The Third World was the newest of the world. The term was
derived from the “Third Estate” which in European revolutionary
language related to the commoners. The King was the first estate,
and he ruled with the temporal and the spiritual nobles who were
the second estate. The European experience was transferred to
the International System where the major powers (USA and USSR)
were received as the first estate, and the medium powers, such as
Britain, France, Japan and Germany, were categorized as the
second estate. The bulk of the world population in the 1940s,
1950s and 1960s were in Asia and Africa. In terms of the power
configuration of the world, they were nothing, yet, in terms of
population, they were nearly everything. The Third World includes
over 160 underdeveloped and developing nations in the
Middle-East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They accounted for
three-fourths of the world’s population but less than one-fifth of
the world’s production of goods and services. In contrast to the
industrialized nations, the third world depends mostly on the export
of a single commodity or raw material, such as cocoa, coffee,
copper, timber or petroleum. They are largely product of the
decolonization processes which started hesitantly after the First
and the Second World War. They were genuinely outside the
bipolar politics and military alliances of the Western world under
NATO and the USA, and the Eastern world under the WARSAW
PACT and the USSR. The Third world states, in the last two
decades (1956-1976), developed a considerable sense of unity and
solidarity among themselves, and they also established institutions
within and outside the United Nations, such as Non-Aligned
Conference and Afro-Asian solidarity organization, in which they
have used these organizations to press for freedom, independence,
equality and justice. An emerging characteristic is that it is from
its ranks that the powerful OPEC was formed. It had influenced
and will continue to influence the course of world politics and
diplomacy..
Conclusively, the term Third World arose during the Cold War,
when the two opposing blocs appeared to dominate world politics.
Within this bipolar model, the Third World countries consisted of
economically and technologically less developed countries (LDCs)
belonging to neither blocs. Originated by the Martinique-born
Marxist writer, Frantz Fanon, the designation was essentially
negative and not always accepted by the countries concerned.
Although, political and economic upheavals in the late 1980s and
early 1990s marked the collapse of the Soviet power bloc, “Third
World” remains a useful label for a conglomeration of countries
otherwise difficult to categorize. Politically, they are generally
Non-Aligned. Some are moving out of their previous situation and
may soon join the ranks of industrialized countries. Others, with
economies considered intrinsically in capable of development, are
at times lumped together as forming a “Fourth World”. Both the
Western and the defunct Soviet blocs have tried to entice the
Third world to follow their own example, but the countries
concerned generally prefer to create their own institutions based
on indigenous traditions, needs, and aspiration; most choose
pragmatism over ideology. The Third world states display little
homogeneity; it is divided by race, religion, culture and geography,
as well as frequently opposite interests. It generally sees world
politics in terms of a global struggle between rich and poor
countries in the industrialized North against the backward south.
Widely advocated within the Third world is a so-called New
Economic Order, which through a combination of aid and trade
agreements would transfer wealth from the developed to the
developing nations.
Right to development is a recent claim by t6he Third World
countries arising from their predicament and thorough consideration
of the antecedent of their colonial experience. The issue of
development therefore becomes an issue of human right and
justice. From the perspective of a Third world political economist,
the history of Third world is the history of regrettable annihilation
and derailment of developmental processes. It is the history of
injustice and human right violation. This countries persistently
suffer from neglect and indifferent attitudes from other developed
countries for the past 60 years having been co-opted into the
mainstream of the European economy and latter being adopted by
their organized union- United Nations. They could trace their
development progress prior to the infiltration of the Europeans in
the 15th century and the actual occupation, imbalance and unequal
exchange and later the political domination which had been seen by
the analyst from the Third world as injustice of the deprivation of
the right to self governance.
Since the colonial era, the countries of Europe have been in the
far front of world economy, they became the world powers in
terms of economy and technology. Attention is also paid to some
of the recent issues aimed at accelerating the development of
Third world, such as, fight against corruption, food security,
poverty, drug abuse, children and women issue. Bearing in mind the
purposes and the principles of the Charter of the UN relating to
the achievement of international co-operation in solving
international problems of an economic, social, cultural or
humanitarian nature, and in promoting and encouraging respect
fore human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without
distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.
Recognizing that development is a comprehensive economic, social,
cultural and political process, which aim at the constant
improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all
individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful
participation in development and in the fair distribution of benefits
resulting there from. Recalling further the relevant agreement,
conventions, resolutions, recommendations and other instruments of
the UN and its specialized agencies concerning the integral
development of the human being, economic and social progress and
development of the people. Recalling the right of people to
self-determination, by virtue of which they have the right freely
to determine their political status and to pursue their economic,
social and cultural development. Considering that international
peace and security are essential elements for the realization of
the right to development.
