WORKSHOP UPDATES

View the digital recording of:

• Opening Remarks by Workshop Chair: Chief Emeka Anyaoku

Workshop Update (Day 2, 11 July 2006): "The South Face" reports with sound bytes from Day 2 of the workshop.

Workshop Update (Day 1, 10 July 2006): "The South Face" reports with sound bytes from Day 1 of the workshop.

The South Intellectual Platform (SIP) is an initiative of the South Centre to reflect on the new issues and challenges for the South which have emerged since the work of the South Commission 15 years earlier.

The South Commission was established in 1987 with Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the former President of Tanzania, as its first Chairman and Dr. Manmohan Singh, the current Prime Minister of India as its General Secretary. In 1990, the South Commission presented its seminal report "The Challenge to the South" where it  made a comprehensive analysis of the challenges the South faced in the global context in the 1980’s and early 90’s. The report presented the South's achievements and failings in the development field and suggested directions for action.

It is now 15 years since the report was presented. Times have changed, and new challenges have made it necessary for us to review issues confronting the South. The end of the Cold War, the financial crisis in East Asia, the domination of the Neo-liberal paradigm, 9-11 and the War on Terrorism, the reform of the United Nations, the emergence of the WTO and the challenges it poses to the South, the growth of the knowledge economy and the rise of China, India and Brazil - all these, among others, have generated new dynamics that need to be appropriately assessed.

To undertake this task, the South Centre is organizing an invitation-only workshop on 10-11 July 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland. A group of 20 experts mostly from the South, but also by some friends of the South in the North will be participating in the workshop. The workshop participants will reflect on these issues and make a short report to the South Centre on how best to cope with the new challenges and opportunities.  

Yash Tandon
Executive Director, South Centre

The South Centre is an Inter-Governmental organization set up in 1995 following the report of the South Commission. Currently 49 countries are members of the South Centre. For more information, visit the South Centre website at http://www.SouthCentre.org