Political Economy of the Global South Conference 2024 Hosted by the Pathways Beyond Neoliberalism Program

The conference hosted more than 60 scholars and practitioners from the Global South to discuss pressing issues in a wide variety of areas and regions of the world. The conference aimed to foster collaboration and share knowledge among researchers and policymakers. The conference theme “Global Governance in Crisis: Breakdown or Breakthrough?” was a platform to understand the complex issues that the Global South faces including economic inequality, climate change, political instability, environmental sustainability, technological innovation, energy transition, and food security.

The first Political Economy of the Global South conference featured a thought-provoking keynote speech by Professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Research Adviser at the Khazanah Research Institute, Fellow of the Academy of Science Malaysia, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Malaya. In his address, Professor Sundaram emphasized the challenging times the world is facing and discussed the evolving concept of global dominance, highlighting the growing significance of emerging economies from the Global South, particularly in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis.

The conference addressed a range of critical topics, including the complex relationship between neoliberal policies and democratic backsliding and quality of institutions deterioration, the many faces of inequality, the challenges of financialization and debt management, the role of cooperatives as a potential pathways beyond neoliberalism, the legacies of colonialism, neoliberal policies and their impact on working conditions, informality, and the use of industrial policy to further economic development. By fostering comparative study and South-South cooperation, PEGS sought to contribute to developing a governance reform agenda for an equitable and sustainable future of the Global South.