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G20 Summits • 2025 Johannesburg Summit | Road to the 2025 Johannesburg Summit
G20 Development Meetings

G20 Skukuza Development Ministerial Declaration

Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, July 25, 2025
[pdf]

We, the Group of Twenty (G20) Ministers responsible for Development, gathered at the Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, on 24 and 25 July 2025, reaffirm our collective commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development[1]including the principle of leaving no one behind, as first pledged by our leaders when they formally adopted it as a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better world. In 2024, in Rio de Janeiro, our leaders re-affirmed that the G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. We further re-affirmed our commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and agreed to accelerate our efforts to address social and economic, and climate and environmental challenges and crises.

Our collective commitment has been reviewed and pronounced by Development Ministers annually since 2021, following the adoption of the G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2016, and including through recent efforts such as the 2023 G20 Action Plan on Accelerating Progress on the SDGs.

In leaving no one behind, we underscore the urgency of upholding multilateralism with the United Nations and its Charter at the centre, catalysing the implementation of universal, comprehensive, adaptive, inclusive, sustainable and adequate social protection systems, including social protection floors, tailored to national capacities. This includes reinvigorating efforts to curb illicit financial flows (IFFs) and enhance domestic resource mobilisation (DRM), as essential means to finance sustainable development.

The world today is increasingly interconnected yet confronted by a confluence of challenges and crises including but not limited to the economic slowdown, rising debt vulnerability, the job crisis, growing poverty, climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification and land degradation, environmental degradation and pollution, water scarcity, the learning crisis, and inequality including barriers to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls (in line with SDG 5), humanitarian crises, food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition, stalling progress on access to comprehensive health services, energy poverty and insecurity, volatility in markets, financing gaps in international and domestic resources for sustainable development, global supply chain disruptions, measures which restrict or distort trade as set out in Compromiso de Sevilla (43 n-q), protectionism, disasters, conflicts and terrorism, disproportionately affect persons in vulnerable situations, persons with disabilities, migrants, children and youth, the elderly people affected by disaster conflict, refugees, persons experiencing or at risk of homelessness, local communities, as well as Indigenous Peoples and in developing countries.

Additionally, these global challenges demand renewed global solidarity and an innovative, pivotal impetus in development cooperation. Bold renewed cooperation and forward-looking adaptive strategies are required to revitalize humanity’s pursuit of a sustainable and inclusive future. In a globalised world, interconnectedness can generate shared vulnerabilities, underscoring the need for renewed commitment to multilateralism and continued coordinated international action ensuring sustainability for current and future generations in order to confront interlinked global challenges, building on existing international frameworks. We acknowledge the contribution of digital public infrastructure to an equitable digital transformation and recognise the transformative power of digital technologies to bridge existing divides and empower societies and individuals.

Building on the implementation of the G20 2023 Action Plan on Accelerating Progress on the SDGs, and other international instruments, and in light of the priorities set by the Presidency, we commit to taking concrete, coordinated collective and national action in the following areas:

Firstly, we reaffirm, on social protection systems and floors, that social security is a human right and social protection is an essential driver for realising all human rights, of reducing poverty and inequalities, enhancing economic resilience, social cohesion, sustainable development, and achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. We call upon G20 members to support and progressively implement universal social protection systems including floors, as well as assist developing countries, particularly low-income countries to implement them, drawing from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Recommendation No. 202 on Social Protection Floors, and as reaffirmed in the 2012 G20 Los Cabos Declaration. Implementing nationally-defined social protection systems and floors includes: access to health services, including maternity care; safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene; basic income security for children, providing access to nutrition, safe, quality, equitable and resilient education for all children, and vocational training, care including early childhood education and any other necessary goods and services; and basic income security for persons of active age who are unable to earn sufficient income, in particular in cases of sickness, unemployment, maternity and disability and basic income security for older persons. In this respect we reaffirm our support for the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty launched during the Brazilian G20 Presidency (2024) as a core pillar in addressing poverty, hunger and inequality. We further stress the Alliance's emphasis on linking social protection with food security and nutrition, inclusive development, and sustainable food systems, as outlined in its Inception Document.

We adopt the Ministerial Call to Action Towards Inclusive, Resilient, and Sustainable Development through Universal Social Protection Systems with Special Priority on Social Protection Floors. We commit to strengthening and ensuring access to universal, inclusive, equitable, comprehensive, sustainable, adaptive and adequate social protection systems and floors, enhancing institutional capabilities and delivery mechanisms by harnessing the benefits of digital technologies and integrating social protection policies into national economic growth and empowerment strategies, decent employment, including in agriculture, rural and industrial policies, efforts to achieving universal health coverage and initiatives to support labour market transformation. While maintaining core social protection systems we support the development and scale up of core and shock responsive social protection systems that promote resilience, provide a mechanism for anticipatory and preventative action and protect all persons, especially those in vulnerable situations and those in conflict related and crisis settings, characterised by high risk and a low capacity to respond. We recognise that social protection offers a critical opportunity to bridge humanitarian and development programmes to enable a smooth transition to development and promote sustainability and resilience building.

