JOHANNESBURG - South Africa’s G20 Presidency has been handed a major set of policy recommendations calling for urgent reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a fundamental overhaul of the global financing system.
The Think20 (T20), the G20’s official research and policy advisory network, presented its 2025 Communiqué to Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Alvin Botes, this week.
The T20 warns that current global trade rules and development financing structures are entrenching inequality and leaving the world’s poorest economies behind. It calls for accelerated WTO reform, stronger support for micro, small and medium enterprises, rebalanced global value chains, and far greater debt relief and concessional finance to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Communiqué forms part of South Africa’s official inputs to the G20 Leaders’ Summit, which will be hosted at the Nasrec Expo Centre from 22 to 23 November under the theme “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.”
Botes received the T20 Communiqué on behalf of the Presidency. The T20 acts as the G20’s knowledge partner, bringing together global research institutions to provide evidence-based analysis for the world’s most powerful economic forum.
Its Communiqué draws on the expertise of five specialised Task Forces; namely, Trade and Investment; Digital Transformation; Financing for Sustainable Development; Solidarity for the Achievement of the SDGs; and Accelerating Climate Action and the Just Energy Transition
WTO reform, fairer global rules
The Trade and Investment Task Force says global development depends on a reformed, modernised trading system. It notes that “achieving more inclusive, resilient and sustainable development requires renewed global cooperation,” warning that geopolitical tensions, climate shocks and reconfigured supply chains have created unprecedented uncertainty.
With 32 of the world’s 44 least developed countries now in Africa, the T20 says the WTO must adopt more flexible rules that reflect modern economic realities. It recommends fairer dispute resolution, stronger support for African digital trade systems, expanded trade finance, and industrial policies that enable technology transfer and value addition in the Global South.
Closing the data and access gap
The Digital Transformation Task Force highlights the widening digital divide, particularly in Africa, where many governments lack basic ICT indicators needed to track SDG progress. It urges the G20 to help countries build robust digital public infrastructure, invest in secure cross-border data systems, and create rights-based digital governance frameworks.
The group also calls for global standards to govern digital currencies, ensuring consumer safety and financial stability as AI-driven technologies reshape the global economy.
Overhaul the global financial architecture
The T20 says the world’s financing system is “fragmented, under-resourced and misaligned with the SDGs.” It recommends a major restructuring of the IMF’s governance model, eliminating veto powers and transforming Special Drawing Rights into a genuine global liquidity tool.
It calls for reforms at multilateral development banks, lower borrowing costs for African countries, faster debt resolution mechanisms, climate-related debt pauses, and exploration of a new global debt architecture similar to a sovereign bankruptcy court.
The Task Force further urges the G20 to back a UN-led global tax framework, including a minimum tax on wealthy individuals, and to support a more diversified international currency system to reduce instability caused by reliance on a single dominant currency.
SDG Solidarity, A World ‘Dangerously Off Track’
The SDG Task Force warns that solidarity must be treated “not as an act of goodwill but as a structural imperative.” It notes that only 17 percent of SDG targets are on track and calls for coordinated global action on food security, gender equality and financial reforms that protect low-income countries from harmful “spillover” effects.
Climate Action and Just Energy Transition
The climate-focused Task Force stresses that ambitious, inclusive action is essential “to ensure a more sustainable, equitable and resilient world for current and future generations.” It calls for an equitable Critical Minerals Governance Framework, public disclosure of mining agreements, expanded climate adaptation finance, and strengthened bioeconomy and biodiversity planning.
In its preamble, the T20 writes:
“This communiqué arrives at a time of profound global turbulence and weakening multilateral cooperation. Yet, it is precisely in such times that deliberate, cooperative problem-solving is critically needed.”
The recommendations now move into South Africa’s G20 decision-making processes, shaping outcomes ahead of the Leaders’ Summit next week.