Time for South Africa to lead: Nelson Muffuh

As the world prepares for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), the imminent Compromiso de Sevilla marks a critical inflection point in our collective journey toward the 2030 Agenda.

For South Africa, this moment is not only timely —it is transformative.

South Africa’s G20 Presidency, the first on the African continent, coincides with a period of profound transition.

The country is navigating the early stages of a Government of National Unity, implementing the Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP 2024 —2029), and finalising a new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (Cooperation Framework).

These converging milestones offer a unique opportunity to reimagine development finance in ways that are inclusive, catalytic, and future fit.

As South Africa leads a delegation to Seville this week to join the UN Secretary-General, and other world leaders including the host Prime Minister Sanchez, it is encouraging to note the call in the Compromiso de Sevilla for capitalization of the multilateral development banks, increased voice and representation for developing countries in global economic decision-making, and enhanced trade and financial integrity, including the creation of forums to address illicit financial flows and the role of credit rating agencies.

These are essential to restoring trust and fairness in the global economy.

South Africa’s leadership in these areas can set a precedent for others to follow.

The Compromiso de Sevilla also provides a blueprint that resonates with South Africa’s development trajectory.

It reinforces the centrality of social protection, climate finance, taxation, private financing, tax cooperation, and debt reform —areas where South Africa has both urgent needs and bold ambitions.

The MTDP, endorsed by Cabinet, positions inclusive growth, job creation, poverty eradication, accountable institutions, just energy transition and climate resilience as national imperatives.

These priorities are echoed in the current UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework’s four strategic pillars and the six SDG transitions—food systems, energy, digital connectivity, education, jobs and social protection, and climate action.

South Africa’s leadership in the G20 and other multilateral spaces offers is an opportunity to champion reforms that matter deeply to the Global South.

The call to establish a sovereign debt facility and a new intergovernmental tax body aligns with South Africa’s advocacy for a fairer global financial architecture.

South Africa can lead the charge in ensuring these mechanisms are not only adopted but implemented with urgency and equity.

These reforms are not abstract, they are essential to unlocking fiscal space for people- centered and planet-sensitive investments in health, education, energy, and Infrastructure.

At home, the development of an Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) can help align all sources of finance —public and private, domestic and international —with the SDGs.

The UN system stands ready to support this effort, building on our joint work to localise the SDGs through the District Development Model and to accelerate progress through the six transitions and their associated “engine room” actions.

These transitions are not theoretical.

They are grounded in South Africa’s lived realities—from energy poverty in informal settlements to digital exclusion in rural areas, from youth unemployment to climate vulnerability.

The Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET IP), Operation Vulindlela on structural reforms, the Climate Change Act and the associated Nationally Determined Contribution, and the push for expanded social protection, better education outcomes, transformed food systems, universal broadband are all examples of how South Africa is turning ambition into action.

But ambition alone is not enough. We must finance it.

As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres recently reminded us:

“We cannot let our financing for development ambitions get swept away.

We have just five years to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. We need to shift into overdrive, and that includes making good on the commitments countries made in the Pact for the Future… from a necessary stimulus to help countries invest in their people, to vital and long-awaited reforms to the global financial architecture”.

The FFD4 conference is a chance to move from rhetoric to results. South Africa can lead by example—by championing rights-based reforms globally and implementing them locally.

By aligning its G20 agenda with the SDG transitions. By ensuring that every rand spent is an investment in a more just, resilient, and sustainable future.

Its citizens, the continent and the rest of the world are watching. And South Africa is ready to lead. – By Nelson Muffuh, UN Resident Coordinator in South Africa 30 June 2025.

Published by SABC News: https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/south-africas-moment-to-lead/