The further orphaning of the world's poor

FACTS: Chinese President Hu Jintao could not have been more correct when he said recently in the wake of the Group of Eight (G8) meet in Germany that, "Developing countries have become an important force in maintaining world peace and promoting common development".

By virtue of the fact that the majority of the world's population resides in the developing countries, the developing countries do have the weight of numbers and could prove a prime mover in progressive change in the current political economy. However, this remains a potential strength, yet to be tapped.

The Chinese President was making his observations at a meeting of five principal middle income countries, on the sidelines of the G8 Summit.

They are: China, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa. These states are commonly labelled developing countries but their up-and-coming economies and middle income status gives them a separate and distinct identity within the broader fold of developing countries. In fact their special status is recognized by even the G8, who held separate consultations with the group and even reportedly dined with them.

The principal thrust of Hu Jintao's address to the group of five up-and-coming economies was that "developing countries should make concerted efforts to meet challenges brought about by economic globalization".

They should, he said, in particular "work for the establishment of a sound international economic order and foster an enabling financial, trade and energy environment".

It is of some significance that no particular mention is made about poverty alleviation and of the need to redress wealth imbalances within developing countries, although it could be argued that all this is implied in the need to usher in "common development".

However, ideally, the issue of poverty should be brought sharply into focus on account of the fact that lack of development or under-development was what brought the poor of the world together in the heyday of the Nonaligned Movement and the Group of 77, for instance.

By contrast, little mention is made today of the vast poverty assailing the Third World or the developing countries, by the leaders of these countries themselves. In fact, in the sixties and early seventies, the developing countries enjoyed a degree of coherence under the NAM and the Group of 77.

The fact that there are distinct groups today within the developing countries' fold is proof that the "poor" of the world are no longer speaking with one voice. Nor could they be inspired by a single vision and purpose as was the case in former times with NAM, for instance.

Here's where the UN could prove effective. It needs to champion more vocally and effectively the needs of the world's poor and revitalise the structures and institutions which could give voice and purpose to the poor.

It could be argued that it is the relative diminishing of the organisational capabilities of global bodies, such as the UN, and, of course, the decline in influence of pro-poor movements such as NAM, which has led to the segmentation of the developing countries into distinct groups.

The challenge for the world's poor right now, is to arrest these trends and reunite under a single banner for the betterment of their collective good.