A definition of the divide

The drive for a New International Economic Order (NIEO)

Dimensions of the North-South Gap

Explaining the North-South divide

International change and the North-South gap

Defining the North-South Divide

The phrase ‘North-South relations’ broadly delineates relations between countries of the northern hemisphere, which is industrialised and relatively prosperous, and the nations of the southern hemisphere, which are mainly non-industrialised and relatively impoverished. The phrase, therefore, refers to relations between the rich and poor countries of the world.

The Drive for a New International Economic Order (NIEO)

In 1974, a coalition of developing countries, known as the G-77 group, succeeded in passing the Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order at the Sixth Special Session of the UN General Assembly. The NIEO included proposals for greater control of multinational corporations; accelerated transfer of technology to the developing countries; and trade reforms including the reduction of tariff barriers by developed countries.

Dimensions of the North-South Gap

The reality of global inequality is beyond dispute. The South accounts for more than 75% of the world’s population, but accounts for less than 20% of the world’s goods and services. There are big gaps in:

1. Population Growth
2. Food Production
3. Capital and Technology
4. Health provision
5. Access to education

Explaining the North-South Divide

It is possible to discern three competing explanations for this gap:

1. The neutral argument that the industrial revolution first occurred in the North and this created a disparity in economic development with the South.
2. The North, it is argued, bears much of the responsibility for the impoverished countries of the South either through colonialism or neo-colonialism.

3. Governments in the developing world, it is claimed, have been mainly responsible for the economic plight of their countries through inappropriate policies and poor governance.

International Change and the North-South Gap

In the short term, the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s seems to have done little to improve the lot of the 'have nots' in the international arena. Indeed, the North-South divide seems to have widened. Many countries in the South believe the North no longer has a strategic incentive for extending foreign aid to the poor countries. In the long term, however, globalizing forces such the information revolution-which is in effect shrinking the world-and the realities of economic, security and ecological interdependence could persuade the North that it has a vested interest in the improvement of the South.