Going South

Today, economic prosperity, rather than political posturing, is more important for countries of the Global South, with sustained development and economic growth taking precedence over geopolitical questions of world order.

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All countries, not of the Global South alone, are more preoccupied with their own economic upliftment rather than collective bargaining, leading to a doubt whether the primary aim of the Global South was an equitable and inclusive global economy, or a more multipolar international system – the original goal of the Bandung Conference, NAM and G-77?

"Global South" is a term coined in 1969 by Carl Ogelsby, an American writer and activist of the New Left. Global South was initially used as a synonym for the Third World, which replaced the original term after publication of the Brandt Report in 1980.

Authored by an international commission led by former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, the Brandt Report distinguished between those countries with comparatively higher per capita GDP, concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere - and poorer ones in the Southern Hemisphere.

An imaginary boundary, the 'Brandt line,' running from the Rio Grande into the Gulf of Mexico, across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Mediterranean Sea, and over the vast expanses of Central Asia to the Pacific Ocean, demarcated the division. However, anomalously, many "southern," nations like India, lie in the Northern Hemisphere, while "northern" countries like Australia and New Zealand are located in the Southern Hemisphere.

Presently, the Global South is synonymous with the Group of 77 (G-77), an inter-governmental organisation of developing countries founded in 1964 to promote the collective economic interests of its members, and to enhance their negotiating power in international forums.

Today, G-77 has 134 members, and the UN has launched multiple bodies and initiatives for them, including a UN Office for South-South (UNOSSC).