The hallmark of economic policy in the Third world since the 50s
has been the rejection of orthodox free market economies. The
countries that failed most spectacularly India, nearly all of
sub-Saharan Africa, much of Latin America, the Soviet Union and
its satellites were the ones that rejected the orthodoxy most
fervently. Their government claimed that for one reason or
another, free market economics would not work for them.
Indeed, development is the central topic of negotiation, if not a
pre-occupation, in the contemporary relationships between the
South and North. It is however, a nebulous concept subject to
radically different interpretations. To the United State Agency
for International Development (USAID), development may mean
increasing agricultural productivity or opening up Southern markets
to American supports. Development to the World Health
Organization (WHO) may mean expanding rural health clinics to
stop babies from dying from dysentery. To environmentalists, it
may mean creating a sustainable economy that generates minimal
waste and pollution. To Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, it may mean
producing a nuclear bomb or other weapons of mass destruction.
To Economists, development means substantial reduction in
poverty, unemployment and inequality. Because the development
standard is a constantly moving target, countries that do not
sustain economic growth find themselves rapidly falling behind.
Many Third World countries, particularly in Africa, have not
achieved significant economic development in the post-World War
II era, meaning that the gap between the “haves” in the North
and the “haves not” in the South, has widened dramatically. For
instance, between 1950 and 1990, the GNP of the USA tripled
while its population increased by two-thirds. For Japan and the
countries of Western Europe, which were devastated by World
War II but today have standards of living roughly equivalent to
that of US. By contrast, some Third World produce less total
economic output in the 19990s than they did in the 1960s because
of civil wars or political instability, while the population in these
countries had been increasing at rapid rates.
During the first period of colonialism, several Western European
countries- led by Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, France and
Britain- used their colonial territories to provide them with goods
for consumption and trade. In the late eighteenth century, the
Industrial Revolution brought mechanized production to many
nations and ushered in a second period of colonialism.
Industrialized nations could produce much larger quantity of goods
and resources than had previously been possible. To achieve this
level of production, they relied on the colonies to provide the raw
materials for building and powering machines and for supplying
their factories. The colonies in Africa, South-East Asia, and what
is now Latin America did not share in these gains. In the colonies,
the production of food and raw materials for manufacturing
diverted indigenous people from doing subsistence works, such as
gardening or tending livestock. Native Africans, Asians and
Americans had been self-sufficient, now they become dependent,
for the first time, on outsiders for their basic needs, and many
became poor. In other cases, colonies were centres of trade in
slaves. Many European nations, including Portugal, Britain, Spain,
the Netherlands, France and Denmark, set up outposts in West
Africa from which they shipped slaves to the colonies of Americas
and the Caribbean. These countries also used slaves for free
labour in their mown lands. Slaves suffered a total loss of home,
land, and livelihood.
According to the Orthodoxy school of thought or the
modernization theorist, they defined development as the increasing
increment of per-capita income. This school believed that the
protectionist system must be removed to facilitate free trade,
that is, it is believe that trade-protectionist was one of the
reasons that led to the Second World War. Due to the massive
destruction rendered by the war, it was made expedient for those
affected to be revamped; hence, various means were put in place
which was among what led to the establishment of UN, IMF, and
IBRD (otherwise known as World Bank). As a result of these, US
became the major donor to affected countries through the
Marshall Aid Plan (MAP) to revamp their economic. The Orthodoxy
conception sees development as associated with economic growth in
the context of International Trade. The purpose of this school of
thought is the transformation of backward economic, traditional
subsistence economy into modern and industrial economy which
means production of surplus goods and increase cash flow. After
the end of the Israeli-Arab War in 1973, the price of the oil fell
and there was crisis. The flow of cash was reduced and
development went down. It was as a result of the stumbling price
of oil that made it impossible for the developing states to sustain
the economic growth. Thus, they needed to rely on the developed
states for aid. That was the beginning of the problem of the
developing states. Due to the economic recession caused by dwindle
oil, thus, they undertook massive borrows of cash from Western
Banks to sustain economic growth.
Dependency theorists argued that the existing international
Economic System is inherently biased against the South. The roots
of this unequal relationship between the periphery (the third world)
and the core (the First world) can be traced to the sixteenth
century, when European countries began to colonize the southern
hemisphere. In this relationship, the periphery exported raw
materials to the industrializing states in Europe (and later to the
US and Japan), and in turn the North exported manufactured
goods to the periphery. More recently, MNCs based in the North
have replaced the colonial powers in sustaining this relationship.
According to dependencistas (adherent of dependency theory), this
unequal relationship has ensured that the Third world states
remained global economy’s “hewers of wood and drawers of water.”
