5 December 2017
South-South Expo Launches Collaborative Initiatives for 2030 Agenda
Community engagement in Piprasi Block, Bihar, India | NRMC
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The Expo showcased how South-South cooperation can support SDG achievement by sharing technologies, facilitating trade and investment and enhancing productivity capacity.

The India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation released a report that illustrates how the three countries are helping LDCs to tackle poverty and hunger, improve access to health care, increase rural electrification, and promote waste water management, among other projects.

IFAD, UNFPA and partners launched the 'Youth for the South' initiative to empower young leaders in the global South to become agents of change.

30 November 2017: Participants at the Global South-South Development Expo 2017 launched initiatives and publications on South-South cooperation to help countries make progress on the SDGs. According to the UN, over 90 institutional and individual partners expressed interest in nine initiatives, and six publications were launched.

The Government of Turkey hosted the Expo with the coordination of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). The Expo, which convened in Antalya, Turkey, from 27-30 November 2017, focused on the theme, ‘South-South Cooperation in the Era of Economic, Social and Environmental Transformation: Road to the 40th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA+40).’

In opening remarks, the UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu, reflected that the 2030 Agenda’s central promise to leave no one behind will “be elusive if [these] 91 countries … remain at the bottom of the development ladder.” Magdy Martínez-Solimán, UNDP, called for South-South and triangular cooperation that “creates jobs, strengthens trade, improves technology, promotes regional integration and benefits all countries involved.” He underscored the role of such alliances in tackling the SDGs and addressing uneven development gains, and highlighted the potential to leverage large, complex sets of big data to accelerate SDG achievement.

Participants also discussed how to transfer science, technology and innovation (STI) among developing countries. ‘Utoikamanu said the UN Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries should promote the integration of LDCs into the global knowledge-based economy and facilitate technology transfer among countries. Others highlighted the role of big data in addressing development solutions, including by providing more precise information for development planning, and strengthening cities’ resilience against climate change. On trade, participants recognized that South-South cooperation has contributed to increasing trade between emerging economies, investors, sources of technological innovations and providers of development cooperation. The Expo also addressed challenges related to declining official development assistance (ODA), with several speakers stressing that South-South cooperation is only a complement to North-South cooperation.

The India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation (the IBSA Fund) released its annual report, which shares how the three countries facilitate the exchange of ideas, resources and technologies among the LDCs. The UNOSSC established the IBSA Fund in 2004. The Fund supports projects addressing access to safe drinking water, food security, and global health challenges such as HIV/AIDS, among other issues. In Fiji, the Fund teaches women about climate change adaptation and mitigation and how to manufacture rocket cookstoves, so that they can switch to more sustainable forms of cooking.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the Financial Center for South-South Cooperation, the Union for the Mediterranean and other partners launched an initiative to empower young leaders in the global South to become agents of change. The initiative titled, ‘Scaling Up Southern Solutions for Sustainable Development Through Advanced Youth Leadership’, also known as ‘Youth for the South,’ aims to provide young leaders with hands-on training to promote transformational change in their communities and countries, and to identify and adapt successful solutions.

The three Rome-based agencies presented a roadmap to strengthen their efforts to achieve SDG 2 in the global South.

IFAD, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) presented a roadmap to strengthen the three Rome-based agencies’ (RBA) collective efforts in the global South to achieve SDG 2 (zero hunger). The roadmap builds on a 2016 framework of collaboration for the RBA to deliver on the 2030 Agenda through more systematic collaboration. In the roadmap, the agencies identify shared priorities on South-South and triangular cooperation, and commit to enhancing coordinated efforts to ensure ‘zero hunger’ by 2030.

The South-South Global Thinkers initiative, a coalition of think tank networks for South-South cooperation to advance thought leadership, launched an online platform to support the exchange and sharing of knowledge, and promote collaboration on joint research. The initiative held a Board Meeting at the Expo to inform global policy dialogues on South-South and triangular cooperation.

Also during the Expo, a High-Level Forum of National Directors-General for Development Cooperation discussed the preparatory process of the Second UN High-Level Conference on South-South Cooperation. The Government of Argentina will host the Conference in March 2019, which marks 40 years since the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (BAPA+40). [UN Press Release in Advance of Expo] [UN Press Release on Youth for the South] [UN Press Release on IBSA Fund] [IFAD Press Release] [UN Press Release on OHRLLS Statement] [UNDP Statement] [UNDP Statement on Big Data] [UN Press Release on Expo Closing] [Expo Website] [IBSA Fund Report]


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