G20 Development Ministers Meeting - Session II: Inequalities and Trilateral Cooperation

Excelência, Mauro Vieira, Ministro das Relações Exteriores do Brasil,

Excellencies:

The  rise of the Global South, indeed a tectonic shift in the global economic landscape, and the urgent need to address global inequalities are  two seemingly disparate phenomena that are, in fact, deeply linked, shaping the future of our planet.

Today, the South contributes 40% of global economic output, and trade within the South surpasses that within the North. This trend is projected to continue, with the South expected to drive two thirds  of global GDP growth in the next five years. These figures underscore that South-South and trilateral cooperation are not just alternative pathways but an important part of the future of global cooperation.

The stakes are high: how these new dynamics unfold will largerly define whether we will see a multipolar world with multilateralism, where decentralization brings a more inclusive globalization,  and where emerging power centers become interconnected nodes in a network of collaboration, or whether we will have multipolarity without multilateralism, driving us towards fragmentation.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that multipolarity is a choice, but it is not. Multipolarity is a fact. What is a choice is multilateralism. South-south and Trilateral cooperation, leveraging the strengths of both the North and the South, are key to making that choice right. UNCTAD, as custodian of the SDG’s South South Cooperation indicator, is ready to support the G20 in this direction.

However, cooperation efforts confront a world fractured by inequalities, fault lines brutally exposed by the cascading crises of recent years.

We have now learned, in the most painful way possible, that in every social system, inequality makes us fragile. In education, in the digital economy, in gender, in healthcare, in labour markets, in macroeconomic performance in political governance–  as a rule, the greater the inequalities, the more painful the shock, and the slower, unstable and weaker the recovery.

This G20 Development Ministerial Declaration is a very important recognition of SDG 10 as a catalyst of sustainable, inclusive and resilient development; a recognition that poverty and inequality are two faces of the same coin; that we suffer an excess of poverty because we suffer an excess of inequality.  

Thank you Brazil for your leadership and for a declaration that recognizes, and I quote “… that inequality within and among countries is at the root of most challenges addressed by the 2030 Agenda or makes them harder to solve.”

I celebrate the wisdom contained in this line, and the hard work of the Brazilian presidency and the G20 countries in ensuring that this great text has now seen the light of day. 

I thank you.