V20MM

What Happens When the World Talks Without the People?

The world’s most powerful economies will soon gather for the 2025 G20 Summit, issuing declarations, signing deals, and shaping global priorities.

But for most South Africans, and billions globally, it will feel like a conversation happening in another language, in another room, with the door shut.

At V20MM, we ask a different question:

What if the most important voices in the world… aren't in the room at all?

Who Gets to Define What the World Needs?

The G20, a collective of the globe’s largest economies, claims to promote “inclusive growth.” But year after year, its priorities are set by finance ministers, diplomats, and elite advisors, not by the people most affected by economic exclusion, climate collapse, or technological disruption.

Meanwhile, in South Africa:
- Unemployment remains highest among youth and rural communities
- AI tools are being used in governance without community oversight
- Public trust in institutions is at an all-time low

And yet, ordinary people are still being asked to trust top-down processes, whether global summits or national dialogues, to deliver solutions for them, without their direct involvement.

V20MM’s Participatory Governance Pillar is the Missing Link

At V20MM, we believe that no policy, no declaration, no summit can be legitimate without participation that is:
- Deep, not symbolic
- Continuous, not one-off
- Grounded, not technocratic
- Equally resourced, not donor-dependent

“Nothing for the people without the people” is not a slogan. It’s a survival strategy.

Participation isn't just about being invited to speak. It’s about shaping the agenda, questioning the process, and co-owning the outcome.

The Danger of Performative Inclusion

In both national and global governance, we are seeing a growing pattern:
- Communities are consulted after policies are drafted.
- Public dialogues are hosted, but their outputs are buried.
- Elite forums showcase “youth voices,” but ignore youth demands.

Without reform, this performance of inclusion will fuel more mistrust, more protest, and more withdrawal from civic life.

What Participatory Governance Looks Like in Practice

It’s not complicated, but it does take courage. Real participatory governance includes:
- Community-led agenda setting
- Transparent feedback loops: “We heard you, and here’s what we did with it.”
- Shared power in budget decisions (e.g. participatory budgeting at municipal level)
- Open access to data and policy drafts before finalisation
- Digital tools with built-in accountability, not algorithmic opacity

Participation is not an input box on a website. It is the infrastructure of democracy.

G20 Could Learn from the Ground Up

While the G20 discusses global finance, the people building the real economy, spaza shop owners, health workers, farmers, township entrepreneurs, are rarely acknowledged. Instead of hosting another closed-door summit, why not embed participatory governance into global coordination efforts?

Imagine a G20 where:
- Local civil society shapes climate funding decisions
- Informal workers co-design economic resilience plans
- Tech justice activists inform AI regulation frameworks

Final Word: The World is Listening to the Wrong Room

V20MM does not reject diplomacy.
We reject diplomacy that excludes those living its consequences.
If people are good enough to carry the burdens of broken systems, they are good enough to help redesign them.

As G20 leaders gather, we urge South Africans, and the world, to ask:
Whose voices are missing? And what kind of world could we build if they were heard?