The specter of Trotsky is haunting the United Nations. The UN Development Program’s 2013 annual report — boldly titled “The Rise of the South” — gives a glowing account of how uneven and combined development is remaking the world.

Despite “very different endowments, social structures, geography and history” countries like Ghana, China, Algeria, India, Malaysia, Brazil, and Indonesia are all said to be experiencing “rapid people-centered development” made possible by the “rapidly expanding connections” between countries in the South. These connections are creating a more equitable, balanced form of globalization: “Global production is rebalancing in ways not seen for 150 years.”

The ingredient list for this happy story is short: “developmental states,” “tapping global markets,” and “determined social policy innovation.” These factors, we are told, are enabling countries — both large and small — to rewrite global power relationships, leapfrog old barriers, and transform human development. Human wellbeing, according to Human Development Index measures, has increased dramatically since 2000, and not just in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) — nearly every country has seen improvement and the Millennium Development Goal on poverty was met three years early.