Developing South-South cooperation

Political aspects

The political aspects of cooperation have not been overlooked and are well reflected in the report. Thus, one delegation stressed that the fight against the global health crisis and its multiple consequences required concerted political will, solidarity and cooperation. Thus, cooperation between countries of the South had to scale up, strengthen its ambitions, make a qualitative leap and become more effective.

Another delegation argued that in order to recover from the pandemic, it will be imperative to strengthen international cooperation and solidarity. To do this, it is necessary to declare anti-COVID-19 vaccines common goods of humanity and unlock the financial resources necessary to ensure access and equitable distribution to all peoples of the world, while developing the capacities to guarantee their production and distribution in developing countries.

Renewed commitments

In this regard, highlighting their renewed commitment to multilateralism, many delegations noted that a solution to global crises, including the pandemic and climate change, could not be found if countries acted only individually. One delegation referred to Nicolae Titulescu, a twentieth-century Romanian diplomat elected twice President of the League of Nations Assembly, who said that "hardship creates the true brotherhood of nations" . Therefore, this delegation believed that in this time of trial only full solidarity between countries will make it possible to defeat the pandemic on a global scale and achieve the sustainable development goals.

Role of the United Nations

As expected, many delegations highlighted the role of the United Nations development system in promoting South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation and welcomed the strategy on South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation for sustainable development at the level of the whole United Nations system. There was broad agreement among delegations that the UN should play a leading role in promoting South-South cooperation, as multilateralism was the only way to address common challenges and global solidarity and it is necessary for resilience and recovery in order to be able to build back better in a greener approach.

Some representatives from Asia said that at the UN level the challenges posed by the pandemic had given rise to new forms and expressions of solidarity. South-South cooperation was an increasingly important form of cooperation. During the past year, the challenges that had arisen had demonstrated the critical need for South-South cooperation. For example, developing countries received only 0.3% of doses of COVID-19 vaccine, despite the fact that most of the world's population lived in those countries. It was obvious that the model of North-South cooperation was running out of steam because of the reluctance of certain countries of the North to play their rightful role; for example, only six developed countries had honored their commitment to provide 0.7% of their gross national income to developing countries.

What happened next ?

The report summarized above was discussed in detail in October in the Second Committee of the UNGA, whose mandate is focused on economic issues.

During the discussion, the representative of Bangladesh, joining the Group of 77 and China (134 countries), said it was encouraging that new forms of solidarity had emerged among developing countries, given the multidimensional challenges they face. His country had participated in global efforts to strengthen South-South cooperation through knowledge sharing and planned to establish a South-South Knowledge and Innovation Center in Dhaka. According to him, the international community must create a system where the countries of the South can share best practices among themselves, with the financial and technical support of the countries of the North.

A living example of South-South cooperation