Global Cooperation

Davos 2025: Special address by Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers a special address during the 55th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

President Cyril Ramaphosa outlined South Africa's G20 priorities in a special address to the World Economic Forum's 2025 Annual Meeting in Davos. Image: Reuters/Yves Herman

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Writer, World Economic Forum
This article is part of: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
  • This year's G20 Summit will be the first held in Africa and Ramaphosa called on leaders to harness the most powerful of human attributes: collaboration.
  • 'Cooperation has been one of the key markers of human development, touching on many aspects of life – survival, social organization, technological and cultural progress.'
  • This is a transcript from South Africa President Ramaphosa's special address at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2025 in Davos.
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We want to start off by thanking the World Economic Forum and for giving South Africa this opportunity to outline what you requested us to do: what are our priorities and objectives for our presidency of the G20 Summit that will be held in Johannesburg in November 2025.

As you know, South Africa’s G20 presidency follows on the hot and very successful heels of the G20 presidency last year of Brazil, and it will take place ahead of the G20 presidency of the United States of America, which has just inaugurated its president.

Now as a leading forum for international economic cooperation, the G20 is an institution that plays an important role in shaping the economic architecture of the world, as well as various economic institutions in the world.

For the first time in the history of the G20, it will be hosted on the African continent – particularly following the admission of the African Union as a member of the G20, so we are rather pleased by this.

It is a very important and most significant moment for South Africa, as well as for the African continent. But I would suggest for the world as well, for it was in Africa where humans developed the capacity and the impulse for cooperation.

Cooperation has been one of the key markers of human development, touching on many aspects of life – survival, social organization, technological and cultural progress – which is what the G20 was established for. To foster cooperation to deal with the challenges the world faces.

Cooperation is the bedrock of human civilization. Without cooperation and collaboration – between individuals, groups of individuals, peoples around the world, nations – humanity simply cannot progress.

As we confront the challenges of the 21st century – from climate change to pandemics, to addressing the challenges of poverty to terrorism, from migration to artificial intelligence – we are again called upon to harness that most powerful, and most enduring, of human attributes: mutually beneficial cooperation and collaboration.

This, I believe, is a time of rising geopolitical tensions, unilateralism, nationalism, protectionism and isolationism, rising debt levels, particularly effecting the poorest countries in the world. And also, importantly, the declining of a sense of common purpose.

Yet, this is a moment when we should be standing together as a global community to resolve the problems that confront humanity, by ending the wars and conflicts that are causing such hardship and misery to many people around the world.

We are called upon by the exigency of the moment to act together with greater urgency to halt the destruction of our planet.

This is a moment when we should also harness the abundant resources we collectively possess and the remarkable technologies that human ingenuity has produced to overcome poverty and inequality; unemployment, and especially youth unemployment; and the abuse of women, once and for all.

Thirty-three years ago, the founding president of democratic South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, spoke here at Davos.

He said: “Our interdependence, bringing us together into a common global home, across the oceans and the continents, demands that we all combine to launch a global offensive for development, for prosperity and human survival.”

In pursuit of this objective – and in giving effect to the mission of achieving or implementing what Nelson Mandela said – the mission of the G20 in South Africa will focus its G20 presidency on three themes: solidarity, equality and sustainable development.

It is South Africa’s firm view that these themes can best be taken forward through the collective actions of a number of institutions like the G20, as well as various multilateral organizations of the world, such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, financial institutions of the world, some of which should be reformed and be more representative and responsive to the needs of the citizens of the world.

We will seek to get the G20 to focus more on how we can enhance solidarity through collective efforts to ensure that in the pursuit of progress in the world, and progress for all, no person and no country should be left behind.

The rights and freedoms of one people cannot be separated from the rights and freedoms of all people in the world.

This is the foundation on which solidarity is built and we will seek to spread this message and get it fully embraced by the G20.

One of the greatest impediments to growth, to development and to stability is the persistence of inequality within and between nations.

The pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goal on reducing inequality is as much an economic imperative as it is a social imperative.

As the G20, we need deliberate and coordinated efforts to focus on inclusive growth based on responsive trade and investment to grow the incomes of poor countries and the poorest in society, and to ensure equal access to opportunities especially to women and young people, who are the most badly affected by thte lack of progress.

For nations to flourish, equality and prosperity must be available to everyone – regardless of gender, race, religious belief or economic status.

In addition to huge gaps in economic capabilities and levels of human development, countries in the Global South face a lack of predictable financing for development, as well as climate change. They also face high levels of debt and are vulnerable to pandemics.

Debt sustainability for low-income countries is one of the four priorities of South Africa’s G20 presidency.

In the world we inhabit today, the pursuit of equality and the practice of solidarity cannot be separated from sustainable development.

We need to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

It is therefore in the interests of all countries that they should act together and act with greater urgency to reduce global emissions – and for industrialized countries to support the climate actions that poorer countries or nations must necessarily take in line with and support of decisions of the UN climate change summits, right from COP in Paris to the recent one.

Another of South Africa’s priorities for its G20 presidency is therefore to finance and to mobilize finance for the just energy transition.

We will seek agreement on increasing the quality and quantity of climate finance flows to developing economies, as agreed at various UN climate summits.

