Publications /
Policy Paper

Back
Economic Development of the New South after the Washington Consensus
December 20, 2024

This Paper was originally published on geopolitique.eu

In an era of unprecedented global interconnectedness, developing countries face an increasingly complex and often hostile economic landscape. This landscape is shaped by three main groups of policy constraints. First, the rise among major powers of protectionist tendencies has made the global environment more challenging, particularly as advanced economies increasingly turn to industrial policies to achieve specific economic objectives, and intensifying geopolitical rivalries lead to restructuring of global value chains and regrouping of countries into economic blocs. Second, at a time when demand for government services is at an all-time high, the macroeconomic policy space in developing countries has become significantly constrained, leaving little room for maneuver. A series of crises—from the Global Financial Crisis to COVID-19 to commodity price shocks—has drained government budgetary resources. Third, rapid technological advances are disruptive, rendering traditional policy reforms for growth and structural transformation outdated, and thus necessitating policy experimentation in new, uncharted areas.

These three groups of policy constraints have created a perfect storm of challenges for developing countries. This paper examines the multifaceted impact of these global shifts on the economic policy options available to developing countries. Currently, these countries face the challenge of operating without a clear and coherent framework for their development policies and strategies. This has led to a paradigm shift characterized by a landscape where ‘every country is for itself,’ resulting in the absence of clear policy objectives or instruments to navigate this new reality. Such an approach is unsustainable and poses significant risks to global economic stability and inclusive development. This paper proposes an alternative: a robust, nuanced, and tailored economic policy framework that addresses the unique challenges of developing countries while leveraging their inherent strengths and potential.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    Kabir Elmakhloufi
    June 11, 2025
    This Paper was originally published on springer.com Au Maroc, en plus de leurs missions religieuses, les mosquées jouent un rôle dans l’apprentissage qualifiant des adultes, favorisant ainsi leur intégration. L’article développe un indice à caractère économique pour évaluer cette intégration. Il mobilise des données ad hoc constituées par le suivi d’une cohorte de l’ensemble des 351 apprenantes pendant cinq ans et demi. Des résultats prometteurs témoignent d’un p ...
  • Authors
    June 10, 2025
    This study draws on academic and gray literature to identify the dynamics that facilitate the emergence and proliferation of armed groups and increase vulnerabilities to violent extremism (VE). Given the growing concerns about the spread of VE to northern Benin and the rising incidents of violence, it is crucial to address these underlying factors in order to bolster community cohesion and resilience to violent conflict-particularly against recruitment and influence by violent extre ...
  • June 10, 2025
    In collaboration with the Policy Center for the New South, the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, will launch the first policy brief of its new programming focused on the strategic and economic opportunities of the Atlantic basin. Authored by William Yancey Brown, the inaugural issue b...
  • Authors
    Khalid R Temsamani
    Hafsa El Bekri
    June 5, 2025
    The impacts of climate change are increasingly manifesting through severe and multifaceted loss and damage, particularly across vulnerable regions such as the Mediterranean. These impacts extend beyond environmental degradation, contributing to forced displacement, food insecurity, political instability, and the erosion of human rights and dignity. Furthermore, they reinforce structural inequalities between the Global North and South, thereby challenging global principles of climate ...
  • June 3, 2025
    . حلقة هذا الأسبوع تسلط الضوء على استضافة المغرب لكأس الأمم الإفريقية 2025 .نناقش الأبعاد الاقتصادية والاجتماعية لهذا الحدث القاري، من البنية التحتية والسياحة، إلى فرص الشغل والإشعاع الدولي.كما نتوقف عند التحديات المتعلقة بالتمويل والحكامة واستدامة العوائد.حلقة خاصة تبرز كيف يمكن للرياض...
  • May 23, 2025
    Parlons Développement - 20e édition - Marché de l'emploi au Maroc : Comment aligner aspirations des jeunes et exigences du marché ? Depuis 2021, le Policy Center for the New South, le Programme des Nations unies pour le développement (PNUD) et la Banque mondiale ont lancé l’initiative ...
  • May 16, 2025
    The late twentieth-century neoliberal experiment, imposed upon Latin America and Africa under the banner of the Washington Consensus, failed both economically and morally. Though it promised prosperity through deregulation, privatisation, and fiscal austerity, it delivered instead economic stagnation, rising inequality, and the systematic dismantling of the instruments of national development. This was not technocratic wisdom, but a project of ideological enforcement that subordinat ...
  • May 13, 2025
    تتناول هذه الحلقة موضوع تعويم نظام الصرف في المغرب وتأثيراته الاقتصادية، حيث نعرض تاريخ نظام الصرف في البلاد والأسباب التي تدفع نحو تبني هذا الخيار في 2026. نناقش تأثير التعويم على الواردات والصادرات وعلى القدرة الشرائية للمواطنين، مع التركيز على التحديات التي قد يواجهها الاقتصاد المغرب...
  • Authors
    Sérgio R. R. de Queiroz
    Nicholas S. Vonortas
    May 9, 2025
    This paper aims to demonstrate how certain transformations in the international economy since the 1980s¾notably the globalization of firms and industries¾combined with a set of domestic challenges, disrupted the path of industrial and technological development that Brazil had pursued since the 1930s. In essence, growth strategies based on the scale of the domestic market ceased to be effective. The innovation and economic challenges the country now faces cannot be addressed without ...