E-discussion: UNOSSC Global Report on South-South and Triangular Cooperation

One of the biggest challenges in the Global South is urbanisation generally, and mobility specifically. We have worked with UN-Habitat to hold South-South exchanges in Bogotá and Cape Town and have confirmed that giving local government officials an opportunity to engage with counterparts from similar contexts is much more powerful than study trips to the Global North. 

Here are a couple of stories about both exchanges:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/03/3-ways-to-tackle-road-safety-in-…;

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/11/why-cities-in-the-global-south-s…

Dear colleagues
Following up on the message sent by my dear colleague Zanofer, I would like to welcome you all for the e-discussion on the UNOSSC Global Report on South-South Cooperation.

The report is part of UNOSSC activities during the period of its Strategic Framework 2022-2025 https://www.unsouthsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/UNOSSC-Strategi…. Accordingly, UNOSSC will produce an evidence based biennial report to support the intergovernmental processes and multi-stakeholder dialogues. It comes within the context of a new process that envisages providing a space for dialogue that includes a wide spectrum of stakeholders from the global south that would include the think tanks, the private sector, women, and youth groups. In this vein the report aims to provide a comprehensive knowledge base on South-South and triangular cooperation, presenting critical topics relevant to policy discussions and scholarship, and serve as a valuable resource for policymakers, development practitioners, and other stakeholders. We aspire that through this consultative we will be able contribute to demonstrate the catalytic role of south-south cooperation and triangular cooperation in advancing the sustainable development goals.
The background and questions posted shed light on the scope and areas intended to be covered by the report.

We are looking forward to receiving your valuable and insightful contributions that will help building a comprehensive understanding of ongoing efforts in south-south and triangular cooperation as well as offering innovative ideas about how to strengthen and enhance it in the coming decade.

Adel Abdellatif

Thank you for this important initiative. I offer here a South Asian perspective on the guiding questions mentioned in your concept note. South Asia wrestles with widespread poverty and inequalities. The report should prioritize solutions for inclusive growth, social safety nets, and empowerment of marginalized groups like women and rural communities. The region is highly vulnerable to climate change, facing extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and glacial melt. The report could explore South-South knowledge exchange on climate-smart agriculture, disaster risk reduction, and adaptation strategies. Food security remains a challenge in South Asia. Like in the past, our efforts could explore South-South cooperation in areas like sustainable agriculture, water management, and regional food banks. Other areas that the report should prioritize include healthcare - South Asia faces a burden of infectious and chronic diseases; education and skill development - youth unemployment is a growing concern. For sustaining long term growth low levels of intra regional trade across South Asia need to be reversed. 

From the South Asian perspective, what are the effective entry points for South-South Cooperation? To start with we could leverage regional institutions like South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) - can play a key role in facilitating knowledge exchange, joint research initiatives, and capacity-building programs. South-South cooperation can promote the much needed transfer of affordable and appropriate technologies in areas like renewable energy, climate-resilient infrastructure, and e-governance. South Asia has a rich pool of experiences in areas like microfinance, community-based natural resource management, and social mobilization. The report can document and disseminate these best practices for peer learning. South-South cooperation initiatives should also go beyond knowledge exchange and prioritize implementation with clear monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to assess their impact on development goals. The UN can facilitate data collection and analysis on the impact and effectiveness of South-South cooperation initiatives, providing evidence-based recommendations for future strategies.

Digital platforms hold immense potential for knowledge sharing, capacity building, and fostering virtual communities of practice. The report should explore opportunities for South-South collaboration in digital learning, telemedicine, and e-commerce.

Partnerships between developed countries and the Global South can provide additional resources and expertise to South-South cooperation initiatives. The report can explore successful models of triangular cooperation and identify areas for future collaboration.

Thanks for promoting this great initiative of participative approach. Along with heavy urbanization and mobility, the most pressing challenge to address is the unemployment of the youths. SSC can promote the knowledge and trending information on the employability as post covid era and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) has changed the ways of reskilling and upskilling.  South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation will be complementing in this area by sharing innovative practices and the contexts with the potential of its replicability. Collaborative efforts to address the poverty with STEM integrated entrepreneurial training (ET) with supported eco-system can be promoted with the more specific guidelines from UN's Institutionalized expertise. The contextualization with holistic approach in such detailed policy guidelines and reports will be useful for the diverse groupings and their unique needs of LDCs, MICs, and SIDs of global south. Looking to the work of G20, G77 and NAM for their various agendas, poverty elevation with STEM integrated ET should be taken on the priority for action and further to do research to address the problem for the society. Need based collaborations and partnerships will be useful to give possible and timely defined sustained solutions. 

