Projects

National Ecosystems for South-South & Triangular Cooperation

Developing countries from the South have long envisioned a mutually beneficial cooperation model founded on a common history and shared values of solidarity, fairness, and mutual support. The efforts of the South to elaborate “more specific regional, sub-regional, and national programs of cooperation” have been recognized since the Bandung Conference in 1955 and the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA) for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries in 1978. These deliberations culminated in a set of principles that formed the South–South Cooperation (SSC) framework. Over the years, the depth and breadth of SSC have increased, leading to more effective interventions in technical cooperation and South–South trade and investments, as well as in other exchanges. Traditional donors have noted how SSC has developed into an effective mechanism for solving development challenges and are increasingly supporting SSC through a mechanism termed Triangular Cooperation. Thus, South–South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTrC) became an important modality of international cooperation for development that contributed to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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In March 2019, representatives of 160 countries gathered in Buenos Aires during the 2nd High-Level UN Conference on South–South Cooperation (also referred to as “BAPA+40”) to take stock of the successes, challenges and opportunities related to SSTrC. At the conclusion of this conference, countries adopted the BAPA+40 Outcome Document, which provided various recommendations on how to strengthen SSTrC and to utilize this cooperation mechanism to solve development challenges in many areas, including economic development, combating climate change, strengthening female and youth environments, and developing resilience. 

As highlighted in the BAPA+40 Outcome Document, the increasing complexity and sophistication, as well as the substantial scale of SSTrC, call for more effective institutional arrangements. To contribute to the discussion on the importance of national ecosystems for SSTrC, the IsDB and the South Centre partnered in 2019 to formulate a paper that offers an overview of the currently existing national institutional arrangements established by developing countries for SSTrC and highlights the importance of strong national ecosystems for successful engagement in and contribution to SSTrC. 

The study identified the good practices and lessons learned from developing countries’ experiences that could be used for strengthening national ecosystems for SSTrC and specifically formulated a new framework for national institutional arrangements—or national ecosystems for SSTrC—comprising seven key pillars. 

These pillars are: (i) political will; (ii) a national strategy for SSTrC; (iii) a  national body that acts as the focal point for SSTrC interventions; (iv) information bases that enable countries to map their national capabilities and development solutions that can be shared with others while also identifying issues that can be addressed through SSTrC; (iv) connected actors that coordinate their SSTrC efforts and activities in order to harmonize their interventions and amplify the effect of their work; (v) national financing mechanisms that provide the necessary resources for countries to engage in SSTrC regionally and globally; and (vi) performance management systems that allow countries to assess how well they are fulfilling their SSTrC engagements and to find ways to continuously improve. 

The study, along with details on the subject framework, was finalized, published launched on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2019, under the title “Developing National Ecosystems for South-South and Triangular Cooperation to Achieve Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development”.

The formulation of the Bank’s “national ecosystems for the SSTrC” framework provided a solution to the theoretical discussion on which elements should constitute the institutional arrangements in any given country that can enable engagement in SSTrC by making the best use of their domestic expertise and resources to help other countries in need, while also benefiting from others in addressing their own national development challenges. 

To operationalize the framework of national ecosystems for SSTrC to benefit the member countries, the Bank also formulated the “Capacity Development Program for Enhancing National Ecosystems for SSTrC in IsDB Member Countries,” which was approved in December 2019. This program aims to assist member countries in developing their national ecosystems for SSTrC, enabling them to meaningfully engage in SSTrC interventions at sub-national, national, regional, and global levels. The program will be implemented by using the Reverse Linkage modality as a key mechanism. Member countries with strong national ecosystem pillars in place will become providers for other countries that require capacity development. Furthermore, countries with relatively strong ecosystems can still benefit from this program to complete the development of the seven pillars of the national ecosystem for SSTrC.

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