Children raise voices as delegates to the G20 Social Summit, but they’ve yet to be heard loud and clear

A small meeting room at the far western edge of the conference complex where the G20 Social Summit took place on the East Rand was reserved for the Children20 dialogues this week.

Sixteen-year-old Sesona Qhimngqoshe was part of the delegation that focuses on children between 15 and 17, and was less than impressed. For the Cape Town teenager who is part of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Parliament and a Western Cape member of the South African National Child’s Rights Coalition Board, being tucked far away from the main events was another example of children being made invisible.

Qhimngqoshe is outspoken about the lack of actual change when it comes to including children’s voices in shaping the agendas of the world. This despite the G20 recognising that investments in children are an investment in reducing future costs to society. The focus on early childhood development (ECD) and providing children with foundational skills can help break cycles of poverty, and ensure young people are ready for the workplace of the future.

“I have been involved with child participation activities for two years and I can honestly say that for many of the ministers and officials we meet — and I have even met the president — we are about photo-ops with children. There hasn’t been any meaningful child participation,” she told Daily Maverick.

The inclusion of a Children20 engagement group at the G20 Social Summit was adopted under South Africa’s presidency of the summit. A Children’s Declaration will be handed over at the end of the G20 Social Summit intended to inform discussion at the main leaders’ summit that takes place at the weekend. Qhimngqoshe said the recommendations “should not just end on paper”.

One key way to start making change, she said, was to establish stronger links between what already exists, such as the Nelson Mandela’s Children’s Parliament and the national Parliament, so that decision making on issues and policies affecting children have the input of children.

“What is lacking is accountability, also financing but it’s because our politicians fund projects that are evidently not working, like the National Dialogue,” said the teen activist.

While having a Children20 declaration to hand over at the end of the summit was significant, she said she still had concerns that leaders would not take the document seriously. The issues the children have outlined call for the prioritisation of digital justice and safer online safety; support for early childhood development and maternal wellbeing, climate justice; poverty reduction and stronger social protection; and gender equality and meaningful youth participation.

But those at the Children20 dialogue sessions heard that the Y20 (Youth20) engagement group has in its 15 years of existence not successfully had one policy recommendation meaningfully acted on by world leaders. The chairperson of the Y20 (Youth 20, focused on 18 to 35-year-olds), Raymond Matlala, said the Y20 had produced 14 declarations with more than 800 recommendations in that time.

Inaction from world leaders

Matlala told the gathering that as a result of this inaction from world leaders, this year there would not be a Y20 declaration put to the leaders’ summit, only a chairperson’s summary.

He said: “South Africa has asked why we keep on producing these communiqués and they have no impact. We need permanent mechanisms to ensure that there is implementation, follow-through and reporting. Our decision not to produce a communique is a red line. Instead we have compiled a chair’s summary.”

The issues remain very real though and Y20 priorities centre on the climate crisis and sustainable development; unemployment and youth economic development; and artificial intelligence and the future of work.

Before the Children20 engagement the G20 Social Summit has been a year-long process to develop a National Strategy to Accelerate Action for Children. The document was published in September this year.

The strategy comes out of a process initiated in the Presidency but has been developed with a wide range of inputs from NGOs, academia and government departments.

The 121-page document acknowledges that the country stands at the point of reversing gains made on improving the quality of life of children if it’s unable to “protect, improve and expand the delivery of our current basket of support interventions for children and adolescents”.

The precarity of life for many of the one million children born in South Africa every year is alarming. The statistics show that three out of every five children live in the poorest 40% of households, and out of every four children, one is nutritionally stunted. A quarter of children are exposed to direct abuse or violence, and teenagers leaving school face the prospect that half of them won’t find work.

The strategy document points out that the undergirding challenge is overcoming the massive inequality trap in South Africa. This is “characterised by structural unemployment, high levels of income inequality, and low physical growth and brain development of our children, which results in learning deficits leading to school dropout and perpetuates the high levels of unemployment”.

The report further points out that accelerating progress will come from a strong momentum of a centralised national programme. It acknowledges that the government cannot drive the agenda alone and must look to partners and viable collaborations in the private sector, academia, labour and other civil society sectors. Some of its top priorities are to strengthen families; eliminate HIV transmission to babies; and to protect children and teens from all forms of abuse, violence, injuries and harmful substances.

The G20 Social Summit wrapped up on Thursday afternoon, 20 November 2025 — World Children’s Day — with the launch of the annual Unicef State of World’s Children Report.

On launching the document, Bo Viktor Nylund, director of Unicef Innocenti — Global Office of Research and Foresight, outlined the threat from “three acute crises” in the world that leave children particularly vulnerable. These are climate change, conflict and debt.

Lack of political will

He added that the lack of political will and prioritisation of investment in children had seen us “live in an age of incredible wealth and technology, yet alongside this progress we have millions of children who still grow up in poverty. Poverty poisons childhood and our collective future.”

The report outlines solutions that include using legislative frameworks and budgets to end child poverty; creating supportive macroeconomic policies that protect child-related spending; expanding access to quality public services and promoting decent work that includes better minimum wages, social security to informal workers and supporting paid parental leave and affordable childcare.

Victor said the world leaders had a roadmap — they must just decide to use it. DM