The Challenge to the South

TheChallenge to the South ■ UNCTAD REFERENCE SERVICE 0017769 00177B9 11le Report the South mmission THE CHALLENGE TO THE SOUTH /.٠٤ ?، ?/ Members of the Commission Chairman: Julius K. Nyerere (Tanzania) Secretary-General: Manmohan Singh (India) Ismail Sabri Abdalla (Egypt) Abdlatif Al-Hamad (Kuwait) Paulo Evaristo Arns (Brazil) Sólita Collas-Monsod (Philippines) Eneas Da Conceiçao Corniche (Mozambique) Gamani Corea (Sri Lanka) Aboubakar Diaby-Ouattara (Ivory Coast) Aldo Ferrer (Argentina) Celso Furtado (Brazil) Enrique Iglesias (Uruguay) Devaki Jain (India) Simba Makoni (Zimbabwe) Michael Manley (Jamaica) Jorge Eduardo Navarrete (Mexico) Pius Okigbo (Nigeria) Augustin Papic (Yugoslavia) Carlos Andrés Pérez (Venezuela) Qian Jiadong (China) Shridath Ramphal (Guyana) Carlos Rafael Rodriguez (Cuba) Abdus Salam (Pakistan) Marie-Angélique Savané (Senegal) Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie (Malaysia) Tupua Tamasese Tupuola Efi (Western Samoa) Nitisastro Widjojo (Indonesia) Layachi Yaker (Algeria) THE CHALLENGE TO THE SOUTH The Report ofthe South Commission !،¡ ا؛اﻗﺊ طﻠﻣﺔف؛ط UNIVERSITY ?RESS 1990 Oxford Universily Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0X2 6DP Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Petaling Jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan O xford is a trade mark o f O xford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press, New York @ The South Commission 1990 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0-19-877311-B Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0-19-877311-0 Typeset by The South Commission Printed Great Britain by Biddles Ltd Guildford & King’s Lynn Chairman's Preface The South Commission is made up of individuals from all the continents of the South, acting in their personal capacity. It has its origins in a recognition within the South that developing countries have many problems and much experience in common, but that no one in the South was responsible for looking at these things in a comprehensive manner, or at the lessons about appropriate development strategies which could be drawn from them. Political leaders are naturally preoccupied with the particular problems of their own countries and the urgent needs of their own citizens; individual intellectuals deal with particular aspects of an all-encompassing problem and again usually concentrate on their own country or region. Further, the South does not know the South-what goes on in its countries, what are the ideas of its peoples, what its potential is, and the manner in which South-South co-operation can widen development options for all countries. Instead each country is forced to make its own mistakes, without being able to learn from the experience of others in a similar situation, and to benefit from the experience of their successes. In the light of these facts the South Commission was formally established in 1987, following years of informal discussion among intellectual and political leaders from the South. The final initiative was taken by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia after a meeting organised in Kuala Lumpur by the Third World Foundation and the Malaysian Institute of Strategic and International Studies. It is he who came to see me in Dar-es-Salaam, and who announced to the Non-Aligned Movement Summit Meeting in Harare in 1986 the intention to establish the South Commission under my Chairmanship. But Prime Minister Mahathir bears no responsibility for the contents of this Report; that is the sole responsiblity of the members of the Commission, acting jointly. VI In agreeing to serve on the South Commission, my colleagues and myself undertook the work of together looking at the South, analysing the problems its countries face, the strategies they have adopted for dealing with them, and the lessons which could be drawn from past experience in the light of current and anticipated international conditions. All of us, from the beginning to the end, had a single purpose in mind. That purpose was to help the peoples and governments of the South to be more effective in overcoming their numerous problems, in achieving their ambition of developing their countries in freedom, and in improving the lives and living conditions of their peoples. This Report is the result of our work. Those who encouraged us to undertake this task hoped that we would make practical recommendations which could usefully be carried out by those concerned. This we have tried our best to do, and believe that we have done. Despite the very different backgrounds, experience, interests, faiths, and ideologies of the members of the Commission, it is a unanimous Report. We have made recommendations on strategies appropriate for and conducive to development in the countries of the South in the 1990s and beyond. We believe that our proposals are practical ones, and suggest steps which can be taken by the countries of the South. It is certainly true that they usually demand hard work and some willingness to sacrifice, as well as dedication and commitment by peoples and governments; but they offer hope for the future-which the present equally difficult strategies in many cases fail to do. It will be up to each government and people to work out the tactics needed if its own country is to move in the directions we suggest-and also to determine its own timetable in so far as external circumstances allow flexibility. We neither are nor have pretences to be omniscient beings, who have the local knowledge and understanding necessary to arrange the effective application of a strategy in all the different countries of the South. We do, however, recommend an expansion of South-South co-operation, and it is obvious that when a group of countries have decided to work together within an agreed framework they need to give continuing political support and to allocate sufficient human and material resources for the work to be carried through efficiently and expeditiously. Vll Underlying all the Report's recommendations is our recognition, and clear statement, that responsibility for the development of the South lies in the South, and in the hands of the peoples of the South. The publication of this Report is a sign that the work of the South Commission, as a Commission, is coming to an end. The work which has to be done to fulfill the needs and common purposes of the South is, however, only just beginning. We, the Commission's members, will only regard ourselves as having succeeded in our efforts to be of service if the recommendations of this Report, and of the Statements we have issued, are given serious consideration by the governments and peoples of the South-and by their friends in the North. We have been led to believe that this consideration will be given. For in persisting with our work since 1987, all members of the Commission have been encouraged by the interest shown in what we were doing and the support given to us. One vitally important evidence of this has been that the Commission and its basic work have been financed by countries, institutions, and a private business, of the South. From the South, and despite the intense financial crises facing most developing countries and institutions, the Commission has collected over seven and a half million US dollars for its three years of work. These contributions are listed in the Annexe to the Report. In addition, governments of the South have hosted meetings of the Commission in their countries, and in a number of cases have facilitated the activities of members from their countries. The Commission also benefited from some support from the North, notably from the Government of Switzerland which enabled the Commission to set up its Secretariat in Geneva with the status of an international organization and provided an annual grant for three years to cover the rent for its office and certain operational expenses. But money is not enough. We in the Commission have reason to express our own heavy debt to the individuals who have constituted our Secretariat, and the team they became under the exemplary leadership of our fellow-member. Dr. Manmohan Singh. Few in number but high in quality, the Secretariat staff have worked long hours and at high intensity to service the Commission with technical papers of superb quality. They have VIH sought, and received, co-operation from many other individuals, from research institutes and development institutions of the South, and from United Nations bodies-in particular UNCTAD and UNESCO. To all of these people and organizations we are most grateful. Further, the Secretariat has made of our small Geneva office a place which welcomed other workers in the development field, for consultation and mutual assistance. In addition, there are many other individuals and groups whom I myself, other Commissioners, or members of the Secretariat have met on our extensive travels in the countries of the South and who have helped to shape our thinking and have thus contributed to the ideas in this Report. The names of the Secretariat staff are listed, together with information about some of the people who have helped us and about the mechanics of the Commission's work, in the Annexe.

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