South-South Cooperation

A/RES/72/237View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 24bSouth-South cooperation for development, published in 2017.

What other versions does this mandate have?

18 versions · 2006–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/156

2025A/RES/80/156South-South cooperationLatestCompare with previous version
2024A/RES/79/236South-South cooperationCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/167South-South cooperationCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/77/185South-South cooperationCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/221South-South cooperationCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 topics

Conferences Economic Cooperation Among Developing Countries South-South Relations

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2018.

2018A/73/321State of South-South cooperation report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

35 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the decisions adopted by the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation at its nineteenth session, held from 16 to 19 May 2016;

Also takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the state of South-South cooperation and his report entitled “Comprehensive proposal on concrete ways to enhance the role and impact of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation as well as the key measures taken to improve the coordination and coherence of United Nations support to South-South cooperation”, as well as the report of the Joint Inspection Unit on South-South and triangular cooperation in the United Nations system, of 2011, and the Secretary-General’s response;

Reiterates its request to the Joint Inspection Unit to present, by the end of the seventy-second session of the General Assembly, a progress report on its recommendations to the United Nations development system on implementing measures to further strengthen the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation;

Recognizes the importance and unique history and particularities of South-South cooperation, reaffirms its view of South-South cooperation as a manifestation of solidarity among peoples and countries of the South that contributes to their national well-being, national and collective self-reliance and the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals, which build upon the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and seek to address their unfinished business, and also reaffirms that South-South cooperation and its agenda must be set by countries of the South and should continue to be guided by the principles of respect for national sovereignty, national ownership and independence, equality, non-conditionality, non-interference in domestic affairs and mutual benefit;

Stresses that South-South cooperation is not a substitute for, but rather a complement to, North-South cooperation;

Welcomes the increased contributions of South-South cooperation to poverty eradication and sustainable development, encourages developing countries to voluntarily step up their efforts to strengthen South-South cooperation and to further improve its development effectiveness, in accordance with the provisions of the Nairobi outcome document of the High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation, and welcomes commitments to strengthen triangular cooperation as a means of bringing relevant experience and expertise to bear in development cooperation;

Reaffirms that South-South cooperation is a common endeavour of peoples and countries of the South, born out of shared experiences and sympathies, based on their common objectives and solidarity and guided by, inter alia, the principles of respect for national sovereignty and ownership, free from any conditionalities, that South-South cooperation should not be seen as official development assistance and that it is a partnership among equals based on solidarity, acknowledges in this regard the need to enhance the development effectiveness of South-South cooperation by continuing to increase its mutual accountability and transparency as well as coordinating its initiatives with other development projects and programmes on the ground, in accordance with national development plans and priorities, and recognizes that the impact of South-South cooperation should be assessed with a view to improving, as appropriate, its quality in a results-oriented manner;

Acknowledges the progress made and encourages the continued integration of South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation into the policies and strategic frameworks of the funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, and requests those funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system that have not yet integrated South-South and triangular cooperation into their policies to do so, taking into account the Nairobi outcome document of the High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the complementary nature of South-South to North-South cooperation;

Reiterates its request to the Chair of the United Nations Development Group to make specific recommendations on additional support that United Nations system organizations and all States could provide to South-South and triangular cooperation, which could include the voluntary secondment of staff and the appointment of Junior Professional Officers to the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, as well as measures to strengthen the system-wide efficiency and impact of the Office;

Requests the Secretary-General to make necessary adjustments, as appropriate, to the framework of operational guidelines on United Nations support to South-South and triangular cooperation, in consultation with all States and organizations of the United Nations development system;

Reaffirms the mandate and the central role of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation as the focal point for promoting and facilitating South-South and triangular cooperation for development on a global and United Nations system-wide basis;

Reiterates the request to the Chair of the United Nations Development Group to establish a more formalized and strengthened inter-agency mechanism, coordinated by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, with a view to encouraging joint support to South-South and triangular initiatives and sharing information on development activities and results achieved by various organizations through their respective business models in support of South-South and triangular cooperation, calls upon the United Nations development system to designate representational focal points to join the mechanism, requests the Chair of the United Nations Development Group to give the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation the opportunity to be represented more regularly in strategic and coordination mechanisms of the United Nations Development Group when matters affecting South-South and triangular cooperation are being discussed, and in this regard welcomes the progress made by the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Task Team of the United Nations Development Group to this effect;

Calls upon the United Nations Development Programme and other relevant organizations of the United Nations development system to assist developing countries in implementing projects of South-South cooperation, including sharing best practices and experiences from the South, especially with the least developed countries, upon request and in a manner consistent with their mandates and strategic plans;

Invites the United Nations development system to encourage the transfer of technologies on mutually agreed terms for the benefit of developing countries to address poverty eradication and sustainable development;

Welcomes the launch, in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism, and looks forward to its continued development and full operationalization;

Requests the United Nations Development Group, including its South-South and Triangular Cooperation Task Team, and the United Nations country teams, within existing resources and in close consultation and coordination with the Governments of developing countries and other United Nations organizations, in particular the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, to continue the mapping and documentation of good practices in South-South and triangular cooperation, in particular those that are relevant to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, taking into account the Nairobi outcome document of the High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the complementary nature of South-South to North-South cooperation;

