From last year’s climate change conference in Egypt to the G-20 summit in Delhi, there is a growing consensus among the world’s powers that the agenda of developing countries should be given top priority
After decades of being ignored, it would seem that the Global South has come into vogue. At the G-20 summit in Delhi this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was the Global South’s priorities that drove India’s Presidency, and with developing countries Indonesia, India, Brazil and South Africa as consecutive hosts of the grouping, the direction seems set. Earlier this year, PM Modi hosted a virtual summit for the “Voice of the Global South”, with about 125 countries included to seek their opinions on how to set those priorities.
“We, the Global South, have the largest stakes in the future. Three fourths of humanity lives in our countries. We should also have equivalent voice. Hence, as the eight-decade old model of global governance slowly changes, we should try to shape the emerging order,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, at the opening of the virtual meeting for the Voice of the Global South Summit in January. At the G-20 summit itself, the induction of the 55-nation African Union was seen as one of the substantial outcomes of the conference.
