On 27 January, 50 delegates from 26 countries comprised of parliamentarians, diplomats, academics and policymakers convened in Havana, Cuba, to discuss the reinvigoration of the 1974 UN General Assembly’s resolution on the Declaration of a New International Economic Order (NIEO). The Congress was organised by Progressive International, a coalition of progressive thinkers, academics and policy makers, as part of its wider efforts to raise awareness about the NIEO and “update it for the 21st century,” in advance of its 50th anniversary next year.

The Congress issued a declaration stressing that “hunger, disease, and war once again overwhelm the world and [there is a risk] of the extinction of humanity at large,” while celebrating victories brought about by “combining a program of sovereign development…culminating in the adoption [of] the…(NIEO).”

As the World Bank discusses its ‘evolution roadmap’ (see Observer Spring 2023) and with the IMF’s quota reform likely to fall victim to geopolitics, the Declaration stressed that, “Northern powers…seek to preserve their position in the hierarchy of the world system,” and called for a renewed non-aligned movement, a renovation of the NIEO, an assertion of Southern power, support of Cuba in the G77 and the building of a “new planetary bloc”.