South-South Cooperation

A/RES/80/156View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 23bSouth-South cooperation for development, published in 2025.

What other versions does this mandate have?

18 versions · 2006–2025

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).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

9 entities

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 topics

Conferences Economic Cooperation Among Developing Countries South-South Relations Sustainable Development

What does this mandate say?

40 operative paragraphs

Recalls the convening of the second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation in Buenos Aires from 20 to 22 March 2019 and its outcome document, and calls upon the international community to support the full implementation of the outcome document of the second High-level Conference;

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the state of South-South cooperation;

Reaffirms its support for the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, recalls its decisions 22/1 and 22/2 adopted during its twenty-second session, held from 27 to 30 May 2025, and looks forward to the convening of the twenty-third session of the Committee, to be held in 2027;

Takes note of the recommendation contained in the report of the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme on a review of the outcome document of the second High-level Conference, and requests the President of the General Assembly to appoint two co-facilitators, one from a developing country and one from a developed country, at the eightieth session of the Assembly to facilitate an intergovernmental process on the modalities of the review of the outcome document of the Conference, within existing resources;

Recognizes the contribution of and the need to scale up and strengthen South-South and triangular cooperation as a complementary means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, including in achieving the overarching goal of the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, and the goals of, inter alia, ending hunger, improving nutrition, reducing inequalities, within and among countries, promoting decent work as well as for the use, capacity-building and transfer of digital technologies, on mutually agreed terms, to accelerate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and close the digital divides;

Encourages the continuation and advancement of South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation on efforts for COVID‑19 response and recovery from the socioeconomic effects of the pandemic and other multiple crises in the pursuit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals, and calls for continued support from the relevant United Nations development system entities in that regard, particularly in areas such as equitable and non‑discriminatory access to safe, quality, effective and affordable healthcare and services and medical supplies and equipment, including diagnostics, therapeutics, medicine and other health products, vaccines, as well as digitalization, the environment, climate change, social protection and the eradication of poverty, noting that the world needs a stronger, better coordinated, inclusive and more agile global health architecture for pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery to stop the severe impact of future outbreaks;

Welcomes the support of development partners for triangular cooperation towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in the global South, and urges developed countries and multilateral partners to continue providing financial, scientific and technological assistance and capacity-building to developing countries, to close the digital divides and to better harness science, technology and innovation to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030;

Urges Member States and United Nations entities to strengthen South-South and triangular cooperation on access to science, technology and innovation by creating synergies, developing expertise and boosting resources in different regions and institutions, and in this regard notes with appreciation the convening of the Summit on Science, Technology and Innovation by the Group of 77 and China, in Havana on 15 and 16 September 2023, as an effort to boost cooperation in this field to increase its benefit to all people;

Encourages Member States, with the support of the United Nations development system, to facilitate the development of and access to appropriate technologies, promote digital transitions and foster the exchange of innovative practices through South-South and triangular cooperation, with the aim of safeguarding the interests of present and future generations, and to integrate science, digital technologies, including emerging ones, and data governance into national and international development strategies;

Encourages Member States and all relevant stakeholders, as appropriate, to establish or strengthen coordinated mechanisms at the subnational, national, regional and global levels to leverage the expertise and other resources of multi-stakeholder partnerships to support South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation initiatives towards the attainment of the 2030 Agenda, while acknowledging that governments have the principal role of coordinating and leading development efforts;

Takes note of the various experiences and locally driven development approaches to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and reiterates the importance of learning and sharing good practices, including through South-South, North-South and triangular cooperation through platforms such as South-South Galaxy, the Global South-South Development Expo, regional sustainable development forums and other knowledge-sharing platforms supported by the different entities of the United Nations system;

Notes with appreciation the convening of the Third South Summit, held in Kampala on 21 and 22 January 2024;

Recalls the convening of the ministerial meeting on South-South cooperation held in 2023 during the second part of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, in Doha, on leveraging South-South and triangular cooperation for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals;

Also recalls the adoption of the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States: A Renewed Declaration for Resilient Prosperity at the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States, held in Antigua and Barbuda from 27 to 30 May 2024, which commits to supporting small island developing States (SIDS), including by leveraging triangular and South-South cooperation, including SIDS-to-SIDS, to mobilize resources, as a complement to North-South cooperation, towards the realization of the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States by 2034;

Welcomes the convening of the Third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries, held in Awaza, Turkmenistan, from 5 to 8 August 2025, which served as an opportunity for the international community to scale up its support to landlocked developing countries in their efforts to leverage South-South and triangular cooperation, to achieve sustainable development and to realize the full implementation of the Awaza Programme of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries for the Decade 2024–2034, as well as the convening of the ministerial meeting on South-South cooperation on the margins of the third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries;

Recalls the organization of the eleventh Global South-South Development Expo in Bangkok from 12 to 14 September 2022, encourages Member States to host future Global South-South Development Expos, which can serve as important knowledge-sharing platforms, and requests the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation to actively engage with Member States, including by their expressions of interest to host future Expos, and to include the progress in its report to the General Assembly at its eighty-first session;

Recognizes the need for coherent and tailored support to address the specific development needs of middle-income countries, and notes the initiatives of the Like-Minded Group for Middle-Income Countries in promoting the role of South-South and triangular cooperation, including in contribution to the consultations relating to the consideration of the elaboration of a strategic plan of action for middle-income countries;

