Revisiting South-South cooperation

One of the major topics on the agenda of the 79th session of th United Nations General Assembly which started on 10 September 2024 is the State of South-South cooperation to be considered on the basis of a report submitted by the UN Secretary-General. This is a document of 18 pages covering 75 substantive paragraphs which highlights notable developments in which South-South and triangular cooperation played a key role in 2023.

While trying to define the global context of the presentation, the report refers to the collective efforts to take collaborative measures to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic while building resilience in the face of climate change and other development challenges.

But there is also an initial indispensable warning: the need for a rescue plan for people and planet, as only 15 per cent of the Sustainable Development Goal targets are on track to be met by 2030. Under current trends, 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030.

The UN report does not make the necessary nuanced distinction between South-South, Global South and the G77 (in fact, 134 countries and China), as it is the case in specialized literature.

No definition is provided for the frequently used expression "South-South and triangular cooperation", which can be interpreted as a concept in international development and diplomacy that refers to collaboration between developing countries and the involvement of developed countries and multilateral organizations.

However, the report has the merit of mentioning from the very beginning that several countries play a pivotal role in South-South cooperation, including Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa (BRICS).They took measures to enlarge their group, inviting Egypt, Ethiopia, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United Arab Emirates to join the forum at the fifteenth BRICS summit, held in August 2023.

Through South-South cooperation, the expanded forum, which possesses vital food and energy systems in addition to other indispensable value chains, has the potential to contribute to key transitions needed to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.(p.2)

A complex picture

It cannot be denied that amid severe economic setbacks, including crippling debt, the rising cost of living and high borrowing rates, developing countries are assuming leadership roles in global economic governance. Multilateral diplomatic initiatives by South countries are reminded. India (2022), Indonesia (2023), Brazil (2024) and South Africa (2025) have taken on the responsibility of hosting and chairing annual meetings of the Group of 20. Such leadership provides developing countries with the opportunity to take a pivotal role in South-South cooperation and to better voice the interests of the Global South, which could help to reverse the risk of leaving 575 million people in the grip of extreme poverty by 2030, as signaled above . It prefaces policy change to strengthen human solidarity to address pressing crises such as those faced by vulnerable countries, including small island developing States, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and middle-income countries, owing to COVID-19, droughts, floods, violent conflicts and inflation.

The Group of 77 and China (in fact, as already mentioned, 134 countries) intensified its articulation of the priority concerns of the Group, including debt distress, illicit financial flows and the need for reform of the global financial system, as well as for regulation of artificial intelligence and infrastructure development. During the Sustainable Development Goals Summit held in 2023, the Group reiterated its call for the delivery of a Sustainable Development Goal stimulus and urgent reform of the international financial architecture, as proposed by the Secretary-General, to give vulnerable countries a fair chance at a better future. The Group also appealed to Northern developed countries to support the development efforts of the South on technology transfer, capacity development, industrialization and investment in sustainable and resilient infrastructure – a possible boost to transformative triangular cooperation. It continued to advocate for those and related matters in the intergovernmental process in the lead-up to the Summit of the Future, to be held in September 2024.(p.4)

As the present article is focused on Asia , it is appropriate to note that the fifth Asia-Pacific Directors General Forum for South-South and Triangular Cooperation, convened by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), launched a platform known as the South-South Cooperation Connector to foster regional collaboration and networking. In 2023, International Telecommunication Union digital transformation centres in Indonesia and the Philippines held workshops to develop the digital literacy training capacity of trainers, with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, including courses on productivity, entrepreneurship, e-commerce, communication, cyberhygiene, cybersecurity and transformative technologies.(p.6)

UNDP supported the efforts of the Governments of Bangladesh and Uzbekistan in digitalization, fostering knowledge-sharing and regional collaboration, and South-South and triangular cooperation in the digital sector. In addition, UNDP introduced an online knowledge space to share best practices and provide a comprehensive overview of UNDP South-South and triangular cooperation impacts, as well as an innovative data and analytics tool to showcase exemplary UNDP initiatives in SouthSouth and triangular cooperation.(p.6)

The use of digital technology to boost trade among Member States also received increased backing from the United Nations development system. In 2023, the Economic Commission for Europe prepared a policy brief on monitoring progress in the implementation of sustainable digital trade facilitation focused on the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia, namely, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The policy brief enables evidence-based policymaking for the adoption of targeted measures to facilitate cross-border trade.(p.6)