Why the G20 should remain Indispensable for Global Economic Governance and What innovative leadership changes are needed to become a more effective forum?

Prof. Venkatachalam Anbumozhi | 06 May 2026

The global economic landscape is undergoing a tectonic shift sin 2008, when the financial crisis hit the world. As the traditional post-WWII architecture struggles to address 21st-century complexities—ranging from climate-induced financial risks to the digital divide—the Group of Twenty (G20) has emerged as the preeminent forum for navigating this "polycrisis." While critics often point to its lack of a permanent secretariat or enforcement powers, the consecutive G20 presidencies of Indonesia (2022), India (2023), Brazil (2024), and South Africa (2025) in the last four years have fundamentally redefined the forum.  By centering the priorities of the Global South, this "quad of emerging powers" has demonstrated that the G20 is not just a crisis-management committee, but a vital steering body for a more inclusive and resilient global order. 

G20 as a Strategic Narrative of Global South and North Cooperation in Global Problem Solving

For much of its history, from the financial crisis in 2008 to Covid crisis 2021 , the G20 was viewed as a venue where Global North set the agenda and the Global South responded. However, the last four presidencies have inverted this dynamic, leveraging the forum to bridge the gap between developed and developing economies.

1. Indonesia (2022): Recover Together, Recover Stronger

In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and the geopolitical shock of the Ukraine conflict, Indonesia successfully steered the G20 toward the Pandiemic Fund and the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). Jakarta proved that the G20 could remain functional despite intense geopolitical fragmentation, focusing the world’s attention on global health architecture and digital transformation. 

2. India (2023): One Earth, One Family, One Future

India’s presidency was a landmark for representation. By securing permanent membership for the African Union (AU), India corrected a historical imbalance, ensuring that over 50 African nations finally have a seat at the world’s premier economic table. India also championed the Global Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) framework, offering a scalable model for financial inclusion that bypasses traditional, siloed banking systems. 

3. Brazil (2024): Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet

Building on the momentum, Brazil shifted the focus toward Global Governance Reform and the fight against hunger and inequality. By launching the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, Brazil utilized the G20 to address the social foundations of economic stability, arguing that macro-stability is impossible without social equity. 

4. South Africa (2025): Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainable Development

As the last presidency  (2025) of the first cycle  chair, South Africa consolidated  these gains, focusing on the reform of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and addressing the mounting debt distress in low-income countries. South Africa’s leadership ensured that the "triple challenge" of inequality, poverty, and unemployment remains at the heart of the global financial discourse to be carried in the second cycle started by US Presidency in 2026. 

The Intellectual Engine: Think20 (T20) Activities as an Engagement Group

The G20’s continuity is maintained not just by diplomats (the Sherpa track and the finance ministers track) but by the engagement groups like Think20 (T20) and the Business 20 (B20) the forum’s "ideas bank” and “Action Bank” respectively. Since 2017 when German become the chair, the T20 has evolved from a peripheral engagement group into a sophisticated policy incubator working with B20 and other several engagement groups like Young 20, Startup 20 etc.

The T20 has been instrumental in providing the analytical depth for "Global Commons" issues. For instance, T20 Task Forces under the Indian and Brazilian presidencies provided the technical frameworks for Debt Sustainability Analysis that helped operationalize the Common Framework for Debt Treatments.

Through thousands of policy briefs developed by the Taskforces , the T20 has shifted the global dialogue from "aid" to "partnership." It has successfully argued that investing in the Global South's green transition is not an act of charity but a requirement for global financial stability.

Digital Safeguards: Recent T20 activities have focused on the "Safety of Digital Networks," proposing international norms for the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain transparency, ensuring that the digital economy does not become a new frontier for systemic risk.

Why the G20 Format and Think 20 activities  Must Continue

The G20 remains the only forum where the leaders of the world’s largest economies—representing 85% of global GDP and 75% of global trade—meet annually on equal footing. Its informal nature is its greatest strength, allowing for "minilateral" breakthroughs that are often impossible in the more rigid, veto-prone halls of the UN Security Council or the IMF. 

Furthermore, the G20 provides a "Pressure Valve" for geopolitical tensions. During periods of US-China friction, the G20 remains one of the few functional bridges where technical cooperation on climate finance and global health can continue even when political relations are strained.

Innovations for Future Reform

To remain relevant in a fragmenting world, the G20/T20  must evolve beyond its current structure to have more impact of global problem solving . The following innovations should be prioritized:

1. A "Troika-Plus" Secretariat

While the G20 prides itself on having no permanent bureaucracy, the lack of institutional memory often leads to "reinventing the wheel." A light-touch permanent secretariat—or a "Troika-Plus" office—could be established to track the implementation of past commitments across presidencies.

2. Formalizing the "Global South Caucus"

Building on the success of the Indonesia-India-Brazil-South Africa sequence, the G20 should create a formal mechanism for Emerging Market Economies (EMEs) to coordinate their positions prior to the main summit. This would ensure that the agenda-setting power is structurally shared, rather than dependent on which country holds the rotating presidency.

3. The G20 "Sustainable Green Credit" Exchange

To move beyond vague sustainability and recoupling pledges, the G20 should authorize T20 to act as a secretariate or a  Global  Circular economy and Green Credit System. This would allow nations to trade verifiable carbon offsets and nature-based solutions under a standardized G20 framework as a part of Post 2030 SDG agenda, incentivizing the Global South to preserve global public goods  while receiving direct economic compensation.

G20 reforms should encourage the pooling of a small percentage of member nations' Sovereign Wealth Funds into a Global Resilience Fund. This fund, governed by a knowledge pool like Global solutions initiative, T20 and B20 , would provide rapid-response liquidity for  trade and supply chain disruptions, reducing the new knowledge vulnerability and global governance.

The first cycle of G20 presidencies and the last four of the Global South have fundamentally "democratized" the G20, proving that the forum can tackle the world’s most pressing inequities while maintaining global financial stability. By integrating the intellectual rigor of the T20 with bold structural reforms, the G20 can transition from a "crisis committee" to a "steering committee" for a sustainable future. The world cannot afford to lose the G20; it must instead invest in its evolution for effective global problem solving.