North-South Commission: Panel introduces prominent members

afp/epd | Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and former Costa Rican Laura Chinchilla introduced the members of the newly established North-South Development Commission. The members include World Bank President Ajay Banga, the former Prime Minister of Senegal, Aminata Touré, the former head of USAID and current head of the development policy organization One, Mark Green, the Congolese human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the President of the German Red Cross, Hermann Gröhe.

The commission wants to address, among other things, the financing conditions of states, artificial intelligence (AI) and climate change, as Scholz and Chinchilla announced on Monday in Berlin.

Scholz and Chinchilla co-chair the commission. It “includes leaders of international organizations as well as representatives from all areas of society who contribute outstanding expertise on central issues of international cooperation,” explained the ex-Chancellor. Half of them are women and half men, most of whom come from the global south.

There will be a first meeting of the commission shortly in Bangkok, Scholz said at a press conference. The Commission will determine its priorities and work program there. Several meetings would then take place in different regions of the world. A first interim document is planned for mid-2027. By the end of 2028, the members will work together to develop proposals for new development cooperation.

Scholz named finance as one of the topics of the North-South Commission. “We will have to deal with the financing conditions of states, including companies,” he said. This is a major challenge for many countries. "Some people are not in a position to service their government debts properly. The interest that has to be paid for this is exorbitant," explained Scholz.

Chinchilla mentioned AI and climate change as further topics, but also women's rights, democracy and the rule of law.

The independent North-South Commission, whose establishment was agreed in the coalition agreement between the Union and the SPD, was set up in June. It follows in the tradition of the Independent Commission for International Development Issues, which was headed by former Chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Willy Brandt from 1977 to 1983. She analyzed the increasing economic and social inequalities between countries in the global North and South. The so-called Brandt Commission produced two highly regarded reports.