The Group of 77
Committee History, Mandate, and Premise
In 1955, with colonial independence movements active throughout the world and growing tensions between the West and Soviet Bloc during the Cold War, several newly independent African and Asian nations met at the Bandung Conference in Indonesia. At the conference, leaders of the Global South highlighted the need to diversify intra-regional trade systems that had been limited by economic policies of their colonial rulers. These discussions helped create the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1962, which implemented formal demands for the reduction of trade barriers and availability of financial resources, and prepared developing nations for continued action at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1964.
On June 15th, 1964, seventy-seven UN member states in the developing world signed the “Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Developing Countries.” This established the Group of 77 (G77) within the United Nations and marked the beginning of collective allyship between developing member states. Though the membership of the G77 has increased to 134 countries, the original name is preserved due to its historical significance.
committee topic: Combating Structural Dependence in the Global Economy
Introduction
Structural dependency “is an economic relationship that leads to slow or no economic growth in countries that develop in the shadow of already developed countries.” When an alliance is formed between the elites of a developed and a developing (or less developed) country, the economic development in the developing country is often exploited for the benefit of the developed country, creating an unequal relationship.
The term “structural dependency” emerged in Latin America to label common trends that Latin American economies faced on their path to development. Despite decades of globalization, many countries in the Global South remain trapped in unequal patterns of exchange, where they export low-value commodities while importing high-value finished products. In the late 1940s, Raúl Prebisch and other economists first highlighted how these asymmetries create an ongoing gap between the economic “center,” developed and wealthy countries, and the “periphery,” developing countries. Looking specifically at the goods Argentina exported—mainly beef and wheat—Prebisch theorized that the unequal exchange between primary goods and manufactured imports would continue underdevelopment in commodity-exporting (often poorer) nations.
Even today, in the 21st century, the same imbalance is reinforced by global value chains, financial institutions, and technological barriers that limit the ability of developing nations to industrialize and innovate. Current research must investigate how structural dependence is increased and reduced through policies dealing with diversification, regional integration, technological autonomy, and trade dynamics.
Potential Topics for Discussion
While the full backgrounder is being created, suggested topics for further research include:
Historical context of economic dependency
What global economic dependency looks like today
Potential Sources to Consider
Abedin, Wafa, Brahima Sangafowa Coulibaly, Hafez Ghanem, Eswar Prasad, and Marilou Uy. “Reforms for a 21st Century Global Financial Architecture.” Brookings, April 8, 2024. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/reforms-for-a-21st-century-global-financial-architecture/.
“All Roads Lead to Reform: A Financial System Fit to Mobilize $1.3 Trillion for Climate Finance.” UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), October 30, 2025. https://unctad.org/publication/all-roads-lead-reform-financial-system-fit-mobilize-13-trillion-climate-finance.
Duarte, Cristina. “Upskilling UN Capacities and Breaking the Cycle of Dependence.” Brookings, April 10, 2025. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/upskilling-un-capacities-and-breaking-the-cycle-of-dependence/.
“Four Steps towards a More Sustainable Global Economy.” United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Accessed November 12, 2025. https://www.un.org/en/desa/four-steps-towards-more-sustainable-global-economy.
“From Vulnerability to Resilience: Addressing Commodity Dependence.” African Economic, Security, and Sustainability Council, June 13, 2024. https://ae-sc.org/from-vulnerability-to-resilience-addressing-commodity-dependence-for-inclusive-economic-development/.
“Reforming Global Finance for Climate-Resilient Development.” UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), November 4, 2025. https://unctad.org/news/reforming-global-finance-climate-resilient-development.
“UNCTAD Sets out Pathways to Ease Commodity Dependence for Greener, Inclusive Growth.” UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), October 9, 2023. https://unctad.org/news/unctad-sets-out-pathways-ease-commodity-dependence-greener-inclusive-growth.