Solidarity and south-south cooperation

The 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), scheduled to open on 5 September 2023, has as official theme with the topic entitled "Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all".

After the end of the Cold War, multilateral diplomacy tried hard to convince the world community that the duty of solidarity is an imperative prerequisite of globalisation with a human face. Yet, on a planet characterised by global crises, global vulnerabilities, perplexities and discontinuities, this humanistic message could not be accepted on a consensus basis. Moreover, as recently reminded by the former UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon "The great tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the failure of multilateralism and the absence of solidarity between the Global North and the Global South."

This tragedy becomes obvious if we treat world cooperation as a process in which solidarity is expected to function as a vital organ. If the value of solidarity is absent (or insufficient), world cooperation suffers. Knowing that, the Group of 77 and China (135 countries) strongly promoted the view that South-South cooperation is a manifestation of solidarity among peoples and countries of the South that contributes to their national well-being, national and collective self-reliance, and the attainment of internationally agreed development goals, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The members of the Group clearly stated that the South-South cooperation between developing countries is not a substitute for but is complementary to North-South cooperation with developed industrialized states.

Under the United Nations system there is a high-level committee on South-South cooperation. It has a mandate to support South-South and triangular cooperation, in order to bolster human solidarity and accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda, containing the Sustainable Development Goals in the Global South and beyond. This high-level committee met in New York on 30 May - 2 June 2023. This diplomatic event was ignored by mass media. Fortunately, the documentation of its session is available and will be considered during the 78^th session of the UNGA.

In a special decision, the High-level Committee reaffirmed the strong global commitment to address the challenge of financing and creating an enabling environment at all levels for sustainable development in the spirit of global partnership and solidarity.

In the same decision, inspired by the Group of 77 and China, the committee reaffirmed that South-South cooperation is an important element of international cooperation for development, as a complement to, not a substitute for, North-South cooperation. It recognized its increased importance, different history and particularities, stressing that South-South cooperation should be seen as an expression of solidarity among peoples and countries of the South, based on their shared experiences and objectives. The committee reiterated that it should continue to be guided by the principles of respect for national sovereignty, national ownership and independence, equality, non-conditionality, non-interference in domestic affairs and mutual benefit.

Substantive deliberations

During the session of the high-level committee, national delegates were informed about numerous actions and initiatives undertaken by the UN development system as part of an ongoing search to expand multilateral solidarity through South-South and triangular cooperation in support of the 2030 Agenda.

We will selectively summarize some ideas expressed during the session with emphasis on the value of solidarity.

If in past years the COVID-19 pandemic was at the forefront of concerns, in 2023 the Committee emphasized the importance of interdependence, solidarity, multilateralism and equity in addressing the potential future pandemics, but also other crises. These include the climate change crisis, economic and gender inequalities, challenges posed by the war in Ukraine and other conflicts that have caused inflation, food and energy shortages, debt and an immigration crisis.

The consequences of such crises have underlined the important role that South-South cooperation can play to address the deteriorating conditions for millions of people of the Global South. According to the Multidimensional Poverty Index of 2022, 1.2 billion people in 111 developing countries live in acute multidimensional poverty and half of them are children under the age of 18.

Among other matters, additional attention is also necessary to better identify the kinds of funding and institutional support required to confront the development challenges at the individual country level that can best be supported by governments and the private sector through South-South and triangular cooperation.

In all situations, the multifaceted challenges facing developing countries will continue to require a stronger and more visible commitment to multilateralism and solidarity in order to help those countries and communities that are the least able to help themselves.

At the multilateral level, the UN entities are expected to leverage further the benefits offered by South-South and triangular cooperation alongside more traditional forms of development cooperation, notably in improved alignment to address local conditions based on cross-country or cross-regional similarities. In practical terms, the ongoing challenges facing the global South demand concerted, bold and measurable actions that Member States should articulate at the future upcoming global summits towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

The current unprecedented global crises going on eight years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development demonstrate the fact that decades of development gains have been undermined and, in some cases, reversed.

Under such serious circumstances, international cooperation and global solidarity have never been more necessary than now to face the existing challenges and to bring the developing countries back on track to achieve the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals. The projected risk of not meeting the goals by 2030 was treated as an overwhelming concern among delegations, motivating most of the remedial proposals that delegations put forward.

The delegation of Thailand informed about its close work with the United Nations, especially with the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) to advance South-South and triangular cooperation. The close working relationship was reflected and highlighted by the co-hosting of the 11th Global South-South Development Expo(GSSD Expo) between Thailand, UNOSSC, and ESCAP, in Bangkok, last year in September. This GSSD EXPO brought together over five-thousand participants from Member States and development partners across the world to share their best practices, new initiatives, and innovative solutions to address development challenges.

Earlier this year, on 27 March, Thailand and the UN Country Team announced the launch of three South-South and triangular cooperation development projects on organic agriculture, maternal healthcare, midwifery, adolescent pregnancy, as well as global health diplomacy. These projects involve development partners from the UN system, the countries of the Global South in the Asia-Pacific; and the European Union – qualified diplomatically as "our long-standing triangular partner".

The Philippines declared that it remains "in resolute solidarity with the Global South towards an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future".

Other delegations argued that, more than at any other time, countries currently needed effective international cooperation and genuine global solidarity that is at the heart of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of South-South cooperation. Accordingly, those delegations agreed with the recommendations of the UN Secretary-General calling for the urgent rethinking of how to scale up South-South and triangular cooperation to enhance the capacities of developing countries for implementing the 2030 Agenda.

Delegates from Arab countries described how the Islamic Development Bank played a catalytic role and bolstered collaborative solidarity among its member countries through its South-South cooperation mechanism called "reverse linkage", which it used to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, expertise and resources among its member countries.

There was also a general call for greater solidarity to address inequalities, poverty, hunger and other challenges because of the decline of countries' performance on the human development index in 2021 and 2022 after 30 years of continuous increases. The world needed increased financing for sustainable development to achieve development goals through solidarity to ensure well-being for everyone. At the same time, it was necessary to eliminate the widening of the digital divides to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. There was also a need to leverage innovations and the youth of the Global South as well as technology and other homegrown solutions as a critical part of the measures essential to a new era of international development cooperation.

Conclusion

The whole session of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation highlighted the necessity for strengthening cooperation mechanisms, promoting public goods, ensuring gender parity, sharing good practices, and bolstering funding mechanisms based on solidarity. Specific proposals included applying South-South cooperation to foster debt-for-climate swaps that can free-up financial resources so that governments can improve national resilience without abandoning other development priorities.

According to the relevant reports of the session, interregional South-South initiatives supported by the UNDP and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation "have become the premier expression of solidarity among developing countries". This is not enough. There is an urgent need for national and regional authorities to strengthen the existing initiatives through pooled human and financial resources, and collaborative implementation of the related agreements and programmes.

Let's hope that the 78^th session of the UN General Assembly will stimulate this process guided by a refreshed spirit of solidarity.