Introduction
The Global South entails the countries within the southern region of the globe. The area comprises states across Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. These countries experience similar challenges in matters regarding development and overall growth. These include the economic development aspects such as fixing the infrastructure, ensuring access to education and healthcare, conducting foreign trade and investments, embracing and developing technology, managing sustainable energy transition, and overcoming the climate change challenges. These aspects are critical because they influence the overall growth rate across the Global South. Therefore, regions across the southern portion of the globe experience similar economic growth and development issues.
Body
One of the vital aspects of economic growth is infrastructure development. The ideology of the concept is that the infrastructure comprises critical aspects such as transportation platforms, communication, and energy systems. Therefore, embracing innovation and investing in these aspects aids overall infrastructure development. The Global South has been experiencing this economic growth issue for various reasons. One of the vital aspects could be better maintenance in the developed regions, such as some parts of Latin America and Oceania. Also, the African and Asian regions experience this issue due to inadequate investments and historical neglect. Therefore, these challenges require critical financial planning and vital governance to overcome them and improve the overall progress of economic development in the Global South (Dash, 2020).
Another critical economic aspect in the Global South includes access to education and healthcare. This issue is a global matter whereby individuals across different regions worldwide have a right to education and healthcare services. As a result, the countries within the Global South have been implementing suitable plans to enhance accessibility to these services. Some countries need help accessing these elements due to poor infrastructure and a lack of amenities, resources, and human capital to deliver the services. As a result, the countries have strategized methods to expand accessibility to rural areas and marginalized communities. Some viable resolutions include increasing public spending to finance amenities and adopting innovative techniques to meet local individuals’ needs and demands.
Foreign investment and trade are essential aspects of economic development in the Global South. This aspect explains employment, technology, market creation, and expansion, among other elements. This aspect is vital in enhancing independence among individuals and decreasing the overreliance on government funding. The significant challenges impacting this aspect are political instability, strict regulations, corruption, and lack of reliable infrastructure. These aspects prevent individuals and the state from effectively growing trade and foreign investments. The vital approach that the countries require to address these elements includes creating investor-friendly markets to attract foreign investors (Greiner, 2014). Also, focusing on developing the suitable infrastructure is suitable for reaching the local businesses.
Moreover, governance structures influence the economic development of a country. The Global South has stable governance to achieve the desired development goals effectively. The originality of the matter is that governance structures define the country’s ability to foster transparency and accountability when handling public resources. These include the finances, strategic plans for development, economic growth, and stability. Some countries in the Global South have a history of bad governance that causes corruption, a lack of institutional capacity, and bureaucratic inefficiency. These elements impact the balance of public resources, leading to slow economic growth across the local and neglected regions. Therefore, the suitable approach to resolving the matter is strengthening governance by promoting accountability, empowerment, and transparency.
Technology is a significant aspect of the contemporary era. The originality of the matter is that innovation makes development progress easy and quick. As a result, technological advancements drive economic developments across different areas globally. The countries in the Global South are embracing these advancements to enhance economic growth effectively. It entails using technology to enhance accessibility to education, healthcare, business investors, and support, among other aspects. The digital divide is a significant challenge impacting the overall technological growth in the Global South, which slows the overall economic growth. Also, the inadequate infrastructure and resources are critical in this aspect. Other critical aspects include insufficient expertise and knowledge of these elements, leading to the slow adoption rate across developing countries.
The Global South is rich in natural resources, including minerals, vast agricultural land, favorable climate, forest, and vegetation, among other elements. As a result, this element is a significant economic contributor to the countries in this region. One of the critical aspects of economic development is sustainable resource management, which entails preventing exploitation, corruption, and lack of accountability among the people in authority. These issues can cause significant economic challenges, including land degradation, deforestation, and unauthorized mining, among other aspects (Brockhaus, 2021). The elements can cause significant conflict and a decline in the overall economic stability across these countries. As a result, the countries in the global south have formulated policies and regulations to govern these resources effectively.
Additionally, economic policies contribute significantly to the overall stability across a region. The ideology of the matter is that countries have varied laws that govern economic factors such as trading, taxation, collaborations, and partnerships, among other aspects. The countries in the Global South have implemented various policies to enhance rapid economic development. These include forming various communities whereby the countries collaborate to enhance knowledge-sharing, services, and business ideologies. These platforms are vital in ensuring social protection, enhancing financial independence, and supporting small and medium-sized companies. These programs aim to reduce poverty, inequality, and social exclusion.
Besides, the countries in the Global South participate in regional cooperation and integration. The element is critical in opening markets for various local businesses. It allows for exports and imports of various products. Cross-border investment is a critical aspect of establishing and maintaining foreign trade effectively. Also, regional integrations foster economic development by enhancing infrastructure developments, eliminating geopolitics and social tensions, enhancing trade treaties, and creating effective employment for local workers. The countries in the Global South have strengthened their political commitment through cooperation, institutional and regional building, and effective decision-making processes (Randolph, 2020). The element plays a critical role in enhancing overall economic development.
Another critical aspect in the contemporary era is the empowerment of women, people living with disability, and marginalized groups. The originality of the matter is that economic development entails the quest for financial independence among the people. As a result, the need to provide suitable platforms for women, people with disabilities, and marginalized groups is critical in meeting the desired economic growth. The countries in the Global South have institutionalized various policies that favor people living with disability, women, and marginalized groups. These countries are strict on these regulations to ensure equity and equality among their citizens. This aspect is vital in eliminating discriminatory practices, supporting entrepreneurship, and opening society to diverse knowledge and ideologies. Therefore, it creates a suitable social platform for sharing knowledge and growing the economy effectively.
Conclusion
The Global South has critical economic development aspects. These elements are vital in fostering growth across different sectors in specific countries. The significant aspects include the countries’ vast agricultural lands, accessibility to education and healthcare services, foreign trade, governance, technology, resource management, regional cooperation, and empowerment. These elements define economic growth and development, its challenges, and various solutions to foster effective growth rates. Governance is crucial in achieving these aspects and ensuring successful business operations. Creating approaches across various economic contributors is vital in building resilient economies that enhance the overall growth across the countries in the Global South.
References
Brockhaus, M., Di Gregorio, M., Djoudi, H., Moeliono, M., Pham, T. T., & Wong, G. Y. (2021). The forest frontier in the Global South: Climate change policies and the promise of development and equity. Ambio, 50, 2238-2255.
Dash, D. P., Behera, S. R., Rao, D. T., Sethi, N., & Loganathan, N. (2020). Governance, urbanization, and pollution: A cross-country analysis of the global south region. Cogent Economics & Finance, 8(1), 1742023.
Greiner, A. L. (2014). Visualizing human geography. (No Title).
Randolph, G. F., & Deuskar, C. (2020). Urbanization beyond the metropolis: Planning for many small places in the global south. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 0739456X20971705.