My contribution to E-discussions in the attached file. 

E-discussion 2024-SVD.docx27.42 KB

Wonderful initiative and thank for you inviting comments via this e-discussion. My responses below are taking into account the comments made earlier by participants and will avoid overlap as much as possible.

1. Pressing challenges and priorities

The pressing challenges are essentially the problem of providing a decent quality of life to citizens within the context of Climate Change. The models of development of the past do not apply anymore since the prior models were built on the strength of energy from fossil fuels. Countries will need to identify newer sources of fossil-fuel-free energy for their development.

1. Effective entry points for South-South Cooperation

The effective entry point will be the common problems faced by the global south. Having to deal with a problem that they did not create, yet will face the brunt of the effects. With that perspective there is opportunity for collective action and learnings - especially when it comes to governance and management mechanisms for natural resources.

1. Key areas where SSC can promote knowledge exchange and capacity-building: emerging opportunities and future trends

The key areas will be in matters related to the adoption of frugal innovations and technologies developed by other nations in the Global South. In the high technology areas, some countries can assist in the development of models and strategies for ensuring sustainable, equitable futures. A good example is the use of digital technologies (like those built in India) that will promote inclusivity in the economic system and help raise funds for development activities (or frugal innovations)

1. UN system contribute to operationalizing south-south cooperation, and key challenges

The UN system provides the ideal platform for members of the global south to get to know each other's perspectives, provide the necessary support on common issues (such as the IPCC) and also make sure the commitments from the north on funding for development is adhered to.

1. diverse groupings and their unique needs

The different groups will have different focus points. It will be important for each to prioritise their needs and seek support from others in the global south. In many cases this might be more forthcoming. A good example is the International Solar Alliance that is working with different groups on their specific needs.

1. Role of various groups in the global south

The various groups in the global south provide the necessary platforms and hence visibility to the challenges faced my the entities in the global south. It is through these fora that nations could identify common ground and opportunities for cooperation to ensure a decent quality of life to their citizens.

An important aspect that needs to be considered is that each nation will need to identify what a "Decent Quality of Life" will be for their citizens. Aspiring to OECD type of life will lead to severe environmental degradation and drop in quality of life for poor citizens.

It is also imperative that countries that are relatively better off help and support the other countries on common issues of governance, technology and implementations.

Dear moderators,

Thanks for the opportunity to comment upon the important issues raised, and to participate in the common cause of forwarding South-South and Triangular Cooperation. And, thanks to the contributors so far for important insights.

SSC has been firmly embedded in the UN system since 1978 (and well recognized even before that). The Bapa+40 outcome document from Buenos Aires 2019 has stood up remarkably well as a policy document for this mode of cooperation. Defining SSC in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Bapa+40 document opens up for a broad host of actors to contribute to realize those goals, including TrC actors. It also focuses on the sharing of competence as one of the most important means to go forward.

However, only since 2019 the world has been changing rapidly. Let me mention a few change factors of significance to the growth and importance of SSC:

• The trend towards a multi-polar world. An underlying driver for this trend is the economic and social growth causing new countries to join the ranks of middle income countries, giving this category of countries increased power and significance both regionally and on the world scene. In this respect, SSC is often seen as a symbol of de-colonization, emphasizing values like national sovereignty and ownership, equality, non-conditionality and non-interference, all of which are generally much preferred by global south countries.

• The Covid 19 pandemic and its impact on budgets and preparations for future similar situations. The pandemic cut deeply into the traditional donor budgets for international development cooperation, as resources were diverted to deal with the pandemic. However, in several countries those budgets were not increased again after the pandemic was over. Less money became available for TrC. Another effect was a general shift in focus away from f.ex. climate issues to health.

• The acceleration of war and conflict, especially in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and their impact on donor priorities and budgets, counting in also new streams of refugees. From the viewpoint of the global south, the traditional donors have here lost some of the moral ground they traditionally have claimed to hold. As for during the pandemic, we see that the immediate situation today forces budget cuts and changed focus and priorities. Together, this works as a promotion of SSC.

