The World Bank and IMF have a powerful influence over the policies of a majority of developing countries that take their loans. As votes are weighted by equity shareholding, the governance structure is skewed towards their major shareholders in the North. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and its successor the World Trade Organisation, are dominated by the major trading entities, with the Southern countries having a minor say.

In the United Nations General Assembly and its agencies (such as the General Secretariat, ECOSOC and UNCTAD) where the governing system favours the South (which forms the majority), there has been a downgrading of the importance of their social and economic policy or implementation activities. This has been achieved by the watering down by Northern countries of the positions put forward by the Southern countries or their umbrella organisation, the Group of 77; by the non-implementation or selective implementation of action proposals and programmes agreed upon by consensus; and by eliminating or downsizing those aspects of UN programmes that are of practical importance (such as the commodity agreements negotiated and operated under UNCTAD).

The strength of the North is based mainly on its economic power, but is also greatly facilitated by the general weakness and lack of effective coordination of the South in negotiating fora and in international institutions. In cases where developing countries have united and put forward concrete proposals, they have been able to defend and promote their joint interests, at least to a significant degree. In cases where preparations are weak or coordination is absent, the Northern countries have been able to dominate the negotiations and policy outcomes.

This demonstrates the importance of policy coordination among developing countries, or PCDC. Indeed, PCDC is and should be a very important component of TCDC (technical cooperation among developing countries). Without policy coordination, Southern countries will stand to lose out in the formulation of international policy frameworks that will have important impact on their national policies. Given the present state of the world, Northern governments will strive to attain negotiating results that maximise their own interests. That this could be at the expense of the poor in developing countries may be only a secondary consideration, if at all. It is the responsibility of each Southern country, and Southern governments working in concert, to come up with a united position to collectively defend and promote Southern interests.

The following are examples of how Southern policy coordination is needed in some negotiating fora.

NEGOTIATIONS ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

In the area of environment and development, the Group of 77 played a relatively active and effective role throughout the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) process. Assisted by some Southern non-governmental organisations and NGO networks, it was able to transform what might have been a conference focusing solely or mainly on the environment into one that linked the environment crisis to development issues such as poverty, basic human needs and the inequitable international economic structures.

UNCED eventually established the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", by which the North being more responsible for the ecological crisis would bear a correspondingly greater burden for tackling the crisis. Unfortunately the pledges made by the North at the Rio Summit of 1992 for greater aid have fallen flat. In the follow-up process, centred on the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Southern countries have to continue to coordinate their policies so as to protect against the erosion of the Rio principles, keep in front the need for the North to keep its commitment to partnership with the South on development issues, whilst at the same time also promote the transition to more environmentally sound development in the South.

In the Biodiversity Convention, the Southern countries (again aided by many NGOs from both South and North) have succeded so far in keeping the links between nature conservation and development issues such as sovereign right over resources, equitable sharing of benefits from the sustainable use of biodiversity, the proper and fair treatment of intellectual property, and the recognition of the rights of farmers and indigenous people to their knowledge and their products. Southern countries under the Group of 77 have also pushed for a biosafety protocol to protect against the environmental and health risks of biotechnology applications, and for a fair mechanism to fund the Convention. These issues have great economic as well as ecological importance. The Southern countries' views have been opposed by some major Northern countries, and a greater degree of coordination and preparation is required in order to further the arguments of the South.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND MACRO-ECONOMIC POLICIES

In the area of economics, the Southern countries have not done as well. The most important negotiations of the past decade were in the Uruguay Round under GATT auspices, from 1986 to 1994. There was significant policy coordination among a sizable number of developing countries in the beginning and middle parts of the Round, resulting in spirited and effective efforts to protect Southern interests in the crucial new issues of intellectual property rights, trade-related investment measures and services. However, at the final stage, this coordination greatly weakened, and the last years of the negotiations were dominated by a few major trade entities (mainly the US and the European Union), with developing countries having to accept their decisions. As a result, the results of the Round are assymetrical, with most of the benefits accruing to a few countries, and the possibility that some of the poorer countries (especially in Africa) will suffer net losses.

The Uruguay Round redefined the scope of the meaning and definition of "trade." Through the prefix "trade-related", many critical economic areas including policies on foreign investments, on technology and intellectual property, and on the services sector, have now been brought into the framework of international trade relations and trade law. The World Trade Organisation will possibly emerge as the most powerful economic organ in the world, with the potential to determine economic policies and laws at national level. In the post-Uruguay Round process, there will be continuous negotiations on a whole range of issues, including the continuation of unfinished Uruguay Round business; new issues (such as trade and environment, labour standards, competition policy, investment code) put in the WTO agenda by the North; and general and institutional issues.

