25 November 2025, Johannesburg – The Global Public Investment Network (GPIN) and Club de Madrid have welcomed the announcement of the South Africa-led Ubuntu Commission.
The G20 Leaders’ Declaration announced the Ubuntu Commission, that will “encourage research and informed dialogue on global public challenges and on global public investments.”
From the beginning of its G20 Presidency, South Africa put global public investment at the heart of the discussions of the Development Working Group, and it has now concluded its G20 Presidency with the Ubuntu Commission as a G20 legacy commitment to continue developing a global public investment approach to international development cooperation.
Speaking at the launch of the Global Public Investment Network’s report, The Birth of Global Public Investment, earlier this year, Josephilda Hlope, Chair of the G20 Development Working Group, noted that “South Africa, as President of the G20, sees the need to fix the participation gap in international cooperation, and the need for new financing instruments to ensure the provision of public goods. The need for global public investment is a no-brainer.”
The Global Public Investment Network (GPIN) will, to support the Ubuntu Commission, share the insights it has brought together from GPIN members – hundreds of organisations and leading experts – on how the global public investment approach can be put into practice. Club de Madrid, the world’s largest forum of democratic former Presidents and Prime Ministers, and an eminent member of GPIN, will bring the experience of its members and be on hand to support the Ubuntu Commission with inputs and analysis as needed.
“It is inspiring to see South Africa’s steadfast support for advancing global public investment, a defining hallmark of its G20 Presidency, set not only to continue but gain even greater momentum through the Ubuntu Commission,” said Stephen Chacha, Chair of the Global Public Investment Network. “The launch of the Ubuntu Commission in early 2026 will be a game-changing catalyst for a fairer and more cooperative global financing future.”
“This is a moment of opportunity. Leaders must seize it as bold pioneers like South Africa are doing,” said María Elena Agüero, Secretary General of Club de Madrid. “Rethinking international financing to meet the needs of the new era is both necessary and possible. Global public investment is central to how leaders can overcome shared challenges, and rebuild multilateralism through inclusion, equality, and respect.”
In a key complementary process, the Global Public Investment Network has announced how a growing group of governments and international institutions are coming together to plan the implementation of this new financing approach, working to ensure its realisation within this decade. One of the champion governments, Uruguay, has described the initiation of this work in a recent op-ed which set out how global public investment “has the potential to recalibrate international cooperation, steering the world away from entrenched and inequitable power dynamics, toward truly collective international cooperation. This would not only be fairer than approaches inherited from the last century, but it would also be much more successful, helping to transform lives across the world.”
The steps forward that have been taken by a range of governments in 2025, and the plans ahead for 2026, illustrate that global public investment is an approach whose time has come.
