Cape Town — Against the backdrop of Table Mountain and during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, the G20 Interfaith Forum held its main event from August 10–14 at the Westin Hotel. This gathering brought together religious leaders, policy experts, and civil society advocates for a week of panels, workshops, and private discussions aimed at transforming moral imperatives into actionable policy proposals. The theme, “Ubuntu in Action: Focus on Vulnerable Communities,” aligned with South Africa’s G20 presidency motto of “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability,” setting a practical tone emphasizing implementation over rhetoric.
The forum, known as IF20, was designed not as a theological meeting but as a “network of networks” intended to contribute concrete recommendations to the official G20 process later in the year. Since 2014, IF20 has accompanied the rotating G20 host, creating a parallel platform where faith-related organizations collaborate with academics, development experts, and officials. The concept note for Cape Town was clear: the focus was on improving the lives of those left behind by various crises, including stalled Sustainable Development Goals and fiscal constraints limiting basic services.
Attendance was significant by interfaith-policy standards, with local media and faith outlets reporting over 500 participants, including clerics, NGO leaders, scholars, philanthropies, and a diverse group of African civic leaders. Plenary speakers included the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, senior members of the Bahá’í International Community, and the South African Council of Churches, along with regional leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
From the outset, the agenda aligned with five priorities the forum aimed to present to G20 sherpas: food security and poverty; economic and financial action, including sovereign debt and climate finance; addressing interreligious tensions through education (notably, the ethics of artificial intelligence); migration and modern slavery; and disaster preparedness and resilience. This framework shaped three days of plenaries and over 30 breakout sessions, blending global perspectives with South African case studies.
On finance and debt, a consistent message was that budgets are moral documents, and the G20 could enhance debt restructuring processes and make climate finance more accessible. Representatives from multilateral organizations, faith-based coalitions, and the Jubilee network argued that fiscal pressures in many African countries undermine initiatives from food programs to employment and health systems. The program paired policy experts with clergy and advocates who have witnessed the effects in churches, mosques, and clinics.
Hunger and its related politics were a major focus. Speakers connected the forum’s actions to the “Global Alliance against Hunger” initiated under Brazil’s 2024 presidency, contending that religious communities, with their extensive reach and trust capital, are vital partners in expanding nutrition, school meals, and local agriculture. The forum’s documents were stark: food security is a structural issue linked to inequality, not just an emergency-relief matter.
Education as a unifying force featured prominently in sessions on religious literacy and combating disinformation. Organizers showcased cross-cultural religious literacy curricula and child-focused programs by organizations such as Arigatou International. Unusually for a faith-policy event, the conference dedicated a track to AI—“The AI Revolution: Ethics and Action”—to discuss issues like speech amplification and bias, and the guardrails faith and civic actors might demand from platforms and developers.
Migration and trafficking, long-standing IF20 issues, were addressed as operational challenges requiring cross-border and cross-sector coordination. Panelists emphasized the dual need for hospitality and protection—assisting refugees while enhancing the detection and prosecution of organized exploitation. Several sessions delved into service delivery: identifying vulnerable minors, referral paths for survivors, and collaboration with municipal authorities.
Disaster readiness was portrayed as a trust issue, as well as a logistical one. With the pandemic fresh in memory, practitioners argued that rebuilding trust in public health and emergency systems depends on institutions people already rely on, such as faith networks. Again, discussions returned to financing and capacity: who funds preparedness, and how local responders can be equipped before—not after—the next disaster.
The program itself showed how organizers blended symbolic and technical aspects. Following an interfaith invocation featuring African Traditional Religion, Rastafari, and Sikh prayers, the forum swiftly moved to sessions with technical titles and specific targets. The hunger plenary included UN country coordinators and food-security researchers alongside pastors and lay leaders. An afternoon sequence on corruption and governance paired Brazilian legal scholars with South African anti-corruption advocates. Even the AI ethics room featured a mix of bishops’ secretaries-general and global CIOs.
If one word encapsulated the week, it was Ubuntu—“I am because we are”—viewed less as a saying and more as a practice. The forum’s main page and press materials presented Ubuntu as the moral framework for South Africa’s presidency’s themes of solidarity, equality, and sustainability. In practice, this meant panels repeatedly asked: Who benefits? Who is excluded? What does success look like for
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