In addressing social protection as part of the decent work agenda, it is important to close gaps in coverage and extend social protection to all workers who are outside of formal and standard forms of work, including unpaid care and domestic work. Further, efforts should improve data availability and evidence on extending social protection to informal economy workers and enhance positive synergies between social protection and active labour market policies to promote greater inclusion in the labour market for all, particularly those in vulnerable situations. We recognise the need for social protection systems to be adaptable, taking into account climate strategies, and supporting just transitions, ensuring that no one is left behind in the global fight against climate change, especially in the most vulnerable developing countries and supporting the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement goals, and to unlock mutual benefits for people and planet. We underscore that national social protection systems should be primarily financed through domestic resources, supported where necessary by international cooperation, as well as complementary multilateral and innovative non-government sources of finance. We support the Employment Working Group’s aim to agree to reduce Not in Employment Education and Training rates among 15-29 year-olds by 2030 and to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and ILO’s role in monitoring and reporting progress on these commitments.

Secondly, we call for stepping up Domestic Resource Mobilisation by Combating Illicit Financial Flows. Building on the foundation provided by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the Compromiso de Sevilla, we commit to take concrete actions relating to DRM, in a range of areas, including:

• to ensure that countries have the necessary resources and that they are collected in an efficient and equitable manner and spent transparently in alignment with sustainable development;

• to strengthen international tax cooperation to ensure that international tax rules respond to the diverse needs, priorities, and capacities of all countries, especially developing countries;

• to effectively combat IFFs in line with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards and the Compromiso de Sevilla; and

• to fully exploit the potential of national public development banks as well as international financial institutions to support efforts to mobilise domestic resources and attract private investments.

Mobilising adequate resources from all sources, public and private, domestic and international – including for social protection – to enable sustainable development, remains critical. This includes enhancing DRM through multiple sources such as effective tax, customs and excise systems where applicable and strategies for increased national savings, trade and investment.

Efforts to strengthen DRM continue to be severely undermined by IFFs, base erosion and profit shifting, and harmful tax competition, which erode the revenue bases and deprive governments of vital resources for sustainable development, particularly in the context of declining Official Development Assistance (ODA). We call upon developed countries to fully deliver on their respective ODA commitments that complement and encourage development financing from all sources, including public and private, domestic and international, in a timely manner, and contribute to addressing the financing needs of developing countries.

Curbing IFFs is not only important for DRM but also for public trust, sustainable development, and economic growth. IFFs affect the provision of basic services, exacerbate growing inequalities, and pose an inherent risk even to the receiving economies. Research must be undertaken to consider actions for effectively reducing IFFs in the context of financing for development, with respect to data protection, the right to privacy and in line with international law and instruments.

We adopt the Ministerial Call to Action on Voluntary and Non-Binding High-Level Principles on Combating IFFs, as follows:

1. Enhance Global Financial Transparency

2. Promote Data Integrity and Exchange

3. Address Tax avoidance, Tax Evasion and Tax Crimes and Tackle Illicit Financial Flows

4. Enhance Multilateral Cooperation

5. Implement Accountability Mechanisms and Promote Policy Coherence

6. Build and Strengthen Capacity

7. Promote International Cooperation and Collaboration

8. Promote International Cooperation for the Recovery and Return of Stolen Assets

9. Promote and Improve Existing Anti-IFF Policy Implementation

10. Promote Innovative Technologies

We look forward to the work done by the OECD, in collaboration with United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Financial Action Task Force and other organisations, to develop: a detailed situational analysis; and a report that further develops the voluntary and non-binding high level principles with an implementation roadmap including recommendations, to be presented to the 2027 G20 Presidency for further consideration.

Recalling the 2016 G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 2023 G20 Action Plan on Accelerating Progress on the SDGs, we take note of the discussions within the G20 DWG, under the leadership of the South African Presidency, regarding the concept of Global Public Goods (GPGs), and the proposal by South Africa, in its capacity as G20 President, and other interested members to establish an Ubuntu Commission, a commission of experts, to take this work forward. Members expressed divergent views on the relevance and appropriateness of addressing GPGs. While most members voiced support, recognising the potential of GPGs to advance sustainable development, others raised reservations, citing concerns over the scope, definition, and implications of incorporating GPGs into G20 deliberations.

We express our deep appreciation to the Republic of South Africa and its people for their leadership of the G20 in 2025 and for advancing the agenda of inclusive development, guided by the Presidency’s overarching theme of Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability, with a particular emphasis on the implementation of social protection systems and floors and combating IFFs and improving DRM. We highlight the contribution to support progress towards the SDGs by the three Task Forces set up by the Presidency, on (1) Inclusive Economic Growth, Industrialisation, Employment and Reduced Inequality, (2) Food Security and (3) Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance and Innovation for Sustainable Development.

We acknowledge the invaluable contributions of the participating international organisations, including the African Development Bank Group, the African Tax Administration Forum, African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the International Labour Organisation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the OECD, UNCTAD, UN Development Programme, UN International Children’s Emergency Fund, UN Industrial Development Organisation, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organisation, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the South Centre, and the World Bank Group.

We also look forward to the upcoming G20 presidency of the United States of America in 2026 and the continued collaboration of the DWG toward achieving our shared development goals for people and planet.

[1] Argentina reserves its position on certain elements of the Ministerial Declaration and its Outcome Documents. Its statement is included in the Chair’s Report.↩

[2] https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2025/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2025.pdf ↩

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Source: National Treasury, South Africa

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