There are eight billion people in the world. Of these, 6,6 billion are in the Global South while 1,4 billion are in the Global North.
The Global South is the Global Majority. These emerging and least industrialised economies have a shared history, similar features, and common characteristics. More significantly, these countries face various debilitating economic, social, political, and environmental challenges.
These problems are often interconnected and contribute to the complex issues that these countries confront. Solving the challenges of the Global Majority demands the attention of the entire global community.
Key characteristics of the economies
There are key features that characterise the Global South economies. Many of these countries face economic development challenges, including high levels of poverty, inequality, unemployment, limited access to education, inadequate healthcare infrastructure, and limited access to technology.
These economies are characterised by poor leadership, corruption, incompetence, weak democratic institutions, wrong mindsets, lack of strategic planning, and ineffective execution.
There is inadequate infrastructure and debilitating energy poverty in most economies of the Global South.These countries often experience imbalances in global trade, as they are often exporters of raw materials and importers of finished goods.
There is very little beneficiation and value addition in the Global South, despite its countries’ immense endowment with natural resources — minerals, oil, natural gas, fertile soil, forests, water, sunlight, and wind.
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There is a net flow of financial resources from the Global South to the Global North (through legal and illicit channels).
The countries are characterised by limited political influence on the global stage compared to the economically advanced states of the Global North.
Slavery and colonial history, including the legacy thereof, have contributed to the socio-economic disparities between the Global North and Global South.
Many Global South countries face environmental challenges, including climate change impacts, deforestation, and other issues related to sustainable development.
In fact, they face disproportionate effects of climate change compared to economies of the Global North.
Access to healthcare and sanitation can vary significantly between the Global North and Global South, with many challenges related to infectious diseases, malnutrition, and poor health facilities.
There is also a high level of informalisation of economies in the Global South compared to the Global North.
In fact, most people in the Global South are economically at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP), characterised by SMEs, low income levels, unorganised markets, entrepreneurial spirit, and volume-driven business models.
Access to and ownership of technology, innovations, and knowledge production are skewed against the Global South.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not an exception. There is limited access to, use, and ownership of AI systems and compute resources (the processing power, memory, storage, and networking capacity used to run software and perform computational tasks).More significantly, the Global South is hardly involved in designing and building the hardware that powers AI, such as GPUs, TPUs, NPUs, CPUs, and other specialised chips that handle intensive computation and data processing.
Details of some of the challenges
These challenges afflicting the Global South must be fleshed out and explained. High levels of poverty and income inequality persist, with many people lacking access to basic needs such as food, clean water, and housing.
High unemployment rates and underemployment in informal sectors limit economic mobility, especially among the youth.
Many countries in the Global South are burdened by external debt and are dependent on foreign aid and investments, which can limit their economic sovereignty. Economic challenges, political instability, and environmental pressures contribute to migration and displacement in the Global South, leading to humanitarian crises.
Gender disparities persist, affecting women’s access to healthcare, education, employment opportunities, and ownership of businesses.
Widespread corruption and incompetence undermine governance, erode public trust, and hinder economic development.
Frequent political upheavals, weak institutions, and misgovernance issues can lead to instability and conflict.
In some regions, significant challenges related to human rights exist, including repression of dissent, lack of press freedom, and discrimination.
These governance deficiencies and political instability are key challenges for most emerging and recently industrialised countries.
Political volatility, corruption, and governance challenges undermine economic growth and social progress.
Sometimes there is also internal strife, civil unrest, and insecurity. Ongoing conflicts, civil wars, and insurgencies in parts of the Global South lead to loss of life, displacement of populations, and economic devastation.
Some regions face threats from terrorist groups, which destabilise governments and create insecurity.
High levels of crime and violence, often related to drug trafficking, organised crime, and socio economic disparities, pose significant challenges to safety and development.
This is compounded by economic vulnerability occasioned by dependence on a few primary commodities for export, susceptibility to global economic fluctuations, and high levels of external debt.
