Programme
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Overview
Given that South Africa officially assumed the G20 presidency on 1 December 2024, the South African Parliament has also assumed the responsibility of hosting the 11th P20 Speakers’ Summit. The P20 will be hosted under the guidance and leadership of the Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

Regarding its workings and/or operational model, the G20 consists of two parallel tracks: the Finance Track and the Sherpa Track, with thematically oriented working groups in which representatives from the relevant ministries of the members, invited/guest countries, and various international organisations participate. Another critical component of the G20 operational model is engagement groups, which comprise 13 groups that bring together civil society, parliamentarians, think tanks, women, youth, labour, businesses, and researchers from the G20 countries. These include Business20 (B20), Civil20 (C20), Labour20 (L20), Parliament20 (P20), among others.

In terms of their expected contributions and the envisaged outcomes of their different work streams, the work of engagement groups is expected to culminate in consolidated recommendations, which will reach the mid-year Foreign Ministers, the Finance and Central Bank Ministerial Meetings, as well as the Leaders’ Summit.

This is the context within which the 2025 P20 will be organised. Through this third layer of the G20 operational model (engagement groups), parliaments come into the equation and get involved in the G20 Presidency processes. With this, there is also a corresponding expectation for the South African Parliament to play a more prominent and active role in advancing and actualising the high-level priorities identified for South Africa’s G20 Presidency.

11th P20 Speakers’ Summit Theme
In the context of the South African Parliament’s P20 Presidency, the overarching theme for the 11th P20 Summit and related parliamentary activities is aligned with South Africa’s G20 presidency theme.

The theme is therefore as follows:

• Harnessing Parliamentary Diplomacy for Realisation of Global Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.
• An alternative articulation of this theme will be “Fostering Unity, Equality and Sustainable Development through Parliamentary Diplomacy”

This theme underscores the transformational potential of parliamentary efforts in promoting inclusive, sustainable and collaborative approaches to address global challenges, thus advancing a shared prosperity. This theme reinforces the sense of agency that the South African Parliament and the broader African legislative sector possess and communicates a message that Africa is not a mere “field of action” and passive development laggard, but rather, an equal, proactive and prominent player in the global public discourse on multifaceted global governance issues.

This theme also repositions parliamentary diplomacy as one of the levers to pull and leverage in the quest to find solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges and global commons [such as global armed conflicts and wars, food (in)security, energy (in) security and climate change].

Aims and Objectives

• To elevate the role of parliamentary diplomacy in global cooperation.
• Aligning African and global legislative priorities with the G20 agenda.
• Facilitating and promoting inclusive dialogue among parliaments, civil society, youth, and women parliamentarians.
• Strengthen South Africa’s and Africa’s voice and influence in international policymaking.
• Produce actionable, consensus-driven parliamentary recommendations to inform G20 processes.

Key Focus Areas

• Formal integration of the legislative agenda into the G20 through the P20 platform.
• Championing African perspectives and development interests globally.

11th P20 Speakers’ Summit Outcomes
Expected Outcomes of the 11th P20 Speakers’ Summit:

• A Declaration or Outcome Document of the 11th P20 Speakers’ Summit.
• Adopting the Cape Town Declaration of the 2nd P20 Meeting of Women Parliamentarians.
• Increased stature, influence and impact of South Africa’s parliamentary diplomacy and South Africa’s position as a regional hegemon and leading global actor.