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South-South and Triangular Cooperation in a Changing Global Landscape

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COOPERATION BEYOND CONVENTION SOUTH-SOUTH AND TRIANGULAR COOPERATION IN A CHANGING GLOBAL LANDSCAPE COOPERATION BEYOND CONVENTION SOUTH-SOUTH AND TRIANGULAR COOPERATION IN A CHANGING GLOBAL LANDSCAPE TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ........................................................................................................................................................................7 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..........................................................................................................................................11 ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................................................................13 CHAPTER I (SOUTH-SOUTH AND TRIANGULAR COOPERATION: 40 YEARS AFTER THE BUENOS AIRES PLAN OF ACTION) .......................................................................................................................19 CHAPTER II (PARTICIPATION AND LEADERSHIP IN THE GLOBAL SYSTEM) ...........................41 CHAPTER III (INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND OPERATIONALIZATION OF SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION) ............................................................................................................................................................... 61 CHAPTER IV (A DIVERSITY OF ACTORS AND SOUTH-SOUTH AND TRIANGULAR COOPERATION) ................................................................................................................................................................85 CHAPTER V (TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION) .....................................................................................105 CHAPTER VI (SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN THE CONTEXT OF SOUTH-SOUTH AND TRIANGULAR COOPERATION) .................................................................................................................127 CHAPTER VII (FORWARD AND BEYOND) ................................................................................................. 149 ANNEX ............................................................................................................................................................................175 FOREWORD It is fair to say that we live in a complicated political world. The period from the later years of the twentieth century into the early years of the twenty-first century has seen a fundamental shift from a bipolar to a multipolar world. Those countries and peoples once forgotten or overlooked in conversations about the future are themselves now defining that very tomorrow. New actors are rapidly populating the international development space, from think-do tanks and private philanthropy to multinational corporations, all of which have their own reasons for doing so. Rapid technological advancement, including digital platforms and artificial intelligence, is changing the very landscape on which international development is based, creating new challenges and opportunities for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The world, as is so often quoted, is changing. With the the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (BAPA), which brought together the global development community at the BAPA+40 Conference, we are provided with a moment for reflection and ambitious consideration of tomorrow. How have South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation been manifested in practice? What successes have these modalities achieved, and which failings have they overcome? How have they been translated into cooperation beyond politics, economics and technical skills? What role have the historical centres of gravity for development cooperation, housed in Europe and North America, played and what role should they play going forward? Do South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation still mean what we think they mean or have they evolved into something unexpected? Undoubtedly, the BAPA+40 Conference provides an opportunity for all of us to consider these questions and many more. More than that, however, this conference of Southern and Northern voices alike offers a chance to begin an ambitious project, one that will likely grow larger and larger: the comprehensive mapping, analysis and exploration of the poles, boundaries, tenets and prospects of South-South and triangular cooperation. A research initiative, such as the Independent Report on South-South and Triangular Cooperation, creates an opportunity for the Global South to collectively tell its story of assistance and development cooperation. It is a vehicle to showcase the uniqueness of its efforts and the impact of its actions. It is both an avenue for reflection on our past and a prompt for new questions, considerations, analyses and ideas on the present and future of South-South and triangular cooperation. Perhaps above all, this report and the new ideas that it will stimulate going forward are themselves a prompt for deeper consideration of precisely what South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation are or should be in the face of the changing global geopolitical, humanitarian and economic systems into which they are being integrated. This report is an important first step in that direction. In the future, we expect that a wide range of actors and partners will add to the story of South-South and triangular cooperation, expanding the base of knowledge. We hope that, in another forty years, development practitioners will look back at this stocktaking of the state of South-South and triangular cooperation with a sense of pride in what we began here and in what will have subsequently been accomplished. MR. JORGE CHEDIEK Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and Envoy of the Secretary-General on South-South Cooperation 7 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 1978, at a conference in Argentina, national leaders agreed to the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA) for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, formalizing a comprehensive strategy to facilitate and grow technical cooperation between and among countries of the Global South. Some 40 years later, the Global South came together at the BAPA+40 Conference in Argentina in March 2019 to evaluate the progress made in creating effective systems of South-South and triangular cooperation and to prepare for the next phase of this work. The Outcome Document of the BAPA+40 Conference, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly contains refrence to enhancement of South-South Cooperation and triangular cooperation; UN support to South-South Cooperation; Science, technology and innovation; Multistakeholder partnerships; and funding. Indeed, as the world works towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, South-South and triangular cooperation will become ever more important as modalities through which to address borderless challenges facing the entire world but that may disproportionally impact the Global South. The South-South and South-North sharing of knowledge, ideas and strategies for dealing with these issues remains an untapped reservoir for potential change, a spark for sustainable development thus far unrealized. South-South and triangular cooperation represent a considerable force in international development and demonstrate our capacity as a global community to facilitate the evolution, upgrading, complementing and revision of existing systems as well as strategies for the achievement of the ambitious goals of the 2030 Agenda. Guided by the core principles of respect for national sovereignty, national ownership and independence, equality, non-conditionality, non-interference in domestic affairs and mutual benefit, they encourage us to think differently about development and partnership systems that have thus far remained permanent, institutionalized and unchallenged in the international system. Forty years after Buenos Aires, these principles remain pillars of South- South cooperation. The Independent Report on South-South and Triangular Cooperation speaks to the past and the present of South-South and triangular cooperation. It reflects on the importance of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, the progress that has been made in South-South and triangular cooperation compared with traditional development aid, and the collaborative international relations between countries of the Global South. The report presents the argument that South-South cooperation often extends far beyond the board rooms and conference centres of high-level international relations, but its effects are felt and driven by non-state actors. Furthermore, it highlights the role of emerging and smaller Southern economies as important contributors to changing the global landscape. It examines the reasons for a shift in which these nation-states are now leading defenders of both globalization and multilateralism and the various ways in which South-South cooperation has facilitated the reshaping of the extant global order politically, economically and socially. A series of case studies illustrate how far South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation have come in what has been referred to as the harbinger of a “post-Western world”. It considers the modalities and operationalization of South-South and
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