THE TOTAL NUMBER OF COUNTRIES UNDER THE NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT AND THE G-77 IS NOT 256 AS SUGGESTED!
The Claim
This infographic shared by Alysha Kizito on social media platform X also known as Twitter, has information claiming that Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni holds two international positions. One is being the Chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement consisting of 121 countries and the other is being the Chairperson of the Third South Summit or G77 consisting of 134 countries and China.
This graphic suggests now that the Ugandan president being the chairperson of both these forums, leads 256 countries in total. The claimant goes ahead to congratulate the president for “doing well”, a sentiment shared by other people who as well retweeted this post here, here, and here.
The claim comes at a time when Uganda has just recently finished hosting the Non-aligned movement and G77 & China conventions respectively.
Fact Check.
First, the Non-Aligned Movement is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It was found with the view of advancing the interests of developing countries in the context of the Cold War confrontation happening at the time. The Non-Aligned Movement is the second largest group of states representing more than half of the World’s population.
The leadership of the NAM changes every 3 years And the country that hosts the NAM Summit automatically takes over leadership of the movement. The last country to chair the NAM was Azerbaijan from 2019 to 2023.
The G77 & China (Third South Summit) was established by seventy-seven developing countries signatories of the Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Developing Countries with the aim of working together in Trade and Development as a significant step towards creating a new and just world economic order. This was issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
The number has since increased from the initial 77 to 134 with new entrants, but the name G-77 remains.
The Facts
What is accurate is President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda is the Chairman of both the NAM and G77. He was officially entrusted with these positions during 19th NAM meeting from 15th to 20th January 2024, followed by the G77 summit on the 21st-22nd January 2024, all happening in Uganda’s capital Kampala. an event that garnered more than 100 delegates from the various member states.
What is inaccurate, however, is the total number of countries mentioned in the infographic. The total number of countries is not 256 as stated. This is because some signatories of NAM are also part of the G77 and China, for instance, Uganda, Kenya, Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Philippians, Rwanda, Senegal, Mali, Azerbaijan, and Zimbabwe among others. This means that they cannot be accounted independently to make a total of 256.
Also, some other countries are not signatories in NAM but only have “Observers” at the forum.
Factoring in that the total number of countries in the world is 195 makes it inaccurate to have 256 as the total number of countries under the chairmanship of Mr Museveni which is to go up to the year 2027 for NAM and 2025 for the G77.
Just for clarity, the leadership of NAM isn’t bestowed on the Person of the President, but rather the office he holds( office of the presidency). This means that even if Yoweri Museveni was not the president of Uganda, the individual serving as the president would be chair of the Movement.
Verdict.
The total number on the infographic is inaccurate but Uganda’s president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is indeed chairman of both NAM and G77.