• Artificial intelligence is changing the landscape from one day to the next, and, even if we cannot say exactly how, we know it has the potential to change profoundly all aspects of society. It will certainly also change international development cooperation including SSC and TrC. It seems that exchange of experiences with applying AI should be an essential aspect of SSC.

• The accelerating climate crisis. Every month the world seems to measure a new temperature record, so efforts in the north and south have so far not been effective enough. From a global south perspective it nevertheless remains a fact that the global north countries have a per capita contribution to the deteriorating climate way above the population in the global south. This can be seen as a trigger for south countries to increase SSC to find solutions that are more manageable and locally sustainable.  

The points above are some of the major trends I believe are relevant for the future of SSC, which of course at the same time are both challenges as well as emerging opportunities. Some further comments to the concept note:

Knowledge exchange and capacity-building

The importance of this is a key underlying consideration in the Bapa+40 outcome document. It can be done in various ways, f.ex. there are agencies with long experience in exchanging professional personnel for a defined period of time between institutions in the global south and also north-south and south-north. Hence, there is both a teaching and a learning role for all institutions, underlying the important equality aspect of SSC.

UN system contributions

The UN system, especially the UNOSSC, should not see itself as the only driver and implementer of SSC and TrC, but rather nurse the role as an advocate, a resource base, a supporter, a facilitator and maybe as a broker between finance and implementors. I believe the main challenge is not on the UN side but to advocate for embedding SSC and TrC in national (member states’) plans, budgets and organizationally.

Diverse groupings and their unique needs

No doubt SSC is well suited for engaging local solutions and finding local solutions. But there is no guarantee. SSC should not repeat the mistakes done in traditional NS aid, where local groups and considerations were run over by centralized governments and other forces. There must be mechanisms in place from the need identification and planning stage that also give a space for civil society.

Role of various groups in the global south

I believe one of the most promising developments over the last years is the growing recognition and importance of the G20 Forum. This Forum has developed into both an advocate, a policy maker and a promoter of SSC and TrC on world level. The further strengthening of this Forum can be another booster for SSC and TrC.

Thank you.

Thank you for creating such an opportunity to comment.

Inequality between poor and rich countries, increasing distance between equal opportunity and quality of life between rich and poor, make regions and the global environment more prone to conflict, natural disasters, and global economic hazards. For three reasons, low and middle-income nations continue to face high barriers to sustainable technology. First, these countries' academic institutions are far behind the rest of the world, unable to focus on technologies; second, their legal environment and government policies are hostile to innovation and technology; and third, access to sustainable technologies is prohibitively expensive for them. adopting traditional approaches may be more expensive than adopting technology in education, health, poverty reduction, energy, agriculture, water usage, creating resilience against global warming, and accessing and utilizing natural resources. As a result, countries are inefficiently allocating their resources.

Knowledge of technologies that are useful for sustainable living will be incredibly beneficial for South and South countries, even if they are not the most recent generation of technology. Knowledge of earthquake-resistant building technology and improved infrastructure could save thousands of lives. Benefiting from wind and solar energy could help millions of people survive natural disasters or challenging circumstances. The ability to generate non-toxic fertilizer while managing pesticide levels might save millions of hectares of agricultural land.

Exchanging knowledge and technology may benefit all stakeholders by strengthening relationships, trade, and the effective utilization of resources globally. 

The United Nations has a Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries, but middle-income countries in the South and South require a Technology Bank to meet common developmental goals. A responsible organization working toward common development goals, bridging technology owners and receivers, connecting governments and universities, and fostering successful collaboration will be critical. Of course, there are problems, such as insufficient innovation infrastructure, a lack of awareness about technology-friendly environments, the cost of technology, and a lack of skilled human resources.  Middle-income countries may be better equipped to adapt new technologies and be more open to technology-product, technology-technology, and technology-future income exchanges.

Submission by Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA)

Greetings from Cairo.

In connection with the e-discussion on the “Global Report South-South Triangular Cooperation”, organized by UN Office of South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC),

Here is the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA) contribution:

South-South and Triangular cooperation (SSTC) facilitates South-South initiatives through the provision of funding, training, management, and technological systems as well as other forms of support. It is one of the important drivers and major mechanisms of regional cooperation in the global south and has resulted in increased volumes of South-South trade, foreign direct investment flows and technology transfer.

