- With the U.S. rolling back its interest in global security and development, the UN’s prominence has diminished.
- “The EAM’s meetings will focus on issues such as climate change, digital infrastructure, sustainability and South-South cooperation.
- United Nations – On 12 September, the international community commemorated the UN Day for South-South Cooperation.
- This is an important acknowledgement of the contributions of Southern partnerships in addressing the many development challenges that confront the international community, such as poverty, climate change, inequality, contagious diseases and humanitarian crises.
- South-South cooperation is a unique arrangement where two or more developing countries share technical skills, exchange knowledge, transfer technologies, and provide financial assistance
- The term “South”or “Global South” refers to developing countries, which are located primarily in the Southern Hemisphere.
- The Global South includes Asia (with the exception of Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan), Central America, South America, Mexico, Africa, and the Middle East (with the exception of Israel).
- South-South cooperation (SSC) is about developing countries working together to find solutions to common development challenges.
- Linked by similarities in their development contexts and challenges, the countries of the South have been increasingly active in sharing knowledge, exchanging technologies and forming common agenda and collective actions.
- guided by the principles of respect for national sovereignty, equality, non-conditionality, non-interference in domestic affairs and mutual benefit.
- In 1974, the United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution 3251 (XXIX), endorsed the establishment of a special unit within the United Nations Development Programme – United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) – to promote technical cooperation among developing countries and to enhance local capacity in developing countries by supporting local capabilities, institutions, expertise and human resources.
- The formation of SSC can be traced to the Asian–African Conferencethat took place in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1955 which is also known as the Bandung Conference.
- The conference has been largely regarded as a milestone for SSC cooperation.
- One of the key goals of the cooperation is to strengthen and improve economic ties. Some of the areas which these “southern” nations look forward to improving further include joint investment in energy and oil, and a common bank.
- One challenge for South–South cooperation has been the lack of sufficient capital to start a South–South bank as an alternative to the IMFand the World Bank. This has changed with the launch of two new ‘South–South banks’..
- At the sixth summit of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa), in July 2014, the five partners approved the establishment of the New Development Bank(or BRICS Development Bank). It will be based in Shanghai
- the second new bank is the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. It has also been set up to finance infrastructure projects. Spearheaded by China, the bank is based in Beijing.
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