On 14 November 2024, at the Second “Global South” Think Tank Dialogue, and before an audience of over 400—including scholars from more than 100 think tanks in emerging markets and developing countries (such as Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, and Egypt), party representatives, and delegates from relevant domestic ministries, universities, and research institutes—the Fudan Development Institute formally presented and introduced the research findings of the Global State Development Drivers Index 1990–2023. The report elicited strong interest and animated discussion among the attending “Global South” participants.

In 2021, the Fudan Development Institute first proposed the concept and theory of “state development drivers,” which focuses on the forces that ensure national continuity, promote development, and enhance state strength. After three years of in-depth research, the Institute constructed an indicator system comprising five dimensions—continuity capacity, sociocultural vitality, productive forces, developmental forces, and innovative forces—encompassing a total of 37 metrics. Drawing extensively on national data published by international organizations and leading research institutions, the team compiled the Global State Development Drivers Index 1990–2023 report. Employing principal component analysis, the study examined the annual evolution and cross-sectional comparisons of the development drivers index for 44 countries over the period 1990 to 2023, and calculated how each of the five dimensions changed over these 33 years.

The report finds that, over the past three decades, the overall state development drivers index of the 44 countries has shown an upward trend, though the speed and extent of growth vary markedly, and inter-country differentiation has steadily intensified. Developed countries have exhibited stable growth in their indices—particularly in sociocultural vitality and continuity capacity—while most East Asian economies have achieved significant increases. By contrast, some developing nations, despite certain advantages in enhancing productive forces, have experienced comparatively slower overall progress in development drivers due to a variety of factors. This “North–South gap” is especially pronounced in the changes observed in innovative forces index across the surveyed countries.

Translated by Yuyao ZHAO

Full text in Chinese available at:

https://fddi.fudan.edu.cn/b2/76/c34527a701046/page.htm