Third Voice of Global South Summit

Syllabus: GS2/ International Relations

Context

• PM Modi addressed the inaugural session of the third Voice of the Global South Summit (VOGSS).

Background

• India hosted the inaugural Voice of Global South Summit (VOGSS) in January 2023, and the second edition in November 2023.
  • Both the sessions were held virtually.
• The theme of the 3rd Voice of Global South Summit is “An Empowered Global South for a Sustainable Future”.

What is Global South?

• The term “Global South” was coined by Carl Oglesby, an American political activist, in 1969. 
  • He used the term to describe countries suffering from political and economic exploitation by developed nations of the Global North.
• In the simplest sense, Global South refers to the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania. 
• Most of these countries, where 88 per cent of the world population lives, experienced colonial rule and historically lagged in achieving substantial levels of industrialisation.

• According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Global South countries typically exhibit lower levels of development, higher income inequality, rapid population growth, agrarian-dominant economies, lower quality of life, shorter life expectancy, and significant external dependence.
• According to a World Bank report, “the gross domestic product (GDP) of the South, which represented about 20 percent of world GDP between the early 1970s and the late 1990s, doubled to about 40 percent by 2012.”

India as the voice of Global South

• India, with its history of a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement and G77 through the Cold War, has taken a considerable lead in assuming a leadership role and representing the collective interests of the Global South countries.
• During the G20 Summit in Delhi in 2023, India succeeded in its efforts to induct the African Union as a permanent member of the major economic bloc.
  • The expansion, the first since the formation of G20 in 1999, allows the African countries to voice their economic concerns directly to the world’s most influential countries.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, India distributed around 163 million doses across 96 countries under the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ humanitarian drive between January 2021 and February 2022. 
• India’s digital public assets like UPI, RuPay, and India stack, which are supporting such a large portion of the Indian population, can be a powerful instrument for the digital transformation of other developing and emerging countries.

Challenges

• India’s own past experience with the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group-77 developing nations points to the real difficulty of uniting the Global South in pursuit of common goals. 
• The twin crises produced by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine have had a devastating and disproportionate impact on the Global South.
• Possible neglect of Africa: In the rise of Asia, the continued neglect of Africa has been questioned as well.
• Many developed nations in the Global North have objected to China and India’s exclusion from the Global South, given their increasing industrialisation.

Conclusion

• The recent resurgence of the Global South reflects the evolving geopolitical landscape and the growing influence of developing nations in global affairs. 
• It is a platform to give voice to the needs and aspirations of those who have been unheard till now at a time when global governance and financial institutions formed in the last century have been unable to fight the challenges of this century.
• The world should respond to the priorities of the Global South, recognise the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities for global challenges, respect sovereignty of all nations, rule of law and reform international institutions like the United Nations. 

Source: IE