarity, Equality and Sustainable Development’. 

We aim to mobilise the countries of the world towards taking practical steps that will resolve global challenges, while strengthening international cooperation within a rules-based system. 

In an interconnected world, the challenges faced by one nation affect all nations. Through solidarity we seek to advance a unified effort and mutual support among member nations.

By advancing equality we seek to ensure fair treatment, opportunities and advancement for all individuals and nations.

This must be irrespective of their economic status, gender, race, geographic location or other characteristics.

Sustainable development is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

The pace of mobilising the necessary resources to ensure that countries with developing economies meet the SDGs doesn’t just have to be accelerated, it has to be indeed turbo-charged. 

South Africa’s G20 Presidency will place Africa’s developmental priorities at the top of its agenda.

A prosperous, developed and stable Africa is a central pillar of our foreign policy.

In this, we are guided by the priorities contained in the AU’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.

We will work in close collaboration with the African Union, which has now been admitted as a G20 member. 

South Africa’s G20 Presidency provides us with an opportunity to advocate for and mobilise support for the developing economies of Africa and the Global South.

In doing so we will build on the efforts and successes of the Indonesian, Indian and Brazilian G20 Presidencies.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With less than six years to go before the 2030 deadline for the achievement of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, we are at a crucial inflection point in humankind’s history.

The imperative of sustainable development has become all the more crucial. 

It cannot be business as usual. It cannot be more platitudes and empty promises. 

Even amidst all the uncertainty in our world today, we have a unique opportunity to change course for development, for the common good, and for common prosperity.

As the G20 we have an important role to play in fulfilling the aspirations of the UN Charter – of social progress and of better standards of life in larger freedom.

In this regard, the UN Charter highlights the employment of international machinery for the 
promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.

By strengthening and reforming multilateral mechanisms and institutions; by deepening
International economic cooperation, we can indeed realise a better world free from the twin scourges of inequality and underdevelopment.

The time is now.

I thank you.

Issued by The Presidency, 25 September 2024