A heavy debt burden limits a country’s ability to invest in social services and infrastructure. Furthermore, global trade imbalances often disadvantage countries in the Global South.
They face obstacles in exporting their products at fair prices and terms.
Another pressing socio-economic issue is food insecurity.
Droughts, soil degradation, and limited access to technology contribute to food insecurity in certain regions of the Global South.
Inadequate infrastructure, including transportation, energy, and telecommunications, impedes economic growth and development.
As if this were not enough, climate change and environmental degradation are compounding the woes of these economies.
Many Global South countries are disproportionately affected by climate change’s impacts, such as rising temperatures, extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and disruption of seasons.
This threatens livelihoods and economic production, especially in agriculture and coastal areas.
These climate-related calamities occur despite the Global South being the least responsible for climate change.
It is also instructive to note that the consequences go beyond what people can adapt to, such as the loss of coastal heritage sites due to rising sea levels or the loss of homes, livelihoods, and lives during extreme floods.
Moreover, while adaptation options may sometimes exist, communities don’t have the resources or capacity to unlock them.
Furthermore, deforestation, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss are major issues, often driven by unsustainable agricultural practices, mining, and urbanisation.
Many regions in the Global South face chronic water shortages due to climate change, over extraction, and pollution of water sources.
As already intimated, infrastructure is a significant challenge in the Global South. Infrastructure is the economy; the economy is infrastructure.
Poor transportation networks hamper economic development, restrict market access, and limit mobility.
Energy poverty is a great concern in the Global South. Lack of reliable energy supply affects households, businesses, and industries, hindering development and quality of life.
Limited access to connectivity, low bandwidth, the unbearably high cost of data, and inadequate digital equipment exacerbate inequality, restrict access to information, education, and economic opportunities, and thus blunt technology's transformative role.Access to quality education is limited in the Global South.
This is particularly the case in rural areas, leading to low literacy rates and a lack of skilled labour. Education systems in some countries may be underfunded and face challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, a shortage of qualified teachers, and gender disparities.
Thus, limited access to quality education is a significant characteristic of the Global Majority. Similarly, access to quality healthcare services and infrastructure is often limited in the Global South, leading to higher rates of infectious diseases, maternal mortality, poor child health, malnutrition, and an inadequate response to health crises.
Moreover, access to clean water and sanitation remains challenging, contributing to health issues and the spread of waterborne diseases.
The Global South is characterised by poor economic performance with respect to indicators such as GDP, GDP per capita, Gini coefficient, inflation rate, unemployment rate, trade balance and interest rates.
GDP measures the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in one year.
It serves as an indicator of a country’s overall economic health, performance and size. Most economies in the Global South have small GDP numbers.
South Africa and Nigeria are the biggest African economies at US$401 billion and US$395 billion, respectively.
This is in contrast to the United States’ US$27,4 trillion and China’s US$17,8 trillion. According to the World Bank’s top 10 countries by GDP in 2023, only three Global South countries are on that list — China, India and Brazil.
Global GDP was US$105,4 trillion in 2023. In analysing the distribution of Global GDP, it is instructive to note that Africa is only consequential if it operates as one integrated economy of US$3,1 trillion.
This underlines the importance of scale achieved through regional and continental integration.
However, GDP does not tell the whole story. It does not indicate whether the economic development is inclusive or whether the economic prosperity is shared.
GDP per capita is a better metric. It is a key economic measure representing a country’s average economic output (or income) per person and is calculated by dividing a country’s GDP by its population.
It is useful as a measure of the average standard of living. It allows for comparisons of economic prosperity between countries or regions.
Normalising GDP to the population size, thus obtaining GDP per capita, enables a more meaningful comparison than total GDP, especially between countries of different population sizes.
GDP per capita is a rough measure of a country’s level and quality of development. Higher GDP per capita correlates with better education, healthcare, infrastructure, technological advancement, inclusive development, and shared prosperity.