We will continue to call on global financial institutions on the redirection of Special Drawing Rights, which are left unused to a large extent. It is simply, in our view, not fair that over 60% of Special Drawing Rights go to a handful of wealthy countries.

These drawing rights should be redirected to enable countries in Africa and other parts of the Global South to realize their developmental aspirations – to enable them to invest in infrastructure, in industrial development, in education and training, and in healthcare.

We need to leverage private capital and use innovative forms of finance, as well as taxation, to raise additional resources for sustainable development in various countries in the Global South.

Global finance institutions should derisk and support more financing for emerging and developing economies.

We need to support country initiatives aimed at addressing climate change, such as the Just Energy Transition Partnership that South Africa has entered into with a number of countries of the Global North.

A number of other countries followed suit and also structured their own initiatives, but these need to be financed.

As we accelerate the transition to low-carbon economies, in a manner that is just and inclusive, we must at the same time recognize the damage that climate change has already done. And will continue to wreak around the world.

In light of this, South Africa has therefore made the strengthening of disaster resilience as another of the priorities of its G20 presidency.

The increasing rate of climate-induced natural disasters is affecting countries that can least afford the costs of recovery and rebuilding. And these disasters are also happening in developed economy countries – we’ve seen how in America the fires are raging and even in Europe, how floods have also caused devastation. But countries in the Global North can recover quickly because of the economic strength that they have.

In order to address the challenges that countries in the Global South face, we believe that special financing and insurance mechanisms must be made available to scale up funding for post-disaster reconstruction.

Since the dawn of the industrial age, the benefits to humanity of economic growth have been achieved at the cost of environmental destruction.

If we are to survive and thrive as humanity, we must change this. We must change course. We must pursue development pathways that reconcile growth with urgent climate action.

Another of South Africa’s priorities for its G20 presidency is to harness critical minerals for inclusive growth and development.

We need a G20 framework on green industrialization and investments to ensure progress towards a grand bargain that promotes value addition to critical minerals, particularly close to the source of extraction.

We also need the development of low carbon manufacturing value chains, which can support decarbonization and industrial development.

There is a need to promote beneficiation and local value addition of resources at source, resulting in an additive rather than an extractive relationship.

As minerals extraction accelerates to match the needs of the energy transition, the countries and local communities that are endowed with these rich resources must be the ones that benefit most. At the moment, they don’t benefit much because the benefit flows out of their own countries to other locales in the world.

We will use this G20 to champion the use of critical minerals – through a programme of green industrialization and as an engine for growth and development in Africa and the rest of the Global South.

As this will be the first G20 summit held in Africa, it is for us a valuable platform to demonstrate Africa’s promise.

Many agree that Africa is the next frontier of global growth and productivity. The African continent has an unrivalled natural resource endowment, with the youngest population of all continents.

Africa continues to be an expanding market for goods and services. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has the potential to really change the economic and social fortunes of our continent.

We will seek G20 support for the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund that will enhance inclusive growth, sustainability and regional integration.

We will look to consolidate various G20 initiatives related to Africa into a flagship agreement for cooperation that is focused on implementation of investments in productive sectors in Africa, in areas such as infrastructure.

Many of you will know that infrastructure is propelling Africa’s growth at the moment.

We seek investments in the development of skills that will also fuel this infrastructure revolution, particularly for Africa’s youth and the economic empowerment of women of our continent.

In the health sector, we would want the G20 to support the production of pharmaceutical products – such as therapeutics, as well as vaccines – to deal with pandemics.

The digitization of the continent, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence, will enhance trade and development, and they are key enablers that we want to see fully developed.

Through its G20 presidency, South Africa is well-positioned to advance global cooperation and build partnerships for growth, as well as for development.

This is so because South Africa has a rich history of inclusive dialogue and common action.

Over the last few years, the South African government has been working very closely with social partners in business in South Africa, and with labour and civil society, to address key national challenges that face our country, as well as to drive inclusive growth.

This cooperative culture and the approach that we have developed over many years has taken us to a higher level with the establishment of the Government of National Unity, following the elections we held in May last year.

The Government of National Unity, or GNU as we call it, made up of 10 political parties – a government that we were able to set up in exactly four weeks when many other countries, particularly in the Global North, take up to one year and we did it in just 30 days.

So this has been vital to stability, as well as inclusive governance in our country, and has contributed to greater interest among investors in South Africa’s economic prospects. And I do believe some of those investors who are having a fresh look at South Africa are also here and we are going to be interacting with them.

The seeds of human progress were sown in Africa. In Africa, the earliest forms of cooperation were forged and developed.

As the leaders of the G20 return to Africa, we make a call that we all harness these essential capabilities that will make us take action to build a better and a fairer world.

We intend that the G20 in Johannesburg this year should really be a forum where cooperation and collaboration among the leading economies of the world will be taken to a higher level.

Acting together, we should build an inclusive, just and equal world in which all may prosper, leaving no-one and no country behind.

So I look forward to welcoming you to the G20 in Johannesburg later this year.

And even if you do not participate in any of the 130 G20-related meetings – because that’s how the G20 works, it builds up to the Leaders’ Summit which will be held later in the year – I’d invite you to come and see South Africa for yourself, the most beautiful country in the world.

I thank you.

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