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Mukudzei Chingwere in HAVANA, Cuba

UNITED Nations Secretary General Mr Antonio Guterres has thrown his weight behind developing countries in their fight against a discriminatory unipolar world order and called on them to push even harder to achieve fairness.

He said this when he spoke at the ongoing G77 + China summit underway here, where Zimbabwe’s delegation is led by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Ambassador Frederick Shava.

The G77 + China is an umbrella body that brings together developing countries from Africa, Asia, North and South America, in a bid to influence the creation of a new world economic order.

This desired order seeks to do away with the present set up that is skewed to benefit the developed world and condemn the developing world.

This year’s summit is being held under the theme, “Science, technology and innovation can forge solidarity, solve common problems, and help to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality”.

The theme is aptly coined as a means to inspire the developing world to take advantage of science, technology and innovation to champion their development plans.

With a membership of 134 countries, the G77 + China now has fresh impetus to push through the fairness agenda on the back of UN backing.

In his address, Mr Guterres said the current world order represents a bygone era when part of the developing world was under colonisation and wouldn’t chart their own destiny as this was done by the colonial masters.

He said the challenge was not only with the world financial system, but extends to politics where even the UN Security Council is fundamentally exclusionary to the developing world.

His views are in sync with Zimbabwe’s economic development thrust and world political viewpoint.

Zimbabwe, under the Second Republic, is pushing through its development drive under the albatross of illegal economic sanctions imposed by the West.

“The task begins with the multilateral system itself,” said Mr Guterres.

“We are moving to a multipolar world.

“Multipolarity creates new opportunities for leadership on the global stage. But alone, it doesn’t guarantee peace and justice.

“Those require strong, effective multilateral institutions. But many of today’s institutions — particularly the United Nations Security Council and the Bretton Woods institutions — reflect a bygone era, one where many developing countries were shackled by colonial rule and had no say on their own affairs, or on global affairs.

“I have proposed measures to make the global financial architecture more representative and responsive to the needs of developing countries.

“And the SDG Summit next week and the Summit of the Future next year, are real chances to make headway.”

Ambassador Shava said it was good to hear President Mnangagwa’s calls being echoed by the Secretary General of the United Nations.

He said this means Zimbabwe has always been standing on fair ground.

“He (Mr Guterres) lamented that the Global North is very reluctant to share science, technology and innovation that has brought them to where they are. We are far ahead of the general cry of science, technology and innovation, but this does not mean that we should sit back.

“I think we should move on and you know that we have a weather satellite in space right now but this should only be the beginning of other innovations and exploration that we can do in space and we should encourage our students to make choices in science, technology and innovation wherever they are studying.

“We feel that the President’s pronouncements of what we should highlight in science, technology and innovation is vindicated here and we are found to be doing the right thing at the right time; maybe we should do even more,” said Ambassador Shava.