Transforming Global South alongside UN Agenda on Sustainability

Mihajlo Jakovljevic; Anupam Khajuria; Shiuh-Shen Chien; Tiago Correia; Lee Wing Yan Vivian

doi:10.53941/gssd.2026.1000012

Abstract

The concept of the Global South has evolved over time alongside the low-and middle-income countries’ efforts to catch-up with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. True progress relies on deep, structural changes rather than small reforms. Colonialism, industrialization, and global trade created lasting inequalities between the Global North and South. These historical factors have influenced today’s urban growth, population trends, and the rise of megacities, as well as the decolonization movement and initiatives like the Non-Aligned Movement. The Global South is becoming more prominent in global governance and trade through South–South cooperation, BRICS+, Belt and Road Initiative and regional alliances. However, despite these advances, significant gaps in income, technology, and institutional strength remain. Prominent obstacles to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), remain weak health systems, rising rates of noncommunicable diseases, challenges like poverty and the middle-income trap, and ongoing governance problems like corruption and instability. Yet new opportunities arise, including digitalization, mobile banking, AI-driven health services, and improved data use primarily among the leading Emerging Markets. Speeding up progress on the SDGs requires unified efforts in several areas: better governance, fairer trade and financial systems, investment in social protection and health coverage, more equitable technology sharing, and increased South–South collaboration. In a changing world, the Global South must use its growing population, expanding middle class, and innovation to promote development that is both fair and sustainable, while tackling deep-rooted inequalities. The objective of this contribution is to identify feasible pathways for accelerating just and equitable development in years to come.

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