Rather than hinting at an alternative to globalisation, new forms of cooperation need to rethink globalisation under a genuine, cross-cutting balance of power. The challenges ahead demand determination and creativity to reshape and build investment, distribution, cooperation, and sustainability mechanisms. In pushing beyond incremental changes and surface-level reforms, the Global South emerges not merely as a key balancing element of the global stage but as a potential architect of an equitable international order: home to the majority of the world’s population and a wellspring of innovation, social dynamism and resilience, it is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation, offering fresh perspectives on age-old problems.

From international finance and industrial policy to regulatory and cooperation frameworks, we will be challenged to rethink how our nations interact, how our resources are allocated, and how we define progress and prosperity. Our decisions and actions in the coming years will shape the trajectory of human civilisation for generations.

The legitimacy of the “rules-based international system”, built on asymmetric relationships and vested interests, now cracks under persistent inequality, accelerating environmental degradation, and pervasive disillusionment. To counter these trends and forge a more just world, it is upon humanity to fully reimagine global partnerships and governance structures. Central to this vision is the empowerment of developing countries, the overwhelming majority of our world, to lead global decision-making. This will demand innovative forms of South-South cooperation that transcend traditional economic arrangements, facilitating the exchange of knowledge, technology, and context-specific solutions. Simultaneously, this shift must also compel us to reimagine North-South relations, creating frameworks capable of redressing historical injustices and fostering genuine solidarity.

In search of this values-based global system for the 21st century, emerging initiatives like BRICS+ offer potential models. Still, to be truly transformative, they must avoid replicating the ungovernability and exclusionary practices of existing institutions and rivalries. Indeed, realising this vision demands bold leadership and unwavering political will to challenge entrenched interests, reimagine global power dynamics, and commit to long-term, collaborative solutions. But only through such a fundamental reimagining can we hope to build a world order that serves all of humanity and safeguards our shared future.

·The call for a new international economic order echoes across five decades. What fundamental shifts in global power dynamics, economic structures, or ideological frameworks have occurred since the 1970s that might make such a transformation more feasible—or more challenging—today?
·Given the increasing complexity of the global economy and its challenges, how might we understand economic development in the 21st century? How would a new development paradigm incorporate models of industrialisation and economic catch-up?

In an era of rapid progress, the technological landscape is scarred by a deepening chasm between developed and developing nations. This disparity imperils not just economic progress but our collective ability to confront mounting global crises, and yet it is no accident of history. It is the outcome of a system that predates the independence of most Global South nations, one designed to perpetuate dependency and reinforce existing power structures.

Often trapped at the low-skill end of global value chains, plagued by brain drains, and starved of large-scale finance, most developing nations remain on the periphery of innovation. Multinational corporations (MNCs) dominate global supply networks, further entrenching this marginalisation. Intellectual property (IP) regimes, ostensibly designed to foster innovation, often serve as barriers to technology diffusion in the Global South (and thus to innovation itself). Developing nations are ensnared in a vicious cycle, unable to build skilled workforces or develop manufacturing capacity, let alone invest in crucial R&D. The irony is that while the Global South bears the brunt of overlapping crises—from pandemics to climate change—it remains largely excluded from producing the essential technologies needed to address them. This hampers their abilities to tackle existential crises and deprives the world of their innovative potential.

Only by bridging this technological divide can we hope to build a world where all nations are equipped to face shared challenges and contribute to our collective prosperity. Prioritising diffusion and local adaptation by overhauling IP regimes and creating new financing models that can bring in long-term, large-scale investment are some of the crucial reforms of a broader paradigm shift that must aspire to democratise global supply chains. The path forward asks us to reimagine how we create, plan, produce and share in a genuinely global context. Ensuring equitable access and diversifying the production of essential technologies isn’t just crucial to balancing the sharing of risks and benefits but also to unlocking the indispensable, innovative potential of the Global South.

·How can international rules be restructured to facilitate proactive technology transfer to developing countries, particularly in critical sectors? What specific provisions or mechanisms need to be reformed or introduced?
·How can developing nations create effective technology roadmaps or industrial policies that help realise national priorities in health, climate & else? What role should international organisations and cooperation play in supporting the development and implementation of these strategies?

The international financial system is at a crossroads and ill-equipped to address the world’s complex challenges. As climate change accelerates and inequality deepens, this stale architecture buckles under the weight of global crises. A staggering 3.3 billion people—nearly half of humanity—live in countries where debt servicing trumps vital investments in health and education, stifling human development and hobbling efforts to combat climate emergencies.

This system’s inadequacy is further exposed by the ballooning SDG financing gap, which has exploded from $2.5 trillion in 2015 to a crippling $4 trillion today. This chasm between ambition and reality lays bare the fundamental inability of current financial mechanisms to channel resources where they are desperately needed, perpetuating a vicious cycle of debt, underdevelopment, and vulnerability that disproportionately impacts the Global South and has, nonetheless, global ramifications.

Several critical reforms are urgently needed to break this cycle and forge a financial architecture fit for the 21st century. From building a proper multilateral framework for debt restructuring to the dramatic increase of development banks’ lending capacity and the coordinated prosecution of illicit financial flows, even to the overhauling of governance quotas in financial institutions to amplify the voices of the Global South, these reforms represent a bold reimagining of the international financial architecture as a whole. And while implementation challenges loom large, the cost of inaction is far greater. Only through such systemic transformation can we hope to create a financial system that truly serves all nations and paves the way for a more equitable, sustainable future.

·How can we critically evaluate the various international initiatives to reform the international financial architecture including the creation of sovereign debt restructuring mechanisms (SDRMs),and delivering a framework for national debt relief and restructuring that balances creditor and debtor interests?
·In addition to South-South initiatives, what priorities should the developing countries bring forth in the UN Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (2025) in reforming the international financial architecture in order to enhance SDG outcomes?