Fortunately, the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other internationally agreed development goals have set new milestones for the international community, including the United Nations, in order to enhance this track. The UN General Assembly resolution 71/244 urges the United Nations development system, in consultation with all members States, to increasingly leverage, as appropriate, South-South cooperation to bolster its impact in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In doing so, the United Nations is requested to enhance its support in the areas where South-South cooperation has proved effective, namely, capacity-building, policy coordination, regional integration, interregional linkages, infrastructure interconnectivity and the development of national productive capacities through exchanges of knowledge and technological innovations.

Undoubtedly, triangular cooperation contributes to achieving the flexibility and effectiveness required in light of accelerating global crises, helping to confront them better, as well as establishing a preventive mechanism that can address various future possible crises. The need to strengthen this type of cooperation stems from the fact that the international crises the world has witnessed over the past few years, and continues to witness, exceed the ability of the countries to confront them individually. Thus, there is an urgent need to coordinate efforts of different actors to continue the joint construction of human civilization, with the Global South at its heart. Triangular cooperation is one of these important efforts and mechanisms as we said before.

Triangular cooperation also helps to achieve and provide qualitative complementarity among the participating parties, in terms of material and financial resources, competencies, management methods… etc. This leads to the enhancement of positive progress and achieving an international society that gradually promotes the ideas of interdependence and mutual benefits, which in turn lays the foundations for security, peace, prosperity and development for all, and discourage the possible chances of conflicts and disputes that threaten development endeavors.

On the other hand, triangular cooperation in the global south maximizes potential windows to learn about best practices through sharing knowledge, skills, resources, and successful initiatives in different areas. It leads also to establish fair competition frameworks among different powers to achieve the utmost benefits for the targeted communities, thus enhancing the chances for the advancement of all and bringing good to all.  

Actually, the facts about the share of the Global South in the world economy, as well as the returns, are promising. For example, the countries of the South have contributed to more than half of the world’s growth in recent years; intra-south trade is higher than ever, accounting for more than a quarter of all world trade; the outflows of foreign direct investment from the South represent a third of the global flows; in addition, remittances from migrant workers to low and middle-income countries reached 466 billion USD in 2018, which helped lift millions of families out of poverty.

In the same context, some UN entities, such as the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) succeeded in promoting harnessing space technology services to provide early warning systems for natural disasters through the ESCAP Multi-donor Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness; broadening regional trade and investment research and knowledge base through the Asia Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT); and other platforms for the transfer of ideas and knowledge. Bringing together the governments and other stakeholders from the region, ESCAP, the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and the Thailand International Cooperation Agency convened the Regional Consultation on South-South Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific (27-29 June 2018, Bangkok). The meeting established the Asia-Pacific Directors General Forum for South-South and Triangular Cooperation, or the “Asia-Pacific DG Forum.” Every year, the Forum brings together the heads of development cooperation and South-South cooperation agencies and units of ESCAP member States to share experiences, good practices, and provide a venue for facilitating collaboration on issues related to South-South and triangular cooperation. In this regard, we recommend that such developments and best practices should be transferred to the corresponding commissions. We think that the African Commission is so important in this regard.

At the bilateral level, we can point to the Egyptian-Chinese cooperation in Africa, where, for example, the largest vaccine storage facility was established in Egypt, with support of China, serving millions of African people. The Chinese industrial zone in the Suez Canal Economic Zone will also lead to enhancing trade and investment movement with Africa, within the framework of “Belt and Road Initiative”, and in a way that benefits from the African Free Trade Agreement, which will benefit all countries of the continent, and, at the same time, help strengthen trade ties with Europe and donor countries.

Egypt also participated, on behalf of Africa, in the high-level meeting held by the Vice President of China, during July 2023. The meeting recommended improving and strengthening efforts to implement the sustainable development goals in response to the “Global Development Initiative” proposed by the Chinese President in 2021. Egypt also expressed, during the signing of the delivery and receipt certificate for the satellite assembly, integration and testing center which was implemented for the Egyptian Space Agency, last February, its aspiration to enhance triangular cooperation, with China, in the field of assembling and testing satellites between Egypt, China and African countries, especially since Egypt hosts the headquarters of the African Space Agency.

Likewise, there were successful experiences between Egypt and Japan for the benefit of Africa. The Triangular Cooperation Training Programme, established by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 1975, is one of the South-South Program projects, where developing countries, through JICA support, accept training of participants from other developing countries to transfer technology to them. JICA launched the program in Egypt in March 1985 by organizing two training courses, and the number of training courses increased until the number of participants exceeded 5,000 participants by the end of the fiscal year of 2017. In the said year, JICA held 9 training programs for participants from African countries in the fields of agriculture, medical care, etc., in which 173 participants from 30 sub-Saharan African countries participated. JICA also organizes courses for the Middle East region to meet the urgent needs for post-conflict reconstruction in the region, with the aim of supporting the improvement of the prevailing conditions in the country. JICA held 6 training courses in 2017 for 158 participants from 8 countries in the Middle East region.

