G20 sherpa meeting proposes review of group’s role and mandate

The opening two days of the G20 sherpa meeting — composed of country representatives responsible for shaping discussions and agreements ahead of next year’s final summit with heads of state — have led to a proposal to review the bloc’s purpose and mandate over its various presidencies since its inception in 1999. 

Zane Dangor, director general of the department of international relations and cooperation and South Africa’s sherpa, told a media briefing late on Tuesday that it was necessary to assess the purpose of the G20, its mandate and what agreements had been made on various tracks over its history.

“We need to look at what has been achieved and what enabled that achievement. We must also look at what was not achieved and what were the disabling factors,” he said.

The G20 presidency rotates annually among the member countries and will go to the US next year.

Dangor said a methodology would be developed for the G20 review so that the right questions were asked to yield the right answers for a proper analysis of the grouping. 

“By the time we get to the end of our presidency in November, we can give them clear recommendations on how to improve the G20,” he said. 

The G20 was established in 1999 as an informal forum for finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s most industrialised and developing economies to address international economic and financial stability.

While its early discussions primarily centered on broad macroeconomic issues, the forum has since broadened its scope to include topics such as trade, climate change and sustainable development.

“This review does not formalise the G20; the members seek to remain informal so that levels of flexibility are maintained but also so that it does not seek to compete with formal multi-lateral institutions like the UN, AU, which have secretariats,” Dangor said. 

A policy brief by Bertelsmann Stiftung, a research firm based in Germany, showed that the citizens of Argentina, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States have complained about the lack of transparency of the G20 summits. 

“Often the process of the summit meetings has been criticised. In many cases, it has been described as non-transparent, ineffective and too expensive as well as lacking sufficient democratic legitimacy,” the paper said.

Dangor said strengthening disaster resilience and response would be a key topic for the G20 during South Africa’s presidency “based on the fact that climate change is with us and that the damage arising from climate change needs a specific response”.

“We are going to amplify the voices of the Global South. We have 15 working groups in the sherpa track that will essentially drive this agenda,” he said.

On Wednesday and Thursday the finance track will meet to discuss issues pertaining to global growth, climate finance and enhancing debt sustainability.