Joint statement of the Second Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77

           We, the representatives of the 96 developing countries, comprising the vast majority of the human race, assembled at the Second Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77, in the City of Lima in Peru, from 25 October to 7 November 1971, to harmonize our positions with a view to the third session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to be held in Santiago, Chile, in April – May 1972, thank the Government and people of Peru for their warm hospitality and the efficient arrangements which have made this Meeting a success.

            We have considered the Bangkok Declaration of the Ministerial Meeting of the Asian Group,¹ the Addis Ababa Declaration of the Ministerial Meeting of the African Group² and the Lima Consensus of the Ministerial Meeting of the Latin American Group.³   And as the result of our consideration of these important documents, and of our substantive agreement concerning the trade and development problems of the world today,

            We invite the attention of the international community and of the peoples and governments of the developed countries of the world to:

            1.   The Declaration⁴ containing our assessment of the present world situation, our approach to international endeavours for accelerating the development process in the developing countries, and the basic principles designed to establish a new structure of international economic relations based on a more just and dynamic international division of labour between developing and developed countries; and

            2.   The Programme of Action⁵ in which we have outlined concrete and specific proposals aimed at solving, through international co-operation, the urgent problems of trade and development so that our countries can achieve self-sustaining growth and attain true economic independence, thereby contributing to the balanced growth of the world economy.

We firmly believe that these objectives cannot be achieved without the full and effective participation of our peoples in the process and benefits of development.

       We are conscious that we are witnessing a profoundly revolutionary movement in the history of the world.  The significance of this moment is made more profound by the fact that we have met on one of the continents which is in a state of ferment in its search for social and economic justice.