Voices and Concerns of the Global South

By Ambassador (Retd.) Asoke Mukerji

The voices and concerns of developing countries in the UN, collectively
referred to as the “Global South”, prioritize peace, security, and
development. These objectives require an integrated framework for
international cooperation, with the Global South participating on an equal
basis in its decision-making.

The collective identity of the Global South began to emerge at the UN
General Assembly (UNGA) in December 1963, when developing
countries initiated two significant amendments to the UN Charter of June
1945 for greater representation in the organs of the UN. These
amendments expanded the number of elected members of the UN
Security Council (UNSC) from 6 to 10, and the number of elected
members of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) from 18 to
27. In 1971, the Charter was amended again to increase the ECOSOC
membership to 54, representing all geographical regions of the world.
In June 1964, the Global South created its platform in the UN, called the
group of 77 developing countries (G-77). The G-77 sought structural
reforms in the UN to support its priorities for socio-economic
development. The UNGA responded by establishing the UN
Development Programme (UNDP) in 1965. Today, the UNDP is active in
170 countries, most of which are in the Global South. It is the “face of
the UN” on the ground, supporting a range of national socio-economic
activities carried out in coordination with specialized agencies of the UN,
impacting on all aspects of human endeavour.

In October 1967, the Charter of Algiers was adopted by the first
ministerial meeting of the G-77. It advocated the creation of a New
International Economic Order to accelerate the development of the
Global South. In response, several developed countries expressed
concern at the impact of rapid development on the environment. At the
First UN Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972, Global
South countries like India rejected these attempts to restrict
development because of environmental protection, saying that “poverty
is the biggest polluter”.

The UNGA recognized the “right to development” as an “inalienable
human right” in 1986 through a voted resolution, opposed by some
developed countries. In 1987, the UN’s Brundtland Commission tabled

its report on “Sustainable Development”, converging the Global South’s
demand for accelerated socio-economic development with the globally
accepted goal of protecting the environment. Almost three decades later,
in September 2015, the UNGA unanimously adopted Agenda 2030 on
Sustainable Development, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).

Agenda 2030 represents the consolidation of the Global South’s
priorities. Two important “means of implementation” commitments to
achieve the SDGs are an integral part of Agenda 2030. These are for
the flow of financial resources from multilateral financial institutions, and
transfers of appropriate technologies, to the Global South.

The concerns of the Global South today are reflected in the assessment
by world leaders meeting at the UN’s SDG Summit in September 2023
that “the achievement of the SDGs in in peril” due to “numerous crises”
facing the world. At the top of the list of crises is the impact of the
unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic and a sharp escalation in violent
conflicts, both of which have impacted adversely on huge numbers of
people, particularly in the Global South.

When Agenda 2030 was adopted in 2015, 60 million people worldwide
were affected by violent conflicts on the UNSC’s agenda. That figure
ballooned to 314 million people in 2022, mainly in the Global South. In
October 2022, the World Bank reported that the Covid pandemic had
pushed an additional 90 million people, mainly in Global South countries,
into the ranks of the 670 million people worldwide living below the
poverty line of $2.15 a day.

Ongoing conflicts across Africa, Asia, and Europe, of which images of
the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are visible on international media, have
jeopardized Agenda 2030. These conflicts are attributable to an
increasingly ineffective UNSC. Its five permanent members (P5) seek to
maintain their dominant status given by their veto power, despite the fact
that the P5 were party to the UNGA’s unanimous mandate of September
2005 for early reforms of the UNSC including on the question of the
veto.

An ineffective UNSC has created space for the emergence of aggressive
protectionism and militarism in developed countries, as unilateralism
seeks to replace multilateralism. Despite strong opposition from
entrenched protectionist interests in developed countries, over 100
Global South countries supported a Vaccine Waiver Initiative at the

World Trade Organization in June 2022 to mitigate the Covid pandemic.
In December 2023, 131 Global South countries voted to adopt a UNGA
resolution condemning “the continued unilateral application and
enforcement by certain Powers of unilateral coercive measures”, and
rejected those measures, “with all their extraterritorial effects”.

India has coordinated the Global South’s response to these ongoing
challenges by convening two virtual Voice of the Global South Summits
in January and November 2023 during its Presidency of the G-20. 125
countries, including 47 from Africa, 31 from Asia, 29 from Latin America,
11 from Oceania, and 7 from Europe participated to express their
concerns and seek solutions through reforming multilateral structures. At
the New Delhi G-20 Summit on 9 September 2023, India announced the
inclusion of the 55-nation African Union in the G-20 as its 21 st member,
dramatically expanding the composition and focus of the grouping in
favour of the Global South.

The leaders of the Global South have sought to reform multilateral
institutions to respond effectively to the challenges facing the world
today. Their current focus is on the UN Summit of the Future in
September 2024 in New York. The Global South’s objective will befor
this Summit to mandate the convening of a UN General Conference in
2025. The outcomes of such a Conference, based on dialogue and
diplomacy, can revitalize the United Nations, restoring the integrity of an
integrated international framework for achieving the priorities of the
Global South.

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(Ambassador (Retd.) Asoke Mukerji is the former Permanent
Representative of India to the United Nations in New York.)