Special Unit for South-South Cooperation South-South Cooperation: Meeting Development Challenges with Southern Solutions South-South cooperation helps developing countries learn how best to apply successful policies and practices in a context that reflects their national priorities.... United Nations agencies, funds and programmes must better coordinate their activities, particularly in the area of South-South cooperation, to address development challenges that are beyond the capacity of any one country to tackle alone. Ban Ki-moon United Nations Secretary-General developmentally-focused South-South flows of finance, technology, and know-how must be recognized and further encouraged as an increasingly important dimension of development cooperation. Developing countries have many lessons learned and useful technologies which can assist their peers to meet their development challenges. UNDP and other UN development system agencies are committed to facilitating the sharing of these experiences and supporting South-South cooperation. Helen Clark UNDP Administrator South-South cooperation is a growing and dynamic phenomenon. From promoting technical cooperation among developing countries, a few decades ago, the idea of South-South Cooperation has come a long way. It is an important process that is vital to confront the challenges faced by developing nations, and is also making an increasingly important contribution to their development. Most importantly, it is a manifestation of solidarity, a manifestation of the collective self-reliance of the developing countries. Mr. Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad Chairman of the Group of 77 Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Sudan to the United Nations
Message The Special Unit for South-South Cooperation is firmly committed to seeing the potential of the South converted into energy sources for sustainable development with innovation and creativity. Rooted at the intersection of creativity, technology, partnership and resources, the Special Unit serves as the epicenter of efforts to bring South-South solutions to bear on reducing poverty, feeding the hungry, creating jobs and sharing experience, knowledge and technology. The Special Unit for South-South Cooperation captures the imagination of the South. I invite you to join us in partnership and explore the possibilities. Yiping Zhou Director Special Unit for South-South Cooperation What we ARe The Special Unit for South-South Cooperation was established by the United Nations General Assembly in UNDP in 1978. Its primary mandate is to promote, coordinate and support South-South and triangular cooperation for development on a global and United Nations system-wide basis. The Special Unit: n Receives policy directives and guidance from the General Assembly and its High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation (HLC), which meets every two years. The HLC is a Committee of all Member States and a subsidiary body of the General Assembly that sets the policies and directions and reviews worldwide progress in South-South cooperation; n Serves as the Secretariat of the HLC; it prepares all substantive reports, including the report of the Secretary-General on the State of South-South Cooperation, for submission to the HLC and the General Assembly; n Organizes the General Assembly-proclaimed United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation celebrated on 19 December each year; n Manages the United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation, the Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund (PGTF) (with the Group of 77), and the IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation; n Implements programmes financed by UNDP and partners such as China and Japan. The First UN Conference on South-South Cooperation 1978, Buenos Aires South-South Cooperation South-South cooperation is a broad framework for collaboration among countries of the South in the political, economic, social, environmental and technical domains. Involving two or more developing countries, South-South cooperation takes place on bilateral, regional, subregional and interregional bases. Recent developments in South-South cooperation have taken the form of increased volumes of South-South trade, movements towards regional integration, South- South flows of foreign direct investment and technology transfer, as well as various forms of exchanges. triangular Cooperation Traditional donor countries and international organizations increasingly support South-South initiatives through partnerships known as triangular cooperation.
