By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi
On 21st January 2024, Uganda assumed chairmanship of the Group of 77 (G77) and China during the official opening of the Third South Summit at Speke Resort Munyonyo. The G77 is a coalition of over 130 developing countries founded to promote shared economic interests and to amplify their negotiation voice at the United Nations. The South Summit is the supreme decision-making body of the G77. It was called the Third South Summit because it was the third time such a conference was held, the First and the Second Summits having happened in Havana, Cuba (2000) and Doha, Qatar (2005) respectively. China is named on official statements of G77 members because of its consistent support and partnership with the group since 1994.
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Third South Summits happened back-to-back, with the G77’s following NAM. However, national attention and discussion seem to have spotlighted NAM at the expense of the G77 meeting. Whereas the two are complimentary organisations, they are distinct in form and substance, which invites us to attend to both equally, focusing on what they mean to Uganda and how we can harness all the opportunities they present.
Firstly, the G77 is numerically bigger than NAM (120 countries) in membership of states. Besides that, with the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, NAM’s purpose was rendered strategically irrelevant due to the demise of a second power which had influenced the idea of non-alignment. Nevertheless, NAM’s goal of advancing the interests of developing countries and non-confrontation survived the end of Cold War politics.
More valid, however, remains the G77’s founding ideal of achieving an equitable international economic order. The theme of “Leaving No One Behind” under which the Third South Summit was organized sounds simplistic, and yet it holds profound meaning for what G77 members represent in a world of extremely disproportionate development between the North-South divides.
The aims articulated by President Museveni as the guiding pavements his leadership will follow for the next year are also easier to list than execute. Uganda now shoulders the unenviable task of boosting South-South cooperation in trade, investment, sustainable development, climate change, poverty eradication, and digital economy. These are big responsibilities we have toward 134 counties for a year. And it’s not Mr. Museveni to do all this work, especially since he is sufficiently overwhelmed by micromanaging Uganda.
In the realm of international relations, business is conducted through collective bargaining and lobbying. With such global leadership positions as we have now as leaders of both NAM and the G77+ China, Ugandan graduates of international relations studies should not be unemployed. We need to have already searched for our best and employed them in diplomatic positions to negotiate for what the two summits resolved as their aims on the international topography. Uganda has spent 47 million dollars on construction of the conference facility where both events were hosted at Munyonyo, besides other logistical expenses undertaken for conducting the two global events. Surely, there must be a means for us to recoup that investment. This makes the economic aims propounded in the Third South Summit more relevant for us to pursue.
And yet there are even bigger goals to contribute our efforts to as a chairing country of the G77 and China. Everyone agrees that the global financial system tailored around Bretton Woods institutions has failed to aid the transformation of developing countries. In more ways than one, they have been accomplices in our financial distress. Therefore, Uganda should be at the forefront of championing overhauling that financial architecture.
In a world that has commercialized climate change, Uganda should also lead the G77 in indicting developed countries to pay for their unfair share and historical responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution and environmental degradation. We should further amplify the call for poverty alleviation because poverty is one of the main causes of abusing the environment in poor countries.
The global governance system has also been historically tilted to inordinately favour the West, leaving developing countries as weak appendages to the system. Uganda therefore should be key in representing the G77 by calling for reforming the structure of the United Nations Security Council.
The list of responsibilities and the enormity of the task awaiting Uganda cannot be thoroughly encapsulated in this article. It is now up to those lucky enough to have a platform for representing Uganda on the global stage in its unusual international duties to act for us all well.
The writer is a Lawyer and Research Fellow at the Development Watch Centre.