By Dima Al-Khatib, Director of the UN Office for South South Cooperation (UNOSSC)
Southern-led development finance, like that championed by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), provides essential support to developing countries in the implementation of their sustainable development agendas, adapted to their specific domestic conditions.
In this regard, various international agreements call for scaling up financing for development, emphasizing the role of South-South cooperation, in promoting a sustainable future. At the 21st Session of the High-Level Committee on South- South Cooperation; along with the Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Summit held in Havana, Cuba, last year; and other intergovernmental forums, Member States stressed the importance of financing for sustainable development.
“Achieving the SDGs requires new, additional, quality, adequate, sustainable, and predictable financing, as well as a bold approach to development finance,” stated the Group of 77 and China in the Outcome Document of their recently held Third South Summit.
Responding to the priorities of the South, IsDB has been providing exactly this kind of innovative development financing since its establishment.
The Bank is a champion of South-South cooperation among its 57 Member Countries – all of whom are from the South. It reaches people across four continents – among its Member Countries and Muslim communities in non-member countries. It impacts the lives of 1 in 5 of the world’s population.
Upholding a principle that lies at the heart of all South-South cooperation, the Bank is not prescriptive, it recognizes that development objectives vary from one country to another, and its work is therefore demand-driven, motivated by understanding the real needs of its Member Countries.
The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation has been a proud partner of IsDB, in its work toward building prosperity across the Global South and beyond.
As early as the 1980s, the Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC), UNOSSC’s predecessor, initiated joint work with IsDB on an innovative program of work supporting senior government officials of IsDB’s Member Countries. This work oriented development practitioners on certain distinct comparative advantages of South-South cooperation over traditional North-South cooperation, notably, its cost-effectiveness; preventing brain drain; and the importance of sharing policies in use in developing countries experiencing similar socio-economic conditions. The emergence of the concept of Technical Cooperation among Islamic Countries (TCIC) soon thereafter, and the introduction of a Technical Cooperation Program (TCP) in IsDB were among the tangible outcomes of this early joint work.
In subsequent years, UNOSSC and IsDB collaborated in assisting IsDB Member Countries in organizing capacities and needs matching exercises with the view to supporting exchanges of experts and sharing of one another’s training facilities, in the spirit of solidarity, and on mutually affordable terms.
Guided by the principles of South-South cooperation and aligned with the spirit of the 2030 Agenda, the IsDB designed the Reverse Linkage technical cooperation mechanism that identifies the existing know-how, expertise, technology and resources within its Member Countries and transfers them to those in need. The IsDB’s support for South-South cooperation is also reflected by its National Ecosystems for South-South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation, which it developed in collaboration with the South Centre and UNOSSC. IsDB also supports the South-South Cooperation Directors General Forum for Sustainable Development, an important UNOSSC advocacy tool and platform bringing together leaders from cooperation agencies and institutions of national governments and other partners, providing an opportunity to exchange views on South-South and triangular cooperation approaches and methodologies.
To date, UNOSSC-managed South-South Trust Funds – including the United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation; Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund for South-South Cooperation; India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation; and India-UN Development Partnership Fund – have been active in all IsDB Member States.
Recently, to address the lack of a mechanism for measuring and evaluating the scale and effectiveness of South-South cooperation efforts, in 2023, IsDB – with inputs from partners including UNOSSC and UNCTAD – developed its South-South Cooperation Index to help track: