The Moment of the Global South: Seizing 2025 to Transform Multilateralism

In a world fractured by geopolitical rivalries, where great powers are building walls and mistrust threatens to dismantle what remains of the global order, three events in 2025 emerge as beacons of hope for a multilateralism that many consider to be on the brink of collapse. The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, and the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, are not just diplomatic events; they are arenas where the Global South can seek better terms in its negotiations with the rest of the world. The presidents of Spain, Brazil, and South Africa—Pedro Sánchez, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Cyril Ramaphosa—have grasped the magnitude of this moment, calling for common ground in a fragmented world. 

In a context where the United States openly attacks multilateralism and Europe prioritizes defense spending over international cooperation, the Global South must leverage its access to markets, raw materials, and regulatory sovereignty to demand a fairer global system. The largest countries in the South, such as Brazil, India, South Africa, and Indonesia (which are grouped together in the BRICS, whose summit was held this year in Brazil), must take the lead, integrating medium and small countries into a joint development strategy aimed at overcoming their subordinate role in the global economy. 

Multilateralism under siege

Multilateralism is facing an existential crisis. Under the Trump administration, the United States has intensified its rejection of global institutions, with actions such as defunding international organizations and closing initiatives such as its climate diplomacy office. In Europe, leaders, caught up in internal crises and security concerns, have declared that resources for international cooperation are limited, prioritizing defense spending. 

This retreat by traditional powers has created a vacuum that the Global South—the historically marginalized countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Oceania—can fill with a transformative vision. The demands of civil society, articulated in statements for FfD4, COP30, and the G20, offer a roadmap for a unified agenda.

Financing for Development Conference in Seville: A cry for financial justice

FfD4, held in Seville from June 30 to July 3, 2025, was a decisive moment for reforming a global financial system that perpetuates inequalities and marginalizes the Global South. Civil society put forward a transformative agenda based on the following priorities:

•     UN Convention on International Tax Cooperation: Support for a convention that eliminates gender bias, combats illicit financial flows, and ends the race to the bottom in corporate taxes, including a public country-by-country reporting (CBCR) system and a global register of ultimate beneficial owners.
•     UN Convention on Sovereign Debt: An intergovernmental process to facilitate the cancellation and restructuring of unsustainable debt, prioritizing public services over payments to creditors.
•     Transformative tax systems: Progressive and gender-responsive tax policies that reject austerity and finance universal social protections, health (including reproductive rights), and inclusive education.
•     Democratization of global governance: Reform international financial institutions to align them with human rights, increasing representation from the Global South and eliminating de facto vetoes.
•     Global financial regulation: Mechanisms under ECOSOC to regulate transnational financial actors, such as credit rating agencies, and explore a public credit rating agency.

Although the Seville Commitment that was ultimately adopted fell short of incorporating several of these proposals, it is a starting point adopted by consensus by all States, with the exception of the United States. The task now is to demand compliance with these commitments and, beyond Seville, to demand a financial system that puts people and the planet at the center, laying the foundations for equitable cooperation. 

COP30 in Belém: The Amazon as the epicenter of climate justice

In November 2025, COP30 in Belém, Brazil, will place the Global South at the center of the climate debate, marking the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. As host, Brazil has the opportunity to defend the principle of maximum ambition in a world that is moving dangerously toward climate denialism. Some of the demands from civil society include:

•     CBDR-based climate finance: Demand transfers, not loans, based on the historical responsibility of the Global North, meeting the goal of $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 set out in the Baku to Belém pathway.
•     Restorative justice: Climate finance as a restorative obligation, prioritizing indigenous and marginalized communities facing the worst impacts of climate change.
•     Rejection of green extractivism: Prohibit policies that perpetuate the exploitation of natural resources under the guise of the green transition.
•     Strengthening adaptation and loss and damage: Strengthen National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and the Warsaw Mechanism for Loss and Damage, with specific funding for vulnerable communities.
•     Inclusive participation: Guarantee safe spaces and direct funding for indigenous communities, women, and grassroots groups, limiting the influence of corporate lobbies.
•     Treaty against fossil fuels: Advance a global treaty to curb the expansion of fossil fuels, promoting a just energy transition.

Brazil and other countries in the region can lead this agenda, integrating Latin America into a regional strategy that protects vital ecosystems and conditions access to the region’s resources on concrete climate commitments, complementing the financial reforms of FfD4. A regional green pact that leverages synergies and strengths between countries to create an ecosystem of innovation and regional cooperation could be a good starting point. 

G20 in Johannesburg: The South takes the helm

The G20 Summit in Johannesburg, November 22-23, 2025, under the presidency of South Africa, will mark the end of a year of multilateral opportunities. With the African Union as a permanent member, South Africa can lead a coalition that integrates medium and small African countries, such as Kenya and Ghana, into a joint development strategy. Under the slogan “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability,” the South African presidency, according to its official discussion paper, prioritizes objectives that complement the demands of FfD4 and COP30, aligning itself with a call to action from civil society:

•     Address structural weaknesses in developing countries: Promote industrialization and employment in Southern countries, integrating smaller countries into global value chains to reduce inequalities.
•     Reducing the cost of financing and ensuring sufficient resources for global public goods: The G20 must take decisive steps on debt cancellation and restructuring and reform international financial institutions to ensure greater inclusion. It must ensure that initiatives such as Gavi, the Global Fund, and the Pandemic Fund are fully funded, with collaboration to maximize impact.
•     Fighting misinformation: Provide international organizations with resources to combat false information about global public goods, such as health, strengthening trust in multilateralism.
•     Pandemic preparedness: Implement the WHO Pandemic Agreement, adopted in 2025, to ensure an equitable response to future threats.
•     Transparency and accountability: Empower citizens to track financial flows, combating corruption and strengthening international cooperation in this regard.
•     Equitable access to technology: Promote technology transfer to support innovation in health, clean energy, and digitalization in the Global South.

South Africa can lead an agenda that consolidates the advances of FfD4 and COP30, particularly in terms of engaging G7 countries with transformative agendas. An agenda that understands that countries in the Global South will only find the promise of low-carbon and climate-resilient development credible to the extent that there is an enabling international environment and they have the tools to move down this path without sacrificing their own needs.

The power of the Global South: Unity as hope

In a world fractured by geopolitical rivalry, the unity of the Global South is key to saving multilateralism. The example of the African Group’s leadership and the unity of the G77 bloc in bringing the rest of the world to the table to negotiate an International Tax Cooperation Framework Convention in the coming years is a sign of what the Global South can achieve when it moves in the same direction. Access to expanding markets, control of essential raw materials, and sovereignty to establish domestic regulations are strengths of the Global South that can be leveraged in global negotiations. 

2025: The dawn of a new multilateralism

2025 could be a turning point for the multilateral agenda on economic justice. FfD4, COP30, and the G20 are opportunities for the Global South to show that multilateralism can be reinvented. In Seville, although not with the expected ambition, progress was made on multilateral commitments to align financial flows with the development agenda and protect fiscal space for the guarantee of human rights. In Belém, the Global South can defend a climate agenda of justice and equity under the principle of shared but differentiated responsibilities, and Brazil could set an example by laying the foundations for a regional green pact. In Johannesburg, the Global South must consolidate these visions in front of the G7 countries, advancing a joint vision of the type of global financial architecture that can promote sustainable development, climate resilience, and the guarantee of rights. In uncertain times and with the erosion of multilateralism, it is time for the Global South to make history.