#development cooperation

This year’s official theme is “Solidarity, Equity, and Partnership: Unlocking South-South Cooperation to Achieve the SDGs.”

South-South cooperation is a manifestation of solidarity contributing to national well-being, national and collective self-reliance, and the attainment of internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Coming just ahead of the two-day SDG Summit, the commemoration is an opportunity for the Global South to emphasize the needs of various regions and accelerate practical action towards sustainable development targets.

“In our world of deeply connected challenges, South-South cooperation plays a vital role in shaping a brighter future,” said UN Secretary-General António  Guterres.

“The United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation is a powerful reminder that when nations unite, they can overcome obstacles and accelerate sustainable development.”

He said it was “only together” that we can forge a world of shared prosperity, “where cooperation knows no borders.”

Collaborative spirit

Examples of cooperation among the Global South include Cuba's support combatting Ebola in West Africa, the Republic of Congo assisting family farming and school feeding programmes in Brazil, and UNESCO facilitating exchanges between the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu to improve the teaching capacity of educators.

To boost this collaborative spirit, the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), promotes both South-South and triangular cooperation.

Triangular cooperation is a collaboration in which donor countries and multilateral organizations facilitate South-South initiatives through funding, training, management, and providing technological systems, in addition to other forms of support.

Collective self-reliance

South-South cooperation is conducted through a broad framework of collaboration among countries of the Global South in the political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, and technical domains.

Through South-South collaboration, developing countries share knowledge, skills, expertise, and resources to meet their development goals through coordinated efforts.

“From climate action to poverty eradication, from healthcare to education, from trade to digitalisation, solidarity and strong partnerships between developing countries can pave the way for a more equitable and sustainable world,” said Mr. Guterres.

“As we mark the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation, let us recognize this form of collaboration as an essential catalyst for change, embodying solidarity, innovation, and mutual support,” concluded the Secretary-General. 

UNCTAD and its partners have kicked off a three-year global project to help developing countries use a common framework to measure and give more visibility to South-South cooperation.

The project’s first event, organized with Brazil from 11 to 13 July, brought together representatives from 16 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Participants also included economists, statisticians and development experts from over 10 international organizations, including four UN Regional Commissions.

South-South cooperation – when developing countries pool resources or share knowledge, skills and expertise – is a powerful tool that can take many forms.

For instance, Mexico allocated $62 million from 2020 to 2022 for programmes in Honduras and El Salvador that helped improve food security and create jobs for young people, benefitting more than 40,000 people.

Other examples include Brazil and India’s collaboration on satellite technology to monitor deforestation and boost agricultural production, and Colombia and the African Union’s joint projects to empower women through aquaculture in Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa.

“South-South cooperation is key to achieving the 2030 Agenda and became particularly pronounced during the pandemic when countries came together in solidarity,” said Sumeeta Banerji, a policy specialist at the UN’s Office for South-South Cooperation, who participated in the July event, held in Brasilia and online.

An incomplete picture

But historically global development discussions have leaned exclusively on data from cooperation that also involves developed countries or multilateral organizations – or both.

Without reliable data on South-South cooperation, the picture of international development cooperation remains incomplete.

In March 2022, the UN Statistical Commission introduced a new SDG indicator (17.3.1) to measure “additional financial resources mobilized for developing countries from multiple sources.”

It also welcomed a voluntary common framework designed by developing countries to measure South-South cooperation and provide data for the new indicator.

“Now we have a framework that is made by the South for the South,” Brazilian Ambassador Luiza Lopes of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency said.

“This truly is a historic milestone for South-South cooperation,” added Luciana Mendes Santos Servo, president of Brazil’s Institute of Applied Economic Research.

The UN Statistical Commission asked UNCTAD, as a co-custodian of the new SDG indicator, to coordinate with developing countries further work on the framework, including on reporting and capacity-building.

More than a tool

The framework was developed through a sub-group under the UN’s Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators.

The process was inclusive and interactive, and the result reflects the actual practices of the global South – not in the traditional set-up of donor and recipient countries but as equal partners.

“It’s more than just a tool for measurement,” said Ms. Anu Peltola who leads UNCTAD Statistics. “It gives voice for the hope and solidarity of developing countries.”

Mr. Sukhbir Singh, chair of the sub-group that developed the framework, agreed: “For the first time, this framework enables developing countries to tell the story of their development cooperation in numbers and inform South-South cooperation policies with solid data.”

A shared responsibility

Moving ahead, it will be important for participating countries to secure political will and ensure efficient collaboration between government agencies, as data on South-South collaboration will come from many areas, such as health, energy, food security, education and environment.

Also, the scarce resources in many developing countries mean international and regional support will be crucial. Acquiring the national capabilities to consistently collect accurate data is a big task, requiring support from specialized, regional and international organizations.

“The journey ahead may be filled with challenges,” Ms. Peltola said, “but when countries come together with a shared vision, important results can be achieved.”

“It is now the shared responsibility of the UN and the developing countries to make this framework work and tell the story of the global South.”

The United Nations celebrates South-South cooperation every year on September 12th . This year, the day falls just a week before the highly anticipated SDG Summit, offering an opportunity to highlight South-South cooperation’s role in tackling global challenges – and the need to collect more and better data.

The UNCTAD helps countries measure #SouthSouth cooperation. Learn more:

Development cooperation is a key element of the UPU's mission of strengthening universal postal service across regions.

New Zealand Embassy Visits Papua Provincial Government to Discuss Already Established Cooperation

TRIBUN-PAPUA.COM, JAYAPURA – The Provincial Government (Pemprov) of Papua warmly welcomes the visit of the Official of the Embassy of New Zealand, on Papua, which also known as bumi cenderawasih (the land of the bird of paradise). For your information, the New Zealanders diplomat Patrick Fitzgibbon carried out a working visit to the Papua Provincial Government to enhance the cooperation that had…

India’s development cooperation doesn’t come with riders: PM | India News – Times of India

[ad_1]

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi said on Thursday that India’s development cooperationdoes not come with any conditions and that it is also not influenced by political or commercial considerations. Modi was speaking at a virtual ceremony where he and his Mauritius counterpart Pravind Jugnauth together inaugurated the new Supreme Court building of the Indian Ocean country built with Indian…