What Can South Africa do on Debt and Development in its Remaining Term as G20 Presidency?

The document argues that African countries face a precarious development finance landscape due to declining official development assistance (ODA) and a market bias known as the 'Africa premium'. It proposes that South Africa use its G20 presidency to advocate for a technical committee on financing barriers, host a Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable meeting on restructuring, facilitate dialogue with the Alliance of African Multilateral Financial Institutions, and coordinate with international conferences to promote a more equitable financial system.

• African countries are experiencing a decline in official development assistance (ODA), with total flows falling by 3.5% in 2022 and 7% in 2023, while the composition of aid has shifted toward more loans and fewer grants.
• Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are unable to fully replace the loss of ODA; their lending capacity is projected to increase by at most 30% by 2030, which is significantly lower than the tripling called for by the G20 independent expert group.
• African sovereign borrowers face an 'Africa premium', where they are charged higher interest rates than countries in other regions with similar or worse credit profiles, such as Argentina.
• To meet the objectives of the SDGs and Agenda 2063, Africa requires between $900 billion and $1.3 trillion annually, a gap that cannot be closed by domestic resource mobilisation and the elimination of illicit financial flows alone.
• The authors propose a new conceptual framework for sovereign debt transactions based on principles of transparency, due diligence, and 'optimal outcome assessment' to move beyond pure profit maximisation.
• South Africa is encouraged to use its G20 presidency to launch four specific initiatives: appointing a technical committee on financing impediments, hosting a Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable (GSDR) meeting on restructuring efficiency, facilitating dialogue with the Alliance of African Multilateral Financial Institutions (AAMFI), and coordinating with the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development and COP30.

APA

BRADLOW, D., & MOPIPI, K. N. (2025). What Can South Africa do on Debt and Development in its Remaining Term as G20 Presidency? South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/SAIIA_PN_15_G20DebtDevelopment.pdf

Chicago

BRADLOW, DANIEL, and KESAOBAKA NANCY MOPIPI. What Can South Africa do on Debt and Development in its Remaining Term as G20 Presidency? South African Institute of International Affairs, 2025. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/SAIIA_PN_15_G20DebtDevelopment.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=BRADLOW |first1=DANIEL |last2=MOPIPI |first2=KESAOBAKA NANCY |title=What Can South Africa do on Debt and Development in its Remaining Term as G20 Presidency? |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=15 June 2025 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/SAIIA_PN_15_G20DebtDevelopment.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bradlow2025what, author = {BRADLOW, DANIEL and MOPIPI, KESAOBAKA NANCY}, title = {{What Can South Africa do on Debt and Development in its Remaining Term as G20 Presidency?}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/SAIIA_PN_15_G20DebtDevelopment.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }