// GOVERNANCE
South Africa’s G20 presidency has highlighted the continent’s financial challenges amid an urgent need for debt reform and access to sustainable development finance South Africa’s partial G20 success in 2025
S outh Africa’s G20 presidency has offered the country an opportu- nity to demonstrate leadership on the African continent by highlighting and addressing Africa’s financial concerns. Its efforts have been partially successful. South Africa has indeed raised global awareness about the challenges that Afri- can countries face in accessing affordable and stable flows of development finance. The causes of this complex problem are not well understood and, because they implicate many vested interests, are controversial. South Africa, informally supported by efforts from the Business 20 and the Think 20, has focused the G20’s attention on the need to better under- stand and address them so that Africa can more effectively meet its climate and sus- tainable development objectives. Contributing factors include such issues as the methodologies and operat- ing practices of the credit rating agencies, financial regulatory and legal issues relating to the treatment of risk and the fiduciary responsibilities of the cred- itors, the debt sustainability analyses used by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and the relative lack of transparency in Africa’s debt transac- tions. Africa is also adversely affected by the current governance arrangement and operating policies and practices of the international financial institutions.
Daniel Bradlow, professor and senior research fellow, Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria
146 // G20 SOUTH AFRICA: THE JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT 2025
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