ABSTRACT
The post-Cold War period has witnessed major power shifts with the fulcrum of economic development beginning to move towards the South. The immediate aftermath of the Cold War left the political and economic power concentrated in the West. The dominance of the Western institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, indicated that the West was generally writing the rules of global governance. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), written after the Cold War, were crafted by the Western countries for the developing world, which included large parts of Asia and Africa. The MDGs that were set to be achieved by 2015 did serve the purpose of providing a framework of thinking and actions with the objectives of reducing poverty and driving social development. Taking the framework forward, the United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on September 25, 2015 (United Nations, 2015: A/RES/70/1) covering economic and social development, as well as environment protection, with the overarching goal of poverty eradication. These goals were far more ambitious and their fulfillment would demand a more coordinated approach between the North and the South and also South–South cooperation.
