International Day for South-South Cooperation

International Day for South-South Cooperation

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

More than a year and a half into the pandemic, it is evident that decades of development progress are threatened and that the world is facing an uncertain future shaped by economic and social crises. Global partnership, including through South-South cooperation, is essential to overcome the challenges of the pandemic and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. As we move towards a post-pandemic reality and recovery, South-South cooperation will contribute to breaking the cycle of poverty, instability and development inequalities while promoting the principle of effective ownership of national development strategies.

Given the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and other global crises such as climate change, countries of the South, with the support of partners, including countries of the North, international financial institutions, the private sector, think tanks and other stakeholders, are establishing and strengthening national policies and units or departments to mainstream and bolster South-South and triangular cooperation.

Examples of this collaborative spirit can be found in the response of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation(UNOSSC), the UN focal point for promoting and facilitating South-South and triangular cooperation for development on a global and United Nations system-wide basis. The Office is supporting the countries of the Global South to fight the pandemic and its social and economic fallout through the modalities of South-South and triangular cooperation.

It is clear that South-South cooperation is and will be more important than ever before. For that reason, the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation is spreading awareness of the economic, social and political developments made recently by regions and countries in the South and highlights United Nations efforts to work on technical cooperation among developing countries.

Importance of South-South cooperation

South-South cooperation is done through a broad framework of collaboration among countries of the South in the political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technical domains. Involving two or more developing countries, it can take place on a bilateral, regional, intraregional or interregional basis. Through South-South collaboration, developing countries share knowledge, skills, expertise and resources to meet their development goals through concerted efforts.

Another modality of South-South cooperation is Triangular cooperation, a collaboration in which traditional donor countries and multilateral organizations facilitate South-South initiatives through the provision of funding, training, management and technological systems, as well as other forms of support.

The objectives of South-South Cooperation are to:

• foster and strengthen the self-reliance of developing countries by enhancing their creative capacity to find solutions and technological capacities to their development problems and formulate the requisite strategies to address them;
• promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among developing countries through the exchange of experiences leading to a greater awareness of common problems and wider access to available knowledge;
• recognize and respond to the problems and requirements of the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing States and the countries most seriously affected by, for example, natural disasters and other crises, and enable them to achieve a greater degree of participation in international economic activities.