The government of Uganda is gearing up to host two major international summits at Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo, Kampala, in January 2024. Whereas the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) will run under the theme “Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence’, the G-77 South Summit will be held under the theme “Leaving No one Behind”.
Preparation for hosting the two summits started in 2019, when Uganda was endorsed for the chairmanship of NAM from 2022–2025. However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, the G77 South Summit that was meant to happen in April 2020 was disrupted and pushed to January 2024.
Uganda’s readiness to host the two major international summits was affirmed by Hon. Jeje Odongo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, while at a summit-level meeting of the Non Aligned Movement contact group in response to COVID-19 which took place on 2nd March 2023 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
“It is our conviction that with your unwavering support, the Summit will be a monumental success, and its outcomes will further strengthen our movement.” We look forward to the participation of your respective delegations at the highest level,” Odongo said.
The NAM concept was hatched at the Afro-Asian conference in 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia. At the same conference, ten principles known as the Bandung principles were adopted to guide the operations of the new international bloc.
NAM was founded with the view of advancing the interests of developing countries in the context of Cold War confrontations. As of now, NAM consists of 120 countries that are neither pro-east nor pro-west. These include 53 countries from Africa, 39 from Asia, 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 2 from Europe.
Uganda will officially assume the chair of the organization at the summit from 2023-2026 on behalf of the African continent, having taken over from Azerbaijan. The chairmanship of NAM changes based on a geographical rotational basis.
On the other hand, the G77, also known as the Group of Seventy Seven was established by seventy-seven developing countries signatories to the “Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Developing Countries” issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva on 15 June 1964.
Overtime, membership in the G77 has increased from the original 77 to 134 countries of the global south. However, the original name was retained due to its historic significance.
The Group of 77 is the largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries in the United Nations. This provides the means for countries of the Global South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests, enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the United Nations system, and promote South-South cooperation for development.
Uganda will be the third country in history to host the South Summit after Qatar and Cuba in 2005 and 2000 respectively. The third South Summit looks to bring a new dynamic to the cooperation among its 134 member states in a more competitive world.
The Kampala Summit aims at boosting the South-South Cooperation, the decision making organ of G77 especially in the areas of trade, investment, sustainable development, climate change, poverty eradication, digital economy and among others.