This fundamental inequality of the economic relationship between
North and South fueled development in the North and stifled it in
the South. The disadvantaged position of the South stems from
the fact that most Southern countries economies depend heavily on
the export of primary products-that is, raw materials, such as,
timber, oil and metals, and agricultural goods such as coffee and
bananas. Beginning in the sixteenth century, the periphery supplied
the raw materials and foods for the economies of Europe, and
then for the Industrial Revolution in Europe and later US. In turn,
the periphery imported manufactured goods from the industrial
states. They contended that this division of labour encourages the
Third world to remain exporters of primary goods and discourage
the development of a modern manufacturing sect
By 1970s, it had became apparent that the Orthodoxy had failed
and people started advocating for another paradigm of
development, especially during the debt crisis after the end of the
Israeli-Arab war, and hence, the massive borrowing of capital
from the developed states by the Third World, especially African
states. To save the International Bankrupt System, SAP was
introduced to the Third World countries, and as conditionality by
the developed states through the financial institutions (IMF and
IBRD). Some of the conditionality was reduction in the government
expenditure, trade liberalization, devaluation of currency, etc, and
this brought about an unintended hardship to the Third World.
Hence, 1970s was described as the “lost decade” to Third world
because it was characterized by debt crisis, no impressive
development, it was also the peak of the SAP. Half of the Third
world states experienced declining GDP as a result of the interest
rate for debt servicing became so outrageous that the debt crisis
was compounded. Thus, Third world states lost their legitimacy,
the states could not fulfill their social responsibilities, and there
was fluctuation in commodity, uncertainty in the global market for
African product. The Western World adopted stringent
protectionist policies that made it difficult for African goods to
penetrate the markets of the developed states. The advocate of
the Orthodoxy predicted that development would twinkle down but
rather than closing the gap, it became widened, that is, between
the poor and rich. Hence, it was as a result of these that there
was an urgent call for the New International Economic Order
(NIEO). The NIEO emanated primarily from the Third World
countries.
NIEO was a call for the reform of the existing International
Economic System and particularly the decline terms of trade. They
were also concerned to defend their right, to exercise sovereignty
over the natural resources and reform producer cartel. Also,
NIEO was a call for a stable and just commodity prices, and
international food and Agricultural programme, technology transfer
from North to South and the democratization of the economic
system. NIEO started from 1960s when the new states formed a
coalition of the world poor and it was called the Group of 77
(G77) and they used their voting power to organize United Nation
Conference for Trade and development (UNCTAD). This UNCTAD
conference later became a permanent organ of UN through which
the global South could express their interest concerning
developmental issues. NIEO arose from the economic and political
tension between the developed and the developing nations. As a
result of success of OPEC in increasing petroleum prices
(1970-1973), this success motivated the Third world and serve as
a catalyst to pull all the members together in the call for NIEO.
In April 1974, there was a 6th special session on the UN General
Assembly and this session adopted a manifesto entitled
“Declaration and Programme of Action for the NIEO”. The
declaration had several clauses, such as, adoption of an integrated
approach to price support for an entire group of developing
country commodity export; price indexation; the linkage of
development assistance with the creation of IMF Special Drawing
Rights (SDR); etc. As part of the declaration for the
establishment of the NIEO, the charter of Economic Rights and
duties of states were incorporated. The most important provision
in the proposal of the NIEO has to do with the management and
prices of at least 10 core commodities: cocoa, coffee, copper,
rice, wheat, tea, sugar, rubber, tin, and banana. It was at the
7th special session of the UN General Assembly held in 1975 that
the Resolution 3362 was adopted. The Resolution was as a
compromise between the developed and developing nations and it
basically endorsed the demand of the NIEO: the idea of price
indexation, the 0.7% oil target, the SDR and many other
provisions on the 6th General Assembly.
The NIEO had failed to radically change the pattern of trade
between the South and the North. This failure is as a result of
the following factors: lack of power of the Third world in the
International system; the debt burden of the new states; the
course of implementing some of the proposal of the NIEO were
beyond the reach of the developing states.
Suggestions so far put forward or supported by the Third world
states for a new world economic order have not proved acceptable
to the major powers, these was as a result of, one, lack of power
of the developing states, two, their growing debt; three, the
course of implementing some of the proposal were beyond the
reach of the developing states, etc.
Conclusively, in spite of the agitations of the Third World, such as
the call for NIEO, UNCTAD, United Nation Conferences on
Human Development, etc, the right to development of the
developing states is still being denied. It should be noted that
some of the developing states have improved in development, for
example, the Newly Industrialized Countries (NIC), the Asian
Tigers. The present agitation of the Third World states is the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG) which they are using in
achieving their right to development.
