Mozambique Hosts Third African Workshop on SSTrC for Sustainable Development

27 August, Maputo, Republic of Mozambique – A Technical Workshop on South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development was held in Maputo, Republic of Mozambique, on 26 and 27 August 2017, on the sidelines of the TICAD Ministerial Meeting. It was organized by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), hosted by the Government of Mozambique, and supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The overall objective of the capacity building workshop was to encourage debate and develop a shared conceptual understanding of what needs to be done to expand and scale up South-South cooperation. The workshop focused on the experience of Southern African countries. It was the third in a series of workshops following one for West Africa held in Benin in February 2017, and one for East Africa held in Kenya in May 2017. During two days of workshop, participants shared their experiences on South-South and triangular cooperation and discussed how to scale up the national and regional institutional arrangements for the management of South-South and triangular cooperation, in a way that would serve the sustainable development objectives of the countries of the South within the framework of the 2030 Agenda and 2063 Agenda for Africa. The participants also continued their discussions on the critical issues raised during the second workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya, focusing on the below topics:

• Private sector engagement
• Measurement of South-South cooperation
• Science, technology and innovation for improved productivity and efficiency
• Institutionalization and promotion of South-South cooperation

“Africa today is willing to identify and share locally developed solutions to crucial sustainable development challenges,” said Mr. Tarik Iziraren, UNOSSC Deputy Director for Policy and Strategic Partnerships, in his opening remarks. “Further efforts should be undertaken to reinforce certain aspects to promote South-South cooperation on the continent, including: capacity building for strengthening national institutions in initiating, managing, coordinating and implementing South-South and triangular cooperation initiatives…” “In the process leading up to the High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation to be hosted by Argentina in March 2019,” Mr. Iziraren said, “it is important that the national institutions in charge of coordinating South-South and triangular cooperation participate actively in this preparatory process”. Over 40 participants, most of them heads of the national institutions dealing with international cooperation and South-South cooperation, from 18 countries representing different regions of the South (Africa, Asia and Latin America), as well as United Nations agencies and regional organizations joined the Mozambique workshop. The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Mozambique, H.E. Mr. Domingos Lambo, and UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Mozambique, Ms. Marcia de Castro, were present at the opening session of the workshop.