What We Do The Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SU/SSC), through its cooperation framework 2009-2011 approved by the UNDP Executive Board in 2008, committed to transform, consolidate and institutionalize all of its previous initiatives and existing institutional assets into an integrated and mutually reinforcing multilateral South-South cooperation support architecture. The architecture operates in response to the policy directives given to the Special Unit by its governing body, the Highlevel Committee on South-South Cooperation of the General Assembly, concerning the UN system coordination and global support to Member States regarding SSC. It also receives guidance from the Secretary-General and the Chair of the UN Development Group. The Special Unit s support to UNDP is also guided by the UNDP Executive Board. The support architecture is composed of the following elements: MULTILATERAL SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION SUPPORT ARCHITECTURE 1
MULTILATERAL SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION SUPPORT ARCHITECTURE GSSD ACADEMY (PRODUCE) GLOBAL SOUTH-SOUTH DEVELOPMENT ACADEMY (GSSD ACADEMY) Enables development partners to systematically identify, document and catalogue development solutions for global validation and mutual learning: The GSSD Academy operates through a broad institutional partnership and a uniformed methodology and system which include a broad-based peer review and validation process. The Academy aims to identify, document and catalogue Southern-grown development solutions and expertise. This platform also offers a common Experts Roster Domain that enables partner organizations and countries to create and manage their own expert rosters. Current efforts include consolidation of Southern centres of excellence in South-South and triangular cooperation and cross-cutting issues such as oil and gas, the creative economy and taxation. To join the GSSD Academy, go to http://ssc.undp.org/ss-academy GSSD EXPO (MARKET) GLOBAL SOUTH-SOUTH DEVELOPMENT EXPO (GSSD EXPO) Enables development partners to showcase successful and scalable development solutions to the broader community for partnership-building: The GSSD Expo is a global and UN-wide annual event held in conjunction with the celebrations of the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation (19 December) that was proclaimed by the General Assembly in 2004. It creates the opportunity for interested governments, UN organizations, the private sector (especially members of the Global Compact) and NGOs (especially with ECOSOC consultative status) to showcase their solutions and build innovative partnerships around the most promising transferable and scalable experiences to a broader audience. To join the GSSD Expo, go to http://ssc.undp.org/gssd-expo SOUTH-SOUTH GLOBAL ASSETS AND TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGE (SS-GATE) SS-GATE (TRANSFER) Enables development partners to list the most scalable solutions and technologies for partnership-building, resource mobilization and actual transfer. SS-GATE is a transaction platform enabling the listing of Southern technologies and development solutions as socially investable proposals. The aim of this transparent, market-driven mechanism is to attract social investment from public financing institutions, private companies (especially members of the Global Compact), individuals, philanthropic organizations and NGOs (especially those with ECOSOC consultative status). SS-GATE has 4 transactional tracks: Technology Exchange; Human Development Investment Exchange (HDSX); Creative Economy; Climate Change. To join SS GATE, go to http://ssc.undp.org/ss-gate
These bold and transformational experiments represent the special unit s concrete response to the strong commitment made by the secretary-general and the chair of the undg, The undp administrator, to help the un system and the global south as well as all other partners interested in engaging in south-south and triangular cooperation initiatives to effectively translate the dynamics and potential of southsouth cooperation into real gains for all developing countries. Our Mission AND Mandate To promote and support South-South & Triangular Cooperation globally and within the United Nations system as a development agenda and inclusive partnership approach towards achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals. As a promoter and convener, we support the General Assembly and its High-level Committee on SSC and other relevant intergovernmental bodies to make informed decisions about South-South cooperation. Major instruments include: n the biennial report of the Secretary-General on the State of South-South Cooperation to the General Assembly; n the annual South Report; n the annual United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation; n the annual Global South-South Development Expo. As a facilitator and broker, we help development partners to identify, produce and disseminate Southern development knowledge, experiences, expertise and technological solutions for South-South capacity development. One major instrument is an interactive South-South development solutions gateway, to be known as the Global South-South Development Academy. Through this Academy, partners can: n conduct joint research and publication of the Sharing Innovative Experiences series; n document development solutions for sharing and mutual learning; n organize capacity-needs matching exercises; n create and maintain rosters of experts. As an innovator and collaborator, we develop innovative mechanisms to enable partners to undertake South-South exchanges of development knowledge, experiences, expertise and technologies. One such mechanism is the South-South Global Assets and Technology Exchange (SS-GATE), through which partners can conduct or support South-South exchanges of knowledge and technologies in such key areas as food security, public health, clean and renewable energy, oil and gas, climate change, and the creative economy, and invest in other human development initiatives. South-South Cooperation: Meeting Development Challenges with Southern Solutions
HOW TO PARTNER WITH US The Special Unit works with all partners in development efforts, including all organizations and agencies of the UN system, governments and the private sector in both the North and the South as well as NGOs and civil society organizations and the general public. Those who are keenly interested in joining our efforts are encouraged and invited to form strategic partnerships with us in one or more of the following ways: n As an institutional partner (member) of our multilateral support architecture; n As a substantive partner (in-kind or technical support); n As a programme executing agency or implementing agent; n As a co-sponsor of our South-South events; n As a volunteer advocate for South-South cooperation; n As a financial contributor through the UN Fund for South-South Cooperation. CONTACT US AT: Special Unit for South-South Cooperation 304 E. 45th St., FF-1214 New York, New York 10017 Tel: (+1 212) 906-6944/5737 Fax: (+1 212) 906-6429/6352 E-mail: southsouth@undp.org Website: http://ssc.undp.org/ DIVISIONS: n Office of the Directorate; n Division of Policy Dialogue and Advocacy; n Division of Partnership and Resource Mobilization; n Division of Programme and Knowledge Management; n Regional Support Units: n Africa; n Asia and Pacific. UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME UNDP is the UN s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. It is on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and its wide range of partners.