Recalls the special needs of Africa and recognizes that, while economic growth has improved, there is a need to sustain the recovery to face the ongoing adverse impacts of multiple crises on development and the serious challenges that these impacts pose to the fight against poverty and hunger, which could further undermine the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals in Africa, including Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want and the Sustainable Development Goals and the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals, and welcomes the ongoing efforts to fully operationalize the African Continental Free Trade Area and the commencement of actual trading under the Agreement with a view to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals;

Recognizes the growing debt burden of developing countries, and also recognizes the role of the United Nations, within its mandates, to facilitate South-South exchanges of knowledge on debt to help countries of the global South;

Also recognizes the need to enhance the provision and mobilization of adequate resources for enhancing South-South and triangular cooperation, and in this context invites all countries in a position to do so, in particular developed countries, to scale up the contributions, 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 General Assembly resolution 57/263 of 20 December 2002, and to support other initiatives for all developing countries;

Acknowledges the effectiveness of the Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund in providing catalytic support to South-South cooperation, underscoring the enduring partnership between the Group of 77 and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation;

Welcomes innovations that enhance and expand South-South and triangular cooperation, and in this regard recognizes the importance of reinforcing partnership-building, including engaging with partners in national and local governments, civil society, academia and the private sector, and of resource mobilization, including contributions to the United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation, third-party cost-sharing, parallel financing, in-kind contributions and special fund management arrangements such as those of the India-United Nations Development Partnership Fund, and the India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation;

Encourages United Nations entities to support developing countries in integrating development cooperation perspectives, including, in particular, South-South and triangular cooperation perspectives, into the preparation and presentation of the voluntary national review reports on sustainable development;

Notes that, within the context of the United Nations development system, the United Nations system-wide strategy on South-South and triangular cooperation has the potential to enhance the role and impact of South-South and triangular cooperation through galvanizing the expertise of United Nations organizations to support South-South and triangular cooperation, and in this regard calls upon the United Nations development system to continue mainstreaming South-South and triangular cooperation into the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks, at the country level, as appropriate, as a means to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, and also calls upon the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation to work in collaboration with the United Nations system organizations and the regional commissions to mainstream South-South and triangular cooperation, including through regional collaborative frameworks for South-South and triangular cooperation;

Notes with appreciation the countries that have increased cooperation with the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, and calls upon the Office to further strengthen its support to South-South cooperation projects;

Calls upon the United Nations development system entities to further integrate, as appropriate, South-South and triangular cooperation into their strategic frameworks and planning instruments, and urges them to allocate sufficient financial and non‑financial resources dedicated to supporting and facilitating South-South and triangular cooperation, and encourages the United Nations resident coordinators to continue to advance the integration of South-South and triangular cooperation into the work of United Nations country teams to achieve greater system-wide results and impacts for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals;

Calls upon the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation to deepen efforts in mainstreaming South-South and triangular cooperation at the country level, including by providing demand-driven advisory and technical support to United Nations resident coordinators and United Nations country teams;

Takes note with appreciation of the development of guidance materials and training modules by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and other United Nations entities, such as the e-learning module on the use of South-South and triangular cooperation, and encourages integration of these modalities into policy instruments and cooperation frameworks across the United Nations development system;

Calls upon the United Nations development system to support Member States in enhancing the establishment and development of platforms for innovation and information-sharing in education and pedagogical methods, including, inter alia, in technical, vocational and tertiary education, skills development and digital literacy, and leverage technological advancements through South-South and triangular cooperation;

Calls upon Member States to prioritize and scale up South-South and triangular cooperation initiatives targeting young people in developing countries, to enhance their digital skills, employability and entrepreneurship, including by incentivizing the mobilization of financing from all sources, and with the support of the United Nations development system;

Requests the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to continue to strengthen capacity-building and support to developing countries, provide technical guidance, data-collection tools and reporting systems for applying the initial voluntary conceptual framework for the measurement of South-South cooperation based on country-led mechanisms, and establish a platform to enable country-led development of methodologies and sharing of experience;

Recommends that the United Nations development system support the efforts of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in raising awareness and developing the capacity of national statistical offices and cooperation agencies to use the initial voluntary conceptual framework for the measurement of South-South cooperation, and acknowledges the importance of exploring possible options for the measurement of triangular cooperation;

Takes note with appreciation of the ongoing efforts by the United Nations regional commissions, under the leadership of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and with the support of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, to support pilot countries in applying the conceptual framework, including through capacity development, peer learning and data-collection tools, and encourages continued collaboration with United Nations country teams in this regard;

Requests the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to periodically brief Member States on the utilization of the Manual for the Framework to Measure South-South Cooperation;

Reaffirms the urgency of mobilizing greater resources to support South-South cooperation initiatives aimed at enhancing climate resilience, increasing investments in affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, including clean technologies, zero- and low-emission technologies and renewable energy in nature-based solutions, and sustainable agriculture;

Recognizes the contribution of South-South and triangular cooperation in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in sustainable development, as well as in achieving the overarching goal of the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, and in this regard emphasizes their full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership in decision-making at all levels;

Also recognizes the role of South-South and triangular cooperation in enhancing connectivity and digital transformation within and among developing countries, and in this regard invites the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and the United Nations system, in line with their respective mandates, to support efforts to develop and implement policies to bridge the digital divides and fast-track digital transformation to improve the delivery of public services in the South;

Reaffirms the commitment at the very heart of the 2030 Agenda to leave no one behind and commit to taking more tangible steps to support people in vulnerable situations and the most vulnerable countries and to reach the furthest behind first;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its eighty-first session a comprehensive report on the state of South-South cooperation, including the implementation of the outcome document of the second High-level Conference;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its eighty-first session, under the item entitled “Operational activities for development”, the sub-item entitled “South-South cooperation for development”.

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