There is an urgent need for Southern countries to conduct research into all these areas: firstly at their capitals, to determine how various proposals would affect their national interests; and secondly, as a collective grouping of countries, to decide how best to negotiate to promote the interests of the South as a whole. The developed countries, individually as well as collectively through such umbrella agencies as the European Union and the OECD, have hundreds or thousands of top calibre researchers formulating and assessing the effects of different policy positions in international trade negotiations. The Southern countries may not be able to match this, but they must also make a decision to set aside adequate financial and manpower resources to come up with basic well-considered policy positions, which can then be put forward persuasively at the negotiating table. This is an investment that is well worth the initial cost. Without it, Southern countries may continue to have to accept the proposals, definitions and policy frameworks put forward by the well- prepared North. These new definitions and proposals are likely to curb the competitive position of the South, and thus marginalise it further in the trading system.

Another area for future negotiations comprises the two related subjects of external debt and structural adjustment policies. Due to debt servicing difficulties, over 80 developing countries in the past 15 years have been the subject of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) designed principally by the IMF and World Bank as conditionalities for debt rescheduling and new loans. The SAPs have come under heavy criticism from NGOs for depressing growth and living standards and for cutting back on health, education and social programmes in developing countries. The Non-Aligned Movement has also recently produced an expert report, endorsed by Economic Ministers, calling for a comprehensive once-for-all solution to the debt problem, that would entail debt elimination or reduction for severely indebted countries.

In the process for the recently concluded World Summit for Social Development (March 1995), measures for debt relief and modification of structural adjustment policies, were among the most important issues under discussion. For the first time, the negative effects of SAPs and the need for giving greater prominence to social goals in SAP priorities were recognised at an important UN Conference. With the momentum built up at the Social Summit, there are potential opportunities to make further progress on debt relief, and to improve or change the terms of loan conditionalities through a redesign of structural adjustment and the widening of economic and social policy options for developing countries. These opportunities can be pursued through the follow-up process of the Social Summit, through the General Assembly and Ecosoc, and through initiatives such as the Agenda for Development. Debt relief and changes to loan conditionalities can also be taken up from within the Bretton Woods institutions themselves, if the delegations of developing countries in them can coordinate their policies better.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had been established as a UN organ to strengthen the capacities of developing countries to develop their national economies and to have a more meaningfuol participation in the world economic system. UNCTAD's efforts to improve the terms of trade for Third World commodities through commodity agreements and a Common Fund for Commodities had once seemed promising, but these were rendered less effective through lack of interest by Northern countries. The useful role of UNCTAD, as a research facility and a negotiating forum with a mandate to assist developing countries improve their status in the international economy, has been gradually eroded, especially with the greater powers extended to the GATT and WTO and to the Bretton Woods institutions. There have even been recent suggestions (notably by the Commission on Global Governance) to close down UNCTAD. These suggestions have been criticised by the Group of 77. However, the very fact that the closure of UNCTAD can be proposed shows how eroded is the position of the South in international affairs.

In order to strengthen agencies like UNCTAD that play an important role in servicing the needs of the South, there has to be greater policy coordination among developing countries to defend and build up the United Nations as a legitimate and effective forum for international economic and social policy making. Otherwise even more of the UN's role and powers will be eroded, and international decision making on economic and social matters will reside wholly in institutions within which developing countries currently have little influence.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

Technical cooperation among developing countries is important to develop and expand economic and technical links within the South, so that countries of the South can progressively improve their position as individual countries as well as collectively as a grouping of presently disadvantaged players in the world economic system.

However, technical projects alone are not sufficient in South-South cooperation. In a rapidly globalising world, key decisions affecting every Southern country are increasingly taken at the international level, through international processes such as the Uruguay Round and UN-sponsored Conventions and conferences, and through global institutions such as the WTO, World Bank, IMF and the UN and its agencies.

These global processes and institutions generate international laws, policies, programmes and opinions that have great influence over the economic, social and cultural life of Southern countries. Full participation in these processes of Southern countries, individually as well as collectively through groupings like the Group of 77 and the Non Aligned Movement, is more and more essential. And to be effective, Southern participation must be backed up by careful preparation, requiring comprehensive information, in-depth research, the knowledge and political backing of political leaders and Ministries in the capitals, and negotiating skills at the various international fora.

Compared to the Northern countries, which have well- qualified research and policy capacity in their capitals and sophisticated coordinating mechanisms through umbrella Northern agencies such as the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), the South is at present weak, individually and collectively. The Group of 77 lacks a research facility or a permanent secretariat, and is unable to have a longterm plan or strategy with positions worked out in advance of international meetings and negotiations. In the past, it has been able to succeed to some degree in promoting Southern interests, as in the UNCED process.

However, ad hoc preparatory and coordinating measures are insufficient, given the proliferation of international meetings and the increasing complexity of international negotiations. In some important negotiations, such as the Uruguay Round, and in key fora such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank, the South's negotiating capacity is weak and in urgent need for upgrading to prevent it from being further marginalised.

The time has come for Southern countries to make a political commitment to policy coordination among themselves, and to generate the human and financial resources to make it work, so that the South as a whole can have the effective voice it requires to protect and promote Southern peoples' interests in the international system.

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