In the 1970s, the world’s underdeveloped nations launched the idea of South-South cooperation. Following in the spirit of Bandung, they aimed to strengthen their capacity to negotiate with the North and to solve problems of trade and development in the new international economic order. Though the overall project met with some modest success, it ultimately failed because of its loose nature and broad scope: The fallacy of its argument was its basic assumption that all underdeveloped countries have more in common than they really do, and that all solutions can be uniformly applied with equal success.

Today, a new, more selective South-South cooperation has appeared, bringing some hope to the people of our regions. The trilateral alliance known as the India, Brazil, and South Africa Dialogue Forum, or IBSA, exemplifies the trend. From IBSA’s perspective, the current international economic and financial architecture has ill-served the interests of the poor in developing countries,

with economic globalization having exacerbated income inequality both within and across emerging markets. The alliance’s objective is to maximize joint actions as part of a coherent strategy within international organizations like the WTO on various issues, including public health, pharmaceutical patents, and government subsidies.

(Published in South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights, Issue 6, 16 December 2007, pp. 4-6, South Centre, Geneva)