G20, Global South and Nepal

Last week, India organized the second edition of Voice of Global South Summit to share key outcomes achieved in various G20 meetings over the course of India’s Presidency this year. The summit discussed the common challenges faced by the countries of the Global South.

Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was also invited at the concluding session of the summit attended by more than 125 countries from the Global South . Addressing the session, Dahal said that the world is facing an unprecedented crisis generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and deepening geo-political complexities. They have impacts on food and nutrition, health and education, economy and environment, and peace and security, he said.

“Developing countries, especially the LDCs, are the most affected by these crises. Rising food and energy prices, tightening financial conditions, and persistent cycles of vulnerabilities continue to add to their worries,” Dahal said.

In order to address the challenges facing the world, Dahal urged the international community to focus on common goals of peace, progress and prosperity. For this, building of trust, promoting partnership and collaboration and working in solidarity remain crucial, the prime minister emphasized.  

Dahal also called for the need to champion inclusive and sustainable global growth, in which the Global South receives a fair share to eradicate poverty and give their people a decent life. He also said tha Nepal remains steadfast in its commitment to multilateralism with the United Nations at the center.

“Nonetheless, we believe that the existing global governance architecture needs a timely reform to make it relevant and reflective of today’s realities. Reform of the international financial architecture should be a top priority with full consideration to the voice of the countries in special situations, including LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS,” Dahal said.

He added: “Climate change remains a grave threat to humanity. Climate-vulnerable countries like Nepal have been bearing the burden of climate change. The effect of climate change on the Himalayas has posed a severe threat to the lives and livelihoods of millions of people living in our region. We all must commit ourselves to achieving the set ambitions in a time-bound manner.”

The prime minister further said that Nepal is graduating from the LDC status by 2026 and the nation is committed to making this process smooth, sustainable, and irreversible. 

“Sustainable Development Goals remain at the center of our development vision and priorities with integration into national policies and plans. But even the progress that we achieved so far has been threatened by the multitude of global crises,” he said.  “Hence, we have been calling for an enhanced level of international support from our partners such as development assistance, FDI, trade facilitation, technology transfer and technical assistance. South-South cooperation should also be forthcoming to lifting the neediest countries.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Global South wants its autonomy and it is ready to take up greater responsibility in global matters. 

“Geographically, the Global South has always existed, but it is getting a voice for the first time, and this is because of joint efforts. We are more than 100 countries but our priorities are similar,” he said. 

Modi also spoke of the 5 ‘Cs’, a commitment to which would power the growth of these countries. The 5 ‘Cs’ are “consultation, cooperation, communication, creativity and capacity building.

The foreign ministers’ session deliberated on major global agendas, including climate change, energy transition, technological transformation, and restoring trust in multilateralism. 

Minister for External Affairs of India S Jaishankar said India took over its G20 Presidency in the backdrop of a very challenging global, and in its presidency, India’s anchor was the Global South.  

“Its voices inspired our priorities, fueled our efforts, and galvanized a path-breaking consensus,” he said. “Recognizing our shared past, the Global South will continue to make efforts for One Earth and to strengthen the voices of the developing countries, the Indian minister said, as one family, the Global South will continue to act with everyone’s interests in mind and drive transformation and building synergies.”  

In the summit, India also announced some initiatives. One of them is the Global South Centre of Excellence which will work as a think tank and will also work as a repository of knowledge and development initiatives in order to interface with the Global South and seek ways to forge collaboration with countries in this region. 

On Nov 22, India organized a G20 leader’s Summit to review the progress in the implementation of outcomes and action points from the New Delhi Summit. India has said that during the G20 presidency it articulated the voice of the Global South. 

Ahead of COP28, in the G20 summit, Indian Prime Minister Modi urged the countries to take concrete actions on Global South’s priorities in the Global South.  

Foreign policy observers say Nepal can take the benefit from the initiatives but Nepal has not made any preparations on it. Climate change is one of the areas on which Nepal can get benefits.

Box

The proposal made by Modi:

• Climate action and climate justice with greater focus on adaptation
• Easy and affordable climate finance for vulnerable countries
• Raising climate finance from billions to trillions
• Just, inclusive and affordable energy transition
• Focus on alternative fuels
• G20 high-level principles on Hydrogen
• Tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030

India’s initiative for Global South

• Global South Center of excellence for research on development issues
• Arogya Maitri Initiative for supplying essential medicines and supplies for humanitarian assistance to global south
• India’s digital health service delivery stack to be made available to Global South
• Global South and Science and Technology initiative for the capacity building
• G20 satellite mission for environment and climate observation to share climate and weather data with Global South
• Global South Partnership Program for the students of global south in India
• Global-South young diplomat forum

The G20 Summit in September spoke at length about the voices of developing countries in the global decision-making process.

• Better integrate the perspectives of developing countries, including LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDS, into future G20 agenda and strengthen the voice of developing countries in global decision making.
• Recognize the importance of WTO’s ‘Aid for Trade’ initiative to enable developing countries, notably LDCs, to effectively participate in global trade, including through enhanced local value creation.
• Facilitate equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other medical countermeasures, especially in Low-and Middle-income Countries (LMICs), LDCs and SIDS.
• Accelerate actions to address environmental crises and challenges including climate change being experienced worldwide, particularly by the poorest and the most vulnerable, including in LDCs and SIDS.
• Continue to support augmentation of capabilities of all countries, including emerging economies, in particular developing countries, LDCs and SIDS, for promoting disaster and climate resilience of infrastructure systems.
• Extend strong support to Africa, including through the G20 Compact with Africa and G20 Initiative on supporting industrialization in Africa and LDCs. Hold further discussions to deepen cooperation between the G20 and other regional partners.
• Increase resource needs of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and FATF Style Regional Bodies and encourage others to do the same, including for the next round of mutual evaluations. Timely and global implementation of the revised FATF Standards on the transparency of beneficial ownership of legal persons and legal arrangements to make it more difficult for criminals to hide and launder ill-gotten gains.