The host of the high-level meeting must not be swayed from its priorities, which are in line with the evidence from research.
Preparations begin for the G20 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.Credit: Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty
Next week, Johannesburg in South Africa will host a historic meeting of the G20, an annual forum of the leaders of the world’s major economies. This will be the first meeting of the G20 leaders to be held in Africa. It will also be the first that a member country — the United States — has declined to attend.
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The United States did attend preparatory meetings leading up to the G20, at which it opposed much of South Africa’s planned agenda, which includes debt reduction, boosting climate finance and fighting inequality. These are global priorities and are in line with the latest evidence from research. But the United States has said that it will boycott the meeting, citing false allegations of targeted violence against white South Africans.
South Africa must not be discouraged. Its priorities for the meeting are appropriate to the challenges that the world faces. And it rightly has the support of most other G20 members, which now include the African Union, an organization of 55 member states.
Debt has many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in a chokehold. The amounts that these nations owe to foreign creditors have been rising persistently for around two decades. Some of this is historical debt that has been repeatedly rolled over. But countries have also accumulated debt as a result of more recent events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as through paying for damage caused by — and adaptation to — climate change. And, in the past few years, rising interest rates have increased the cost of debt repayments. At the same time, international aid is being slashed.
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According to a report published last week by Chatham House, a think tank in London, the 17 largest international donors are expected to cut annual aid spending by more than US$60 billion between 2023 and 2026 (see go.nature. com/446zfam). This amounts to almost one-third of expected aid. The health systems of some of the world’s poorest countries are wholly reliant on such assistance.
According to data from the United Nations, what developing countries currently owe to foreign creditors is almost equal to what these countries earn in exports (see go.nature.com/43b4uka). In such situations, creditors require governments to raise taxes or reduce public spending. However, nations tend to be reluctant to do the latter because it means cutting funding for essential services such as health and education. And, as a recent analysis from the World Bank reports, tax collection in LMICs has been falling as a share of gross domestic product (see go.nature.com/4orgx8i).
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