WTO Reform: Structuring a Positive Agenda for Developing Countries
A Working Document on Structuring Reform Around Legal Principles and Development Priorities, 15 July 2025
By Vahini Naidu, Trade for Development Programme, South Centre
This Working Document outlines a structured contribution to the WTO reform process from a legal and developmental perspective. It organises the wide range of reform issues into seven categories, based on their legal character, institutional handling, and the procedural steps required for meaningful resolution. The aim is to support a more coherent and inclusive reform process by offering a logical framework grounded in the Marrakesh Agreement and reflective of the WTO’s foundational principles. It is intended to assist Members in navigating reform discussions in a manner that is principled, transparent, and responsive to the priorities of developing countries.
WTO Reform: Framing Challenges in the Facilitator-led Process and Strategic Considerations for Developing Countries
By Vahini Naidu, Trade for Development Programme, South Centre
This Informal Note was prepared to inform developing country participation in the next round of Facilitator-led consultations on WTO reform. It provides a critical reflection on the three-track framework proposed by the Facilitator, namely Governance, Fairness and Future, and raises concerns about the framing, legal coherence, and process legitimacy of the emerging reform agenda. The note highlights the risks of implicitly reshaping negotiating priorities through informal structuring, particularly in ways that may disadvantage developing countries or dilute existing legal mandates. It offers strategic considerations and suggested responses to the three guiding questions posed by the Facilitator, underscoring the need to reaffirm treaty-embedded rights such as Special and Differential Treatment, preserve institutional integrity, and ensure that any reform remains firmly anchored in multilateral principles, Member-driven processes, and the development dimension. A separate working document proposing a structured positive agenda for developing countries will follow to complement this analysis.
Gender Intersectionality in Antimicrobial Resistance
Webinar Report
The South Centre held a webinar on Gender Intersectionality in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), on 14 May 2025, with the participation of experts from academia, independent research institutions and international organizations. The webinar was attended by over 70 participants from around the world, demonstrating interest in gaining greater understanding of the gender dimension in effective strategies fortackling antimicrobial resistance.
Designing an Independent Panel onEvidence for Action on Antimicrobial Resistance: Lessons from Selected Bodies in Global Health, Climate Change and Biodiversity
By Viviana Munoz Tellez and Francesca Chiara
This paper proposes a framework for designing an Independent Panel on Evidence for Action on Antimicrobial Resistance (IPEA), responding to the 2025 United Nations General Assembly mandate. Through a comparative analysis of selected international scientific advisory bodies, we identify the panel’s mandate as the foundational element that will critically shape its composition, scope, deliverables, and governance structure. Our framework addresses key domains of credibility, scientific integrity, authority, policy relevance, and sustainability while establishing equity as a fundamental design principle—not merely ensuring low and middle-income country (LMIC) participation but designing the IPEA to address existing imbalances in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) evidence production and dissemination. We analyse potential mandate options, from evidence synthesis to policy recommendations, highlighting the importance of defining a unique and complementary role for IPEA within the existing AMR governance landscape to avoid duplication and maximize impact on global AMR response.
WTO Reform: Facilitator’s Report on Initial Consultations (JOB/GC/445)
Commentary, 9 July 2025
By Vahini Naidu, Trade for Development Programme, South Centre
This commentary provides a critical analysis of the Facilitator’s Report on Initial Consultations on WTO Reform, highlighting the absence of a shared reform objective, the fragmentation of issues, and the risks posed to developing country priorities, particularly with respect to the Special and Differential Treatment and self-designation, and the consensus-based decision-making. It examines the legal and institutional implications of current reform narratives and cautions against proposals that may entrench rather than correct systemic imbalances.
The AI Race: A Tightrope Walk Between Innovation, Inclusivity and Prosperity for All
By Daniel Uribe Terán
The intensifying global race in Artificial Intelligence (AI) forces nations to walk a tightrope, balancing the drive for rapid innovation against the imperatives of fairness, safety and inclusivity. This tension is reflected in recent high-level international summits and the diverging regulatory paradigms emerging globally, most notably between the market-driven, largely deregulatory approach of the United States and the human-centric, risk-based model favoured by the European Union. Such divergence contributes to a fragmented governance landscape, posing significant challenges for developing countries, which face the risk of marginalisation due to disparities in infrastructure, resources, and technical capacity. Some of these countries have put in place proactive strategies as they endeavour to walk the tightrope between innovation and fairness in the unfolding AI era.
South Centre Inputs on the Draft Issues Notes on the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation
11 July 2025
In preparation for the First and Second Sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UNFCITC) to be held in August 2025, the Co-Leads of each of the three Workstreams have released Draft Issues Notes for public comments. The Issues Notes are meant to provide direction on the content of the UNFCITC and its two early protocols on services and dispute prevention and resolution.
South Centre Statement to the 66th WIPO Assemblies
July 2025
At the WIPO Assemblies, the South Centre calls for a balanced IP regime that supports development, links to the SDGs, and preserves national policy space. We back the GRATK Treaty, TK & TCE negotiations, and a Development Acceleration Fund.
Domestic Revenue Mobilisation at the Heart of Sustainable Development: the Seville Declaration
Side-event at the Fourth Financing for Development Conference (FFD4), co-hosted by the South Centre, EU Commission, Germany and Nigeria
High Level Statement by Dr. Carlos Correa, Executive Director of the South Centre
Addis Tax Initiative (ATI) member the South Centre co-organized an event with fellow members the EU Commission, Nigeria and Germany at FFD4 on ‘Domestic Revenue Mobilisation at the Heart of Sustainable Development: the Seville Declaration’. Here are the remarks of Dr. Carlos Correa, Executive Director of the South Centre at the event.
South Centre Statement on the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development
Seville, Spain, 30 June – 3 July 2025
The international financial architecture continues to reflect a global order that existed eight decades ago. An urgent, comprehensive reform is needed to make such order responsive to the financing needs of developing countries in the 21st century.
Excerpt from the Speech by Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere at the Opening Ceremony of the Second Meeting of the Council of Representatives of the South Centre in New York
21st September 1998
“If we in the developing countries are to shape our own destiny, and participate fully in shaping the future and the nature of the world in which we live, we have to have an effective voice. But we will not have that effective voice if we do not work together, at least in some areas of vital concern to all of us. Together we can reduce our separate weaknesses. Acting together we can become stronger; we can gain at least some more influence in the world.”
