United Nations South-South Cooperation Hosts High-Level Forum in Macau

MACAU, China, Sept. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- South-South Cooperation has been identified by world leaders, senior United Nations officials, and other development stakeholders as an essential component of supporting the future of sustainable development during a high-level forum in Macau, China.

Attended by top political leaders, including the Prime Minister of the Republic of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, over 40 ambassadors, and top officials from the UN and other international organizations, the High-Level Multi-Stakeholders Strategy Forum builds on previous events over the past year in helping identify emerging trends in the areas of South-South and Triangular Cooperation. It also provides a basis for the establishment of these mechanisms as part of the support architecture for sustainable development, specifically the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Leaders at the Forum suggested that previous iterations of global development, especially the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), inadequately harnessed new trends in international political and economic relations. The new development agenda anchored in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) attempts to go beyond the shortcomings of the MDGs and incorporate emerging dynamics of international trade and cooperation to help continue the advancement of development across the global South.

Ambassador Francis Lorenzo, President of the Sun Kian IP Group Foundation, said that the Post-2015 Agenda presents an historic opportunity for countries of the South to join together and devise strategies that will support full implementation of the SDGs.

"Through the creation of a strong and unified Global South Coalition comprised of governments, UN agencies, private sector actors, civil society organizations, thought-leaders, financial institutions, and philanthropic entities, we truly can come together to Deliver as One, to build the World We Want," Lorenzo said.

The Forum is organized by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and the General Assembly High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, and is sponsored by the Sun Kian IP Group Foundation.

It follows recent international conferences in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at a time when the international community is working to identify means of implementation for the Post-2015 Development Agenda. South-South and Triangular Cooperation have been welcomed as promising complements to existing forms of development cooperation, particularly in the areas of financing, technology transfer, and knowledge sharing.

Delegates at this high-level forum noted that while South-South and Triangular Cooperation do indeed create new avenues of development for the global South, they cannot replace existing forms of development aid buttressed by Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the global North.

Nevertheless, participants underscored that the existing architecture influencing South-South Cooperation must be scaled up in order to realize its benefits more holistically and rapidly. Both government and United Nations officials present at the meetings discussed ways that greater partnerships between stakeholders can be utilized to create initiatives that facilitate sustainable financing, the transfer of technology, sharing of best practices, and supporting good governance.

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SOURCE South-South Cooperation