The first Group of 20 summit to be held in Africa opens on Saturday with an ambitious agenda to make progress on solving some of the long-standing problems that have afflicted the world’s poorest nations.
Leaders and top government officials from the richest and leading emerging economies will come together at an exhibition center near the famous Soweto township in South Africa — once home to Nelson Mandela — to try and find some consensus on the priorities set out by the host country.
They include more help for poor countries to recover from climate-related disasters, reduce their foreign debt burdens, transition to green energy sources and harness their own critical mineral wealth — all in an attempt to counter widening global inequality.
“We’ll see,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on if the G20 could prioritize developing world countries and make meaningful reforms. “But I think South Africa has done its part in putting those things clearly upon the table.”