Countries in the Global South are characterised by low GDP and, more significantly, low GDP per capita.
The 40 poorest countries in the world by GDP per capita are all in the Global South, and none of the top 10 countries by GDP per capita are from the Global South.
Furthermore, in countries of the Global South, gender disparities in employment, asset ownership, and political representation are significant, with women and girls often facing systemic barriers.
High population growth rates in some regions put pressure on resources, infrastructure, and public services.
Rapid urbanisation, usually unplanned, leads to the growth of informal settlements, inadequate housing, and strain on urban infrastructure and services.
A large proportion of the population in many of these countries is young, creating a difficult-to-meet demand for education, employment, and opportunities.
While globalisation offers opportunities, it also exposes countries in the Global South to economic shocks, competition, and exploitation by multinational corporations.
Many Global South countries rely heavily on exporting raw materials and agricultural products, often facing unfavourable trade terms and price volatility.
Rapid modernisation and globalisation can lead to the erosion of cultural identities and traditions.
Political manipulation and economic inequality can exacerbate ethnic, religious, and social divisions.
The digital divide (and now the AI divide) is a significant characteristic of the Global South. Limited access to technology and connectivity hinders economic and educational opportunities. Inadequate investment in research and development, coupled with brain drain, hinders innovation and technological advancement.
Intellectual property rights, a lack of infrastructure, and skills gaps can create challenges in accessing and adapting new technologies.
There are also specific AI-related challenges and risks for the Global South.
These include discrimination, bias, oppression, unpreparedness, exclusion, and bad AI design.
These AI challenges can be exacerbated in the context of underdeveloped and vulnerable populations, especially those without:
(1) access to advanced science, technology and innovations,
(2) effective technology regulations and governance,
(3) access to comprehensive human rights legislation, and (4) institutional guardrails, redress and remedies.
This is the story of the Global Majority – a narrative of challenges.
The way forward
Can AI – as part of broader interventions – be used to resolve some of the many, seemingly intractable problems afflicting the Global South?
Addressing these difficulties requires holistic and coordinated efforts at local, national, regional, continental, and global levels, focusing on economic transformation, sustainable development, inclusive growth, and the empowerment of local communities.
Granted, the terms Global North and Global South are broad generalisations, and each category has considerable diversity.
There has been an ongoing debate about the appropriateness and accuracy of these descriptions. The contention is that they can oversimplify complex geopolitical and economic realities.
This can then undermine the development of appropriate bespoke solutions.
A more nuanced and context-specific language is essential to describe global inequalities and disparities.
This critique is accepted.
Nevertheless, the utility of the terms (Global North and Global South) is forcing the discourse to focus on the plight of the Global South, which is the Global Majority.
Resolving problems afflicting countries in the Global South and achieving their aspirations demand Global South agency, solidarity, sharing of best practices, and unified strategic thinking.
This should lead to a comprehensive, technology-inspired, multidimensional Global South-driven approach involving sustainable development strategies and efforts to promote inclusive and equitable growth.
In particular, a proactive, Global South-designed and owned, AI-driven, human-centric, inclusive, empowering, context-driven approach is imperative.
The starting point is proffering broad non-AI interventions, followed by exploring the potential deployment of AI to achieve inclusive development and shared prosperity.
Of course, cooperation between the Global South and Global North is essential in all these redemptive interventions.
However, this interaction must be inspired and guided by Global South agency, mutual respect, the spirit of equality of nations, and acceptance of the diversity of thought.
More significantly, there must be universal acknowledgement of the historical and current role of the Global North in impoverishing the Global South.
Indeed, AI must be used to achieve inclusive development and shared prosperity. UN Secretary-General António Guterres is right:
“We must never allow AI to stand for advancing inequality.”
Mutambara is the director and full professor of the Institute for the Future of Knowledge at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. He is also an independent technology and strategy consultant and former deputy prime minister of Zimbabwe.
