8 March 2019: UN Member States agreed on the outcome document of the second High-level UN Conference on South-South Cooperation, which marks the 40th anniversary of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (BAPA+40). The co-facilitators of the informal negotiations placed a final draft of the outcome under silence procedure, which ended on 8 March.

BAPA+40 was mandated by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in order to strengthen South-South cooperation. BAPA+40 will take place from 20-22 March 2019, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Co-facilitators Audra Plepyté, Permanent Representative of Lithuania, and Adonia Ayebare, Permanent Representative of Uganda, circulated the final draft of the BAPA+40 outcome document on 6 March. On 8 March, the UNGA President announced that the silence procedure had not been broken, and a plenary meeting to consider the outcome document will take place during the closing of BAPA+40 on 22 March 2019.

By the draft outcome, in order to step up South-South and triangular cooperation and to “bolster support” for national and regional development efforts towards achieving the 2030 Agenda, governments:

• Call upon all countries and relevant stakeholders to strengthen efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda by promoting the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability, including in all South-South and triangular cooperation policies and activities;
• Call upon multilateral, regional and bilateral financial and development institutions to consider increasing financial resources and technical cooperation to promote South-South and triangular cooperation;
• Call upon the UN development system to assist developing countries in building the human and institutional capacity needed to formulate and implement national development policies, strategies and programmes for South-South and triangular cooperation, and to encourage the transfer of technologies on mutually agreed terms for the benefit of developing countries;
• Urge the UN development system to enhance its assistance to developing countries in seeking potential cooperation partners in strategic areas identified by developing countries, and to act as enablers of the building of these partnerships;
• Call upon Member States to increase the use of triangular cooperation;
• Call upon countries that have established institutions with “world-class expertise” in science, technology and innovation (STI) to consider providing more scholarships to enable students and young scientists, including women and girls, from countries of the South to gain greater access to such institutions for higher studies and research; and
• Encourage Member States to share relevant knowledge, experience and best practices on public-private partnerships (PPPs), including risk assessment, and regulatory frameworks.

Through the text, UN Member States encourage developing countries to develop country-led systems to evaluate and assess the quality and impact of South-South and triangular cooperation programs, and improve data collection at the national level, in order to promote cooperation in the development of methodologies and statistics on South-South cooperation.

The draft outcome encourages all actors to support initiatives for information and data collection of South-South cooperation, upon the request of developing countries. In that regard, governments invite interested developing countries to engage in consultations – within the regional commissions, relevant intergovernmental fora on South-South and triangular cooperation, or regional organizations – on non-binding voluntary methodologies. [BAPA+40 Draft Outcome Document] [UNGA President’s Letter, 7 March] [UNGA President’s Letter, 8 March] [SDG Knowledge Hub story on BAPA+40 preparations]