In November 2025, the world’s most powerful economies will convene in South Africa for the first G20 Summit ever held on African soil.
This gathering arrives not as a ceremonial event but as a critical juncture, demanding moral clarity and economic courage. South Africa is confronting a generational emergency: youth unemployment at 46.1%, a labour force increasingly marginalised and an economy teetering on stagnation.
What will it signify for the G20 to assemble in the world’s most unequal country and depart without addressing the profound disparities affecting its youth?
This moment necessitates more than rhetoric. It calls for a transformative pact.
Under the theme “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability”, South Africa’s G20 presidency presents a unique opportunity to galvanise global cooperation around Africa’s most pressing and strategic asset, its young population.
The 2025 Summit could serve as the birthplace of a Global Skills Pact, aiming to address unemployment, foster economic inclusion and promote shared prosperity.
Let Johannesburg be the place where the world stopped talking about Africa’s potential and started investing in it.
Recent data indicates that over 10.5 million South Africans aged 15 to 34 are available and willing to work, yet 4.8 million remain unemployed.
Among those aged 15 to 24, the unemployment rate has escalated to 62.4%.
These are not just numbers; they expose a structural failure to absorb youth into a functioning economy. Many young individuals, despite holding qualifications, find themselves in an economy that offers limited opportunities for meaningful employment.
The challenge extends beyond joblessness. It reveals a structural skills mismatch exacerbated by economic fragility, low industrial absorption and limited exposure to workplace experience.
Africa loses an estimated US$88.6 billion each year to illicit financial flows, funds that exit the continent through trade mispricing, profit shifting by multinational firms and other extractive financial practices.
These are not merely abstract figures. They represent the lost opportunity to fund youth training colleges, upgrade TVET infrastructure, scale artisan training academies and invest in digital skilling ecosystems.
In essence, capital that could build futures is silently diverted elsewhere. Addressing youth unemployment must include not only skilling strategies but also the recovery and redirection of financial resources already generated within African economies.
This is not a call for blame. It is a call for justice and for global cooperation in creating mechanisms that allow Africa’s youth to benefit from the wealth they help produce.
By 2030, Africa is projected to account for 42% of the global youth population. Yet, the continent contributes less than 2% to global manufacturing output.
This disparity highlights a missed opportunity that necessitates bold, coordinated interventions based on scalable models.
South Africa’s automotive sector offers a viable model for such transformation. Contributing 6.9% to the country’s GDP and employing approximately 110,000 people, the sector has demonstrated capacity for job creation and industrial growth.
As global original equipment manufacturers expand their operations, there is potential to transform the sector into a high-impact skills engine, provided that the critical shortage of artisans, technicians and digitally trained workers is addressed.
A coordinated public-private framework to scale youth skills in advanced manufacturing, robotics, diagnostics and systems integration would directly support this transformation.
The objective is not just to train individuals for existing vacancies but to build a resilient industrial workforce capable of adapting to future technologies.
Existing partnerships in the Global Business Services sector illustrate how demand-led training, when structured and scaled, can yield significant employment dividends.
Similar approaches in initiatives like India’s Skill India and Singapore’s mid-century industrial strategy further underscore this potential.
International mobility programmes can also accelerate skilling outcomes. Successful precedents, including Germany’s Triple Win programme and Kenya’s Health Workforce Migration Scheme, have demonstrated the value of outward youth placement.
Structured programmes enabling outward youth placement into global technical training ecosystems, from apprenticeships in Germany to digital labs in India, could serve as accelerators for learning, diaspora engagement and long-term reintegration into local economies.
Infrastructure development is essential. In the same way that railways once connected markets and transformed trade routes, digital skilling platforms are now the backbone of modern workforce development.
Without robust infrastructure, even the most visionary training plans remain inaccessible to the majority of people.
Cloud-based labs, mobile-first curricula and low-bandwidth training solutions enable the reach of learners in under-resourced townships, remote rural areas and informal settlements.
They overcome geographic, economic and gender barriers, helping young people, particularly women and rural youth, to gain high-demand skills without having to migrate or access costly facilities.
These platforms are not peripheral.
They are the delivery mechanisms of a future-ready economy. Embedding them in national and regional skills strategies is a prerequisite for inclusive growth and large-scale impact.
To finance such ambitions, African institutions have already laid the groundwork.
The African Union’s AI Strategy and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa provide a framework for transformation.
Equally significant is the AU’s High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows, chaired by former President Thabo Mbeki, which has documented how Africa loses an estimated US$88.6 billion annually through tax evasion, trade mispricing and unchecked capital flight.
These are not abstract losses; they are the foregone budgets for training colleges, artisan academies, digital infrastructure and youth employment.
What is lacking is not diagnosis, it is the absence of meaningful enforcement and political will. Redirecting even a portion of these flows into a dedicated Africa Skills and Sovereignty Fund, governed through transparent, multilateral oversight, could transform the continent’s skilling landscape.
A Compact on Corporate Skills Investment, linked to Sustainable Development Goal progress indicators and monitored through the G20 Sherpa process, could further institutionalise accountability.
Meanwhile, a Johannesburg Global Skills Index, developed with the African Union, OECD and development finance partners, could serve as an annual barometer to track impact, coordinate efforts and refine policy across the continent.
No single solution exists but a coordinated global strategy aligned with African priorities can shift the trajectory and deliver measurable outcomes.
The urgency of youth ambition demands a response rooted in systemic reform. A Global Skills Pact born of the G20 rooted in African priorities and responsive to global economic shifts, offers a viable path forward.
Its success must be measured not only in the number of youths trained but also in the ecosystems built: training systems that are scalable, regionally anchored and globally coordinated.
South Africa’s G20 presidency should be remembered not for its ceremonial grandeur but for the substantive policy advancements it achieved.
As Youth Day approaches on June 16, it is pertinent to recall that the struggles of previous generations were not solely for access but for dignity, equity and full societal participation.
Today, that struggle encompasses inclusion in a rapidly evolving economy.
A Johannesburg Global Skills Pact anchored in evidence, equity and execution offers a viable path, not as a symbolic gesture, but as a shared blueprint for sustainable development.
As Martin Luther King Jr. once said:
“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
This is a historic moment. A generation waits, not for promises but for systems that deliver. South Africa has the platform. The G20 possesses the influence. The global community recognises the necessity.
The imperative now is to act decisively.
BUSINESS REPORT
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