G20 Summit in South Africa Highlights the Voice of the Global South

CGTN Europe

Richard Kozul-Wright, Professor of Sustainable Structural Transformation at SOAS and former Director of UNCTAD’s Globalization and Development Strategies Division spoke to CGTN Europe. He discussed the significance of the G20 summit being held in Africa for the first time, particularly in addressing climate change and debt issues in the Global South. He also mentioned the challenges in achieving consensus among G20 members, with the US absence and potential lack of support from European countries.

Transcript

00:00Richard Kozl-Wright is a professor of sustainable structural transformation at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

00:08It's symbolically important, of course. I don't think anyone expects the G20 to lead on these issues,

00:15but it can give a signal to the arenas where these issues are being discussed currently in Belém,

00:22which is proving difficult, even though the U.S. is not present in Brazil, it's proving a difficult negotiation.

00:29So having a strong declaration is important on the issues that President Ramaphosa has put forward,

00:37but it's not where negotiations take place, of course.

00:41Is the U.S. absence, then, something of an own goal?

00:47Yes, I think that's true. It's true in the G20. I think it's true more generally.

00:52It does open up the space, perhaps, for other voices to step in.

00:59But, you know, I think it's the role now of the Global South to raise their voices more strongly.

01:06It's not clear to me that the Europeans, for example, are really backing the multilateral agenda

01:12on a wide array of issues that have been put on the table by the presidency in Johannesburg.

01:19Given that, then, this year's G20 summit being held in Africa for the first time,

01:26just how significant is that?

01:31Well, I think it's, as I said, it's symbolically important.

01:36You know, I think President Ramaphosa has made it clear he wants to bring an African perspective

01:40to a set of issues of global resonance, and that includes the climate issue, as your correspondent noted.

01:48It also includes the debt issue that the South Africans have insisted should be up front and centre

01:55in the discussions at the G20.

01:58So, in that sense, I think it's a useful exercise.

02:04Many developing countries, some of them represented there, are facing mounting debt,

02:10limited access to financing.

02:13I wonder what reform or mechanisms you think the G20 might prioritise to ease those constraints.

02:23Well, I think it wants to pick up some of the issues.

02:30We had the Financing for Development Conference in Sevilla earlier this year,

02:34where debt, again, was very important, the UN Conference.

02:37And there were a number of proposals there that I think South Africa has picked up on,

02:43including the need for debtors themselves to form a more united front

02:48in negotiations with the creditor countries.

02:51These are important developments.

02:54They don't solve the problem.

02:55The debt problem in Africa and, more generally, across the developing world

02:59is entrenched and systemic, and it's going to require, I think, bolder initiatives

03:04if the developing world is going to break the burdens of debt over the coming years.

03:11It's easy to see the G20 as a unified voice.

03:15It isn't necessarily so, is it?

03:18No.

03:18I mean, obviously, the presence of Russia for the last few years

03:23and the whole question of the war in Ukraine has made it difficult to get a consensus statement anyway.

03:29And the U.S. has now pulled out.

03:30As I said, I don't think the Europeans have played a particularly constructive role

03:35on a whole series of issues of interest to developing countries.

03:38So it's a challenge, and I think the South African presidency has done a good job

03:44in putting issues like debt and inequality, sustainable industrialization, onto this agenda.

03:49is at the end of the U.S.

03:53The U.S.,ys ELK

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