Last but not least, ECFA stresses the importance of the upcoming “Future Summit”, scheduled to be held on September 22 and 23, 2024 on the sidelines of the upcoming 79th annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York, which will bring together world leaders to formulate a new international consensus on how to “deliver a better present and protect the future.” This is within the framework of Secretary-General António Guterres’ vision of the necessity of multilateral solutions for a better future for humanity. ECFA calls for more momentum to enhance the trend of triangular cooperation, as one of the pillars of this better future, and calls also for an attempt to coordinate efforts among various think tanks and institutions, in the global south, to benefit from their experiences and visions in this regard.

ECFA was pleased to address the topics of this very important summit, during  several meetings over the past few weeks, including its contribution to the 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference, which was held in the Nairobi, Kenya, on 9 - May 10, under the title “Shaping the Future of Global and Sustainable Progress,” to develop a global perspective on specific issues, in order to support the aforementioned summit.

We reaffirm the necessity of political will and good intentions to enhance constructive cooperation with the countries of the South in order to solve the dilemmas facing them, which would contribute to achieving the well-being of the entire world.

Best regards,

Amb. Dr. Ezzat Saad

ECFA Director

Having an African crossroads of compute with clarity windows into it's presence inside the Micrsoft Planetary Computer, combined with Gemini's computer vision, and Wolfram Alpha could help the UN Digitial Public Infastructure program reach optimim efficiency by coordinating with space societies to compliment the work of the following.  

Planetary Computer
Home | Planetary Computer (microsoft.com)

UN Digital Public Infastructure
Digital public infrastructure | United Nations Development Programme (undp.org)

AI Alliance ~ Open Cooperation
Home | AI Alliance (thealliance.ai)

Wofram Alpha + Open AI ~ Solving math
OpenAI - Wolfram|Alpha (wolframalpha.com)

The Future Society ~ Impact Leadership
The Future Society | Aligning AI through better governance

UNESCO ~ AI & The Rule of Law
AI and the Rule of Law: Capacity Building for Judicial Systems | UNESCO

Micrsoft Stargate would be allowed to focus on the most complicated of problems if humanity as it's own analog backup system supported b7 society as a shared education requirement to be spread among the population, which can be lead through traditional services enrollments, or new initiatives may be started to reinforce impacts unforeseen impacts.  
Meet Stargate — the $100 billion AI supercomputer being built by Microsoft and OpenAI | Tom's Guide (tomsguide.com)

So focusing on other hardware being the lowest cost with greatest impact should be everyone's focus, while making sure compute service taxations are put in place as soon as possible to help spread the benefit outward without having to replace the hardware multiple times.

Electrical Grids & Architecture
Dexmat

Low Cost Desalination 
Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

I would be more than happy to build out content on any of these or related topics since this is literally what I spent my life on for the past decade.  Though I don't sport any formal credentials, I require no mention & would be happy to gather whatever helps. 

I would like to add Egypt's Logistics Wamda as being an appropriate response to a world walking into need of digital services taxation by automating mercy to it's maximum capacity, limited only by human desire once fully matured.

Being honest about modelling economics with clarity so people with maximum velocities & minimum or zero bureaucracy has never been more necessary for people to openly trust help is landing where it's truly needed the most.  Which gives influencers support for digital fund transfers to fairly lift finance provides to send money from the top down through the UN Digital Public Infastrcture.
Digital public infrastructure | United Nations Development Programme (undp.org)

With cross national tensions so high, apathy was set aside, as billions of people stood up across the nations to demand justice.  Demonstrating benevolency as national security of circular economic nations is end stage capitalism's intuitive long term response to full automation after Microsoft Stargate is turned on.

Googles' Gemini threading input & output of AR or robotics into the entire Microsoft network to distribute the benefits, is expected to reduce costs of living to fractions as economics are reinvented entirely.

So now, if humanity automates Environment As Interface as open source software the common benefit erases the barrier to shared benefiting from the input of computer visions influence on humanity, on national, community, personal or instanced experiences.