2030 Sustainable Development Agenda with Focus on Education Goal – SDG 4
By Kishore Singh
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development must be considered bearing in mind the right to education as an internationally recognized right as well as the right to development. Below is the keynote presentation by Kishore Singh, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, at the Asian High-level Forum on Human Rights on the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (more…)
South-South cooperation for confronting the neglected problem of snakebite envenoming: the role of Costa Rica
By Dr. Jose María Gutiérrez and Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gómez
As of 2018, the international community has a global framework to address the problem of snakebite envenomings, an acute problem that affects rural populations in tropical areas of the world, which mainly affects people from the most vulnerable sectors of the population and leaves significant negative consequences in millions of people around the world. This global framework was adopted by a resolution of the World Health Organization (WHO) at its 71st World Assembly on May 24, 2018, thus providing for a strong mandate to develop a comprehensive plan to address this health problem, work with affected countries, partners, stakeholders and industry, and develop a comprehensive approach that will allow countries to implement an effective response to this health issue.
La coopération Sud-Sud en Afrique du Sud 40 ans après le BAPA
Par Neissan Alessandro Besharati
Alors que les États membres et les Nations Unies (NU) se préparent pour la deuxième Conférence de haut niveau sur la coopération Sud-Sud (CSS) quarante ans après l’adoption du Plan d’Action de Buenos Aires (PABA), cet article reflète le parcours de l’Afrique du Sud dans la mise en oeuvre de la coopération technique avec les pays en développement (CTPD). Bien que le gouvernement d’apartheid de Pretoria ait été exclu des discussions à Buenos Aires, l’Afrique du Sud a joué un rôle important au sein de la CSS, au cours des deux dernières décennies, en promouvant le renforcement des capacités, l’échange d’expériences et la CTPD en Afrique et au niveau intrarégional. L’article examinera le degré de conformité des 38 recommandations établies dans le PABA par l’Afrique du Sud et le travail de suivi qui reste nécessaire, aux niveaux national et mondial, pour faire avancer le programme de la CSS.
South Africa’s South-South cooperation 40 years after BAPA
By Neissan Alessandro Besharati
As member states and the United Nations (UN) prepare to come together for the 2nd High Level Conference on South-South cooperation (SSC) forty years after the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA), this article reflects on the journey South Africa has made in implementing technical cooperation with developing countries (TCDC). Although the Apartheid government of Pretoria was excluded from the discussions in Buenos Aires, in the last two decades South Africa has played a major role in SSC, promoting capacity building, exchange of experiences, and TCDC in Africa and intra-regionally. The article will explore the degree of compliance by South Africa with the 38 recommendations (Recs. 1-38) set out in the BAPA, and the follow up work still required, both nationally and globally, to advance the SSC agenda. (more…)
Key Issues for BAPA+40: South-South Cooperation and the BAPA+40 Subthemes
By Vicente Paolo B. Yu III
Developing countries today face multiple interlinked macroeconomic, financial, climate, and development challenges. South-South cooperation is an important element for developing countries to meet these challenges individually and collectively, and in multilateral North-South dialogue and global governance. The overall theme of the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (40 years after the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promotion and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries/BAPA+40) is the “Role of South-South cooperation and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: challenges and opportunities”, with sub-themes. This research paper will present some concepts relating to South-South cooperation that have been developed by the South and the United Nations system, and looks at some issues that would be relevant to discussions that may be undertaken with respect to Subthemes (i) “Comparative advantages and opportunities of South-South cooperation”; (ii) “Challenges and the strengthening of the institutional framework of South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation”; and (iv) “Scaling up the means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in support of South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation”. It concludes by providing recommendations for the consideration of developing countries in response to the various subthemes, as inputs to support the active engagement by developing countries in the negotiations for the BAPA+40 outcome document.
24th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC: The US COP?
By Mariama Williams
Despite its stated intentions to leave the Paris Agreement, the United States negotiating team continued to dominate many of the negotiations of key areas of the twenty-fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 24) agenda of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The outcome of the meeting, branded the ‘Katowice Climate Package’, again showed developing countries sacrificing many redlines to save multilateralism. The Katowice Outcome reflects very little substantial advancement of the global climate protection agenda. However, the discussion and further refining of the rules will continue in the UNFCCC’s upcoming negotiating sessions in 2019 as well as COP 25. Hence, developing countries have a chance to regroup and push forward to ensure sustainable development objectives are ensured and protected.
Assessment of South-South Cooperation and the Global Narrative on the Eve of BAPA+40
By Yuefen LI
This research paper gives a brief account of the fast expansion of South-South cooperation (SSC) in volume, modalities and participating countries and institutions. Though SSC is a de facto development compact, there is a tendency to overstate the total concessional financial element of SSC compared to Official Development Assistance (ODA), as SSC constitutes only a small portion of the total ODA from traditional donors. North-South cooperation (NSC) is still the dominant pillar of development finance; hence SSC needs to be regarded as a complement to and not a substitute for NSC. (more…)
Stemming ‘Commercial’ Illicit Financial Flows & Developing Country Innovations in the Global Tax Reform Agenda
By Manuel F. Montes, Daniel Uribe and Danish
Illicit Financial Flows generated due to the commercial activities of multinational enterprises are quantitatively the most important challenge faced by developing countries in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Current efforts for stemming these illicit flows and reforming the international tax system are however being led by developed countries, with developing country interests poorly reflected in the reform agenda. This research paper highlights the tax issues of great priority for developing countries and how international tax cooperation can contribute to preventing such illicit flows.
South-South Cooperation: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Realities
By Sachin Chaturvedi
Drawing on the heterogeneity and pluralities among the practitioners of South-South Cooperation (SSC), this article argues against any effort to develop a uniform structure of methodological and accounting approaches to capture its nuances. It further elaborates the importance of sectoral interventions in a mission mode that lies at the core of SSC interventions, unlike the project mode approach pursued under the official development assistance (ODA) framework. Underscoring the recent discussions in the literature that the world is moving towards a multiplex that would have no hegemonistic role for any nation, but would simultaneously preserve cultural and political diversity, it calls for moving beyond the idea of “Government to Government” approach to a more democratic process of “people-centric” cooperation. It concludes with the important role that think-tanks from the South are expected to play in strengthening SSC. (more…)
Statement by His Excellency Thabo Mbeki on the occasion of the meeting of the Board of the South Centre
Below is the statement of His Excellency Thabo Mbeki, former President of the Republic of South Africa, and new Chair of the Board of the South Centre, upon conclusion of the 41st meeting of the Board of the South Centre, held on 11 October 2018 at the South Centre in Geneva.
