UNDP partnered with the Governments of Qatar and Uganda to promote development cooperation and South-South and triangular cooperation, at two consecutive events in New York.
In his remarks, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner drew attention to the organization's support for partnerships among countries in the global South, including through a platform for exchanging development solutions, the SSMart.
25 September 2017: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) partnered with the Governments of Qatar and Uganda to promote development cooperation and South-South and triangular cooperation, at two consecutive events in New York, US. In his remarks, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner drew attention to the organization’s support for partnerships among countries in the global South, including through a platform for exchanging development solutions, the SSMart.
At the Qatar-led event on development cooperation, UNDP Administrator Steiner noted that cooperation has evolved from being North-South, donor-recipient relationships, to becoming multi-stakeholder partnerships that hold greater promise for achieving the “bold ambition” of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He highlighted UNDP’s long-standing support for South-South solutions, citing, as examples: the ‘SSMart’, a platform for peer-to-peer exchanges supported by the Republic of Korea; the SDG Philanthropy Platform; and UNDP’s Istanbul International Centre on Private Sector in Development, which has prepared a ‘Group of 20 (G20) Inclusive Business Framework’ that seeks to include low-income earners in formal business networks.
Steiner further noted UNDP’s support for the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), a multi-stakeholder platform that has supported country-led monitoring of development cooperation in more than 80 countries. He acknowledged the large scale of financing that will be needed for implementing the 2030 Agenda and welcomed the increasing alignment of private-sector investment with sustainability objectives, citing figures from the Global Impact Investing Network that suggest 60% of impact investors are aligning their portfolios to the SDGs. He also welcomed the recent creation of the multi-stakeholder Global Alliance on Reporting on SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) and related targets, chaired by Qatar and co-facilitated by UNDP. Also on SDG 16, he shared many examples of UNDP’s support for promoting peaceful and inclusive societies in post-conflict and crisis-ridden situations, including in Iraq and South Sudan.
At the Uganda-led event, Adonia Ayebare, Ambassador of Uganda to the UN and President of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, emphasized that developing countries are in a unique position to share and scale up ‘powerful and cost-efficient’ development solutions.
UNOSSCC and UNDP have worked to connect a network of more than 200 think-tanks in countries in the global South.
Jorge Chediek, Director of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), drew attention to UNOSSCC’s work with UNDP to connect a network of more than 200 think-tanks in countries in the global South. UNOSSC is organizing the second High-level UN Conference on South-South Cooperation, which will take place in March 2019, 40 years after the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action.
Steiner highlighted UNDP’s role in helping countries bridge the “knowledge gap” through South-South partnerships, mentioning, as examples: establishment of Lesotho’s Human Rights Commission through a partnership with the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights and the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions; a Serbia-Kyrgyzstan partnership for investigating violence against women, and India-led solar power projects in other countries through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme. He urged all present to make full use of the SSMart to scale up solutions from South countries to accelerate achievement of the SDGs.
The events convened on the sidelines of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) annual General Debate and Global Goals Week in New York, which is organized annually in September. [UNDP Administrator Remarks at the Development Cooperation Event] [UNDP Press Release on South-South and Triangular Cooperation Event] [UNDP Administrator Remarks at the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Event] [SSMart Website]