Interest in South-South cooperation continues to soar, driven by the fast-growing economies of the South. However, rates of economic growth have slowed, progress is uneven and the gap between North and South in average per capita income continues to be unacceptably wide, says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his 2014 Report on the State of South-South Cooperation.

Ensuring “shared prosperity for all beyond 2015,” he stresses, “requires intensified cooperation and the focusing of the support of the United Nations system on areas where South-South cooperation has proven effective, namely policy coordination, regional integration, interregional linkages and the development of national productive capacities through exchanges of knowledge and technological innovations.”

The need for coherent, effective coordination of United Nations support to South-South cooperation is greater than ever, the Secretary-General said, and should be urgently addressed through the establishment of an inter-agency coordination mechanism and the full implementation of the other measures recently proposed to strengthen the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.

Progress has been made on the implementation of a number of recommendations emanating from the Joint Inspection Unit report, as well as the 2012 evaluation of UNDP support to South-South cooperation.

Owing to the current surge in South-South relations, many of the organizations and agencies of the United Nations system are responding to the decisions of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, General Assembly resolutions and the Joint Inspection Unit recommendations with regard to South-South cooperation. They have incorporated South-South cooperation into their strategic plans, research agendas, programming instruments, budgets, performance indicators and monitoring and evaluation. Such effort should continue with even greater vigour, said the Secretary-General.

South-South cooperation is increasingly critical to bolstering the productive capacities of developing countries and their growth trajectory in a sustainable manner, according to the Secretary-General. “This calls for increased innovative partnerships involving Governments, civil society, academia, international financial institutions, foundations and the private sector.”

 

 

General Assembly High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, 18th Session

Date: 19-22 May 2014
Location: United Nations, Conference Room 3 (CB), New York, NY

 

REPORTS

 

PRE-SESSION MATERIALS
  • Provisional agenda and annotations for the organizational meeting to be held in New York on 1 May 2014 (SSC/18/L.1)
  • Provisional annotated agenda and list of documents for the eighteenth session (SSC/18/L.2)
  • Note by the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme on the organization of work (SSC/18/L.3)

 

IN-SESSION DOCUMENTS
  • Review of progress made in implementing the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, the new directions strategy for South-South cooperation and the Nairobi outcome document of the High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (SSC/18/1)
  • Note by the Secretary-General on the framework of operational guidelines on United Nations support to South-South and triangular cooperation (SSC/17/3)
  • Report on the intersessional meeting of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, 4 June 2013 (SSC/17/IM/L.2)
  • Note by the Secretary-General on the framework of operational guidelines on United Nations support to South-South and triangular cooperation (SSC/18/2)
  • Report of the Secretary-General on measures to strengthen the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (SSC/18/3)

 

BACKGROUND MATERIAL ON SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION