Origin of The Group of 77
A few weeks before UNCTAD I (Geneva 1964) a small Conference Secretariat met in New York under the leadership of Raul Prebisch, Secretary-General of the Conference.
This Prebisch Report entitled Towards a New Trade Policy for Development quantified the trade gap mentioned above and proposed a series of measures which could bridge the gap.
Prebisch, a market economist was of the opinion that while the market was useful as an efficient allocator of resources it did not aid unequal participants who need the help of benefits and special treatment to be able to function effectively. For example many Latin American countries had juvt got their independence from colonial rule. Prebisch advised the group (which at that time was reluctant to do so) in their own interest to join hands with the Afro-Asians to form a single developing country grouping. In this he was supported by such personalities as Sidney Dell and Vladek Malinowski
Against this background a broad coalition known as the Group of 77 emerged. Originally, this was a group of seventy five countries. Japan (then midway between the developed and developing countries) and New Zealand were signatories to the Joint Declaration setting out the common position together with the other seventy five at the Geneva Conference of 1964.
Although these two countries did not wish to be members of the overall group, the coalition was still designated the Group ot 77. It consisted of Afro-Asian countries and included some Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The Group of 77, which fulfilled its promise to be the major constituency within the United Nations system. was established on 15 June 1964 at the conclusion of the first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Its founding was the result of a collective perception on the part of developing countries that they shared their most common problems and of the recognition of the need for joint action in accordance with the principles and objectives of United Nations Charter, in the face of the inequitable pattern of international economic relations.
Although the membership of G77 has now risen to 132 countries, including China, with the admission of South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina to its ranks in 1994, the original name is still retained because of its historic significance. In 1994. Mexico, one of its founding members, left the Group to join OECD, a Paris-based grouping of industrialized countries of the North.
The evolution of the Group of 77 is intimately linked with the United Nations system and remains a clear manifestation of the importance that the latter attaches to multilateral co-operation.