Urges the United Nations to continue to support South-South cooperation projects that contribute to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, adopted in Quito in 2016;4

Takes note with appreciation of the ninth annual Global South-South Development Expo, held from 27 to 30 November 2017, hosted by the Government of Turkey, on the theme “South-South cooperation in the era of economic, social and environmental transformation: road to the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action”, which aims at showcasing sustainable development solutions that can be scaled up and replicated through South-South and triangular cooperation;

Recognizes the important role of South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation, and in this context requests the Secretary-General, with the support of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, to take steps, within existing resources, to update existing and to create appropriate new policy tools, in order that the United Nations system may effectively support Member States, upon request, in using South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation to assist in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Acknowledges the positive efforts made by United Nations organizations to develop thematic strategies for the implementation of South-South cooperation, and in this regard urges the United Nations development system, in consultation with all States, to strive 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;

Requests the United Nations system to enhance its support in the areas where South-South cooperation has proved effective, namely capacity-building, regional integration, interregional linkages, infrastructure interconnectivity and the development of national productive capacities through exchanges of knowledge, technological innovations and technology transfer on mutually agreed terms, and in several areas of sustainable development such as poverty eradication and gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;

Welcomes the support provided by developing countries to South-South and triangular initiatives aimed at improving nutrition and food security, and invites the replication of this approach in other relevant areas, drawing on the technical expertise of various United Nations organizations;

Recognizes the contribution of South-South cooperation in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in sustainable development, and encourages further efforts to mainstream gender perspectives in South-South and triangular cooperation;

Notes that, in response to the growing demand for support to South-South cooperation at the regional and subregional levels, the regional commissions have advanced South-South cooperation by undertaking policy research and analysis on issues of importance to their member States, convening high-level policy dialogues, forging strategic partnerships and promoting specific capacity development and other initiatives, and in this regard invites the regional commissions to support developing countries, upon request, in integrating the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into their nationally owned sustainable development strategies, in areas such as regional development planning and fiscal frameworks, and to help to promote policy coherence and coordination and the enhancement of the data and statistical capacities of member States for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Reaffirms that South-South cooperation has a role to play as a strategic link between regions and embraces a multi-stakeholder approach, including non-governmental organizations, the private sector, civil society, academia and other actors that contribute to meeting development challenges and objectives in line with national development strategies and plans;

Urges the United Nations system to continue its support to regional and subregional organizations, enabling their member countries to build more partnerships and cross-border frameworks, with a view to promoting and scaling up best practices with the potential to benefit a large number of developing countries;

Welcomes the growing number of forums convened for Governments and other policymakers to discuss, in a participatory and inclusive manner, South-South cooperation initiatives and their contribution towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including addressing challenges, lessons learned and good practices in key areas;

Requests the Secretary-General to present, as part of his comprehensive report to the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation at its twentieth session, in consultation with all States, the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and the United Nations Development Programme, recommendations and an update on the concrete steps taken to strengthen the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, taking into account the need to enhance the role and improve the impact of the Office under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme, including in the areas of financial, human and budgetary resources and through the potential appointment of a Special Representative of the Secretary-General on South-South Cooperation, as well as to clarify the management relationships, reporting lines and functions and to improve transparency, accountability and efficiency, taking into account matters covered in the report of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation on its nineteenth session, Committee decision 19/1 of 19 May 2016 and decision 2016/13 of 10 June 2016 of the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Office for Project Services;

Recognizes the need to mobilize adequate resources for enhancing South-South and triangular cooperation, and in this context invites all countries in a position to do so to contribute, in support of such cooperation, to the United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation and to the Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund for South-South Cooperation, in accordance with its resolution 57/263 of 20 December 2002, and to support other initiatives for all developing countries, including technology transfer among developing countries on mutually agreed terms;

Requests the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation to continue to effectively provide the secretariat required by States in marking the fortieth anniversary of the adoption in 1978 of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries;

Recognizes the need to strengthen and further invigorate South-South cooperation, in this regard reiterates its decision to convene the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, to be held in Buenos Aires from 20 to 22 March 2019;

Calls upon all Member States to participate fully and constructively in the High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation to be held in Buenos Aires in 2019, and welcomes the Secretary-General’s recommendation to the United Nations system to provide substantive inputs to inform discussions among the States in preparation for the Conference, through the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation as Conference secretariat;

Welcomes the generous offer by the Government of Argentina to host and assume all costs of the High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation;

Calls upon the relevant organizations of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates and resources, to ensure that no one is left behind and no country is left behind in the implementation of the present resolution;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-third session, under the item entitled “Operational activities for development”, the sub-item entitled “South-South cooperation for development”, unless otherwise agreed, and requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-third session a comprehensive report on the state of South-South cooperation, including an assessment of the concrete measures taken by the United Nations development system to improve its support to South-South cooperation at the global, regional and national levels, as appropriate, and on the implementation of the present resolution, including all aspects set out in paragraph 28 above, on an exceptional basis and without setting any precedent for future reports of the Secretary-General.

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