Lebohang Liepollo Pheko tells how alternatives to neoliberal consumption are being built in the Global South even as Trumps’ America charges around.
As Trump-era tariffs spiral into renewed trade chaos, devastating economies in the Global South and reigniting debates on economic sovereignty, we must ask—was there genuinely no alternative to neoliberalism?
I first heard the phrase “There is no alternative” as a child—intoned by economists and politicians as though it were cast in stone. The “it” referred to Western neoliberal capitalism: deregulate, privatise, liberalise, shrink the state. Rinse. Repeat. Prosper.
Some of the most grounded and courageous economic alternatives are being reimagined beyond the Global North.
But decades later, we have inherited a world more fractured than ever. Billionaires launch rockets while many lack access to clean water. Markets are revered, yet mental health, social relationships, education, and ecosystems suffer.
So, was there truly no alternative? Spoiler: there have always been. Today, some of the most grounded and courageous economic alternatives are being reimagined beyond the Global North.
The state strikes back
Remember when the state used to do things? Like building roads, funding hospitals, and guaranteeing workers’ rights? That’s the spirit of Keynesianism—a model where governments don’t just referee markets, but actively intervene to stabilise economies and protect people.
States can, when accountable, be engines of redistribution.
Launched in 2003, Ghana’s NHIS remains one of the most comprehensive publicly funded health insurance programmes in West Africa. Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), funded by taxes and premiums, now provides coverage for millions. It reaffirms that states can, when accountable, be engines of redistribution (see box, Ghana: public health as a right).
How It Works
Funding sources – a hybrid model combining a 2.5% VAT levy (the National Health Insurance Levy), payroll taxes from formal employment, and annual premiums for informal sector workers.
Coverage Scope – the NHIS covers about 95% of common diseases in Ghana, including malaria, maternal health, and chronic conditions.
Free Access – vulnerable groups—children under 18, the elderly over 70, pregnant women, and the extremely poor—receive fully subsidised coverage.
Results
- 40% of the population is currently enrolled
- 95% of disease conditions are covered
- Maternal health access has improved by over 30% in rural areas
- Out-of-pocket expenses fell by up to 50% among low-income households
Critics point to funding delays and inequities in access. Still, civil society actors such as the Universal Access to Healthcare Campaign Coalition emphasise NHIS as “a rare example of redistributive state action in West Africa.”
Despite challenges, NHIS remains a Keynesian counter-example, affirming that state-led, rights-based health systems are viable in Africa when grounded in equity and public accountability.
In 2008, Namibia trialled Africa’s first universal basic income pilot in Otjivero-Omitara. The results werestriking: school dropout rates fell, nutrition improved, and petty crime dropped by over 40%. Although later defunded, the pilot demonstrated that cash transfers can serve as a form of redistributive justice, rather than charity, and sparked a national and regional debate on income floors and social protection.
These were not nostalgia projects — they were bold acts of economic resistance.
National developmentalism – growing on our own terms
In the 1960s, South Korea and Taiwan disregarded free-market orthodoxy. Instead, they safeguarded industries, subsidised key sectors, and established their own terms. The result? Rapid development and rising wages.
Brazil, under Lula da Silva, fused cash-transfer programs with infrastructure investment, lifting millions from poverty while resisting IMF dogma.
In Tunisia after 2011, post-revolution leaders resisted neoliberal prescriptions by expanding public services such as housing and unemployment support. These were not nostalgia projects — they were bold acts of economic resistance.
South-South cooperation – trade without exploitation
Trade need not imply domination. New forms of multilateralism emphasise equity, sovereignty, and solidarity.
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has the potential to establish fair intra—African trade if driven by social movements. Organisations like SEATINI and the Africa Trade Network advocate for smallholder farmers and women traders and oppose predatory Economic Partnership Agreements.
In Latin America, ALBA exemplifies solidarity economics by prioritising public health, food security, and education above market competition.
In Senegal, the youth-led uprisings of 2024 against digital repression fostered civic technology developed by the people. Activists established open-source platforms for organising and exposing corruption, nurturing a vision for post-neoliberal, people-powered digital economies (see box, Senegal – tech democracy)
Impact
- Enabled encrypted peer-to-peer messaging and information sharing during government-imposed internet shutdowns.
- Built alternative local cloud servers for storing movement media, bypassing data storage monopolies by Google, Meta, and AWS.
- Offered digital commons licenses to ensure community ownership of knowledge, art, and media, resisting the commodification of culture.
- Allowed real-time reporting during protests despite shutdowns.
- Bypassed Western media gatekeeping, with stories reaching international audiences through direct-to-community channels.
Outcomes
Built transnational solidarity by linking with digital activists in Sudan, Ghana, and the DRC. Platform co-ops generated new livelihood pathways while rejecting exploitative gig models. They offered dignified work, especially for unemployed youth and women, bypassing elite-owned tech start-ups and venture capital gatekeepers. By designing in Wolof, Pular, and Serer—rather than defaulting to French or English—these tools challenge linguistic imperialism and restore cultural memory. The rise of these technologies pressured the state to review digital surveillance laws. It led to a Digital Rights Charter, co-authored by activists and legal scholars, now used as a blueprint across West Africa.
Cancel the debt, rebuild the future
Can we name the elephant in the room – debt colonialism?
Many Southern nations find themselves ensnared in cycles of debt incurred under dictatorships or exacerbated by interest, having been repaid numerous times. Jubilee South calls not for rescheduling—but for cancellation.
Trade agreements disproportionately harm women through privatisation, loss of land, and informal labour.
In Argentina, debt resistance movements are challenging IMF-imposed austerity and demanding democratic control over financial policy. The New Bretton Woods Movement and the Gender and Trade Coalitionexpose how global trade rules favour corporations and call for transparent, people-centred alternatives.
Feminist economies – centring care, not extraction
A quiet revolution is underway: feminist trade justice.
Groups like Akina Mama wa Afrika, NAWI, and South Feminist Futures critique how trade agreements disproportionately harm women through privatisation, loss of land, and informal labour. But they go further, proposing radically different economies grounded in collective care, ecological balance, and intersectional justice.
Movements like La Via Campesina, with strong feminist leadership, champion agroecology as both gender-just and climate-resilient, challenging extractive, industrial agriculture.
Plural visions of wellbeing
These alternatives reject GDP as the sole measure of success. They ask: What if wellbeing meant relational wealth, land stewardship, and collective autonomy?
Bolivia’s Buen Vivir, along with national development plans in Botswana, Malawi, and South Africa, emphasise community power, social redistribution, and reciprocal economies. Although sometimes hindered by inconsistent implementation strategies and technical mobilisation, these concepts are not utopian; they are already underway.
Not just reform
From community-owned telecoms in the Eastern Cape to food sovereignty in Latin America, feminist economies in the Pacific, and trade justice movements across African countries, Southern-led alternatives are not waiting for validation.
The failures of neoliberalism are undeniable. The real question is: when will Western powers cede space and influence to the African, Asian, and Latin American voices that have never ceased imagining and building something better despite the ever-shifting onslaught of neoliberalism? As Trump revives racism and economic aggression cloaked in patriotism — through reckless tariffs and renewed trade wars — the Majority World must not return to manufactured dependency.
