The Congress — co-convened by the Progressive International and the Asociación Nacional de Economistas y Contadores de Cuba  — brought together leading scholars, diplomats and policymakers to Havana from 36 countries, including Brazil, South Africa, China, Colombia, Kenya, Indonesia and Spain, for three days of intense discussion, deliberation, and preparation of a Program of Action to secure peace through sovereign development in the twenty-first century.

Participants included Ernesto Samper, Former President of Colombia, Adriana Abdenur, Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Brazil, Attiya Waris, UN Independent Expert on foreign debt, other international financial obligations and human rights, Mathu Joyini, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the UN, Cristina Reis, Brazilian Undersecretary for Sustainable Economic Development, Ramón Pichs-Madruga, Vice-Chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Andrés Arauz, Former Ecuadorian Central Bank Governor, Marlon Ochoa, Finance Minister of Honduras and Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Columbia Center for Sustainable Development.

The assembled delegates debated strategies and tactics for winning a New International Economic Order and worked on major, structural reform proposals under five themes:

• Finance, Debt, and the International Monetary System
• Science, Technology, and Innovation
• Climate, Energy, and Natural Resources
• Commodities, Industry, and International Trade
• Governance, Multilateralism, and International Law

These proposals will be developed into a renewed and detailed Program of Action for the Establishment of a New International Economic Order ahead of the September 2024 United Nations General Assembly alongside partner governments from around the world. This programmatic development, which will be overseen by a technical committee of the Progressive International, will be carried out through online fora and at further in-person conferences, with Algeria, Honduras, Mexico and Colombia all mooted as host nations.

The Havana Congress concluded with a presentation by President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez outlining the vision of the Cuban Presidency of the Group of 77 + China for the New International Economic Order.

In her opening presentation to the Congress, South Africa’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Mathu Joyini, said:

“The New International Economic Order will address the harms caused to developing countries by the international system, including the raft of financial, trade and tax abuses that have been sucking trillions out of the South."

In his concluding remarks, Former Cuban Minister of Economy and Planning, José Luis Rodríguez, said:

“The first thing to achieve development is peace. As long as bombs continue to fall, we will not achieve development.”

To officially close the Congress, Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla said:

“At this historic Congress, hosted in the splendour of the National Capitol here in Havana, scholars, diplomats and policymakers from Senegal to Sweden, Colombia to China, Australia to Argentina have laid out a concrete and inspiring path out of this age of intolerable plunder and vengeance. 

 “We have before us a roadmap for a Global South insurgency to remake the world system through new and alternative institutions of global governance for peace, prosperity and planetary protection.

“In September, at the United Nations General Assembly, we will publish this detailed action plan and commit to toil tirelessly to unite, mobilise and organise progressive forces all over the world to win it.”

For more information about the Progressive International’s New International Economic Order project and to see a list of the Havana Congress’ speakers, please see https://act.progressive.international/nieo50

For more information about the Progressive International and to read a selection of speeches from the Congress, please see https://progressive.international