Poorer nations used the G20 summit in Johannesburg to press world leaders for stronger climate action and urgent debt relief. They urged richer countries to recognise the mounting pressures battering developing economies and to treat them as genuine partners in emerging industries.
They praised South Africa for steering an inclusive agenda that placed global inequality at the centre as it prepared to hand the G20 presidency to the United States. The summit unfolded under tension after Washington boycotted the meeting following President Donald Trump’s claims of violence against South Africa’s white minority.
Delegations from the African Union, the European Union and invited states such as Zimbabwe, Namibia, Jamaica and Malaysia expanded the conversation. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told delegates that debt relief must translate into meaningful investments that uplift communities.
He said inclusivity should be seen as a tool of efficiency rather than a gesture of charity. Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah urged fairer financing terms and noted her country had repaid its $750 million bond on schedule.
She said developing nations were still labelled as high-risk despite meeting their obligations under difficult conditions. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Michael Holness reminded leaders that climate-fuelled disasters, such as Hurricane Melissa, can erase years of development overnight.
He said one external shock was enough to shatter hard-won national progress. World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala encouraged African leaders to rethink their trade structures to move beyond exporting raw materials.
She said building regional value chains would help the continent capture more of the economic gains from its resources. Oxfam official Nabil Ahmed said inequality featured as a central pillar of the G20 agenda for the first time. He said South Africa had used its role as the first African host to elevate the priorities of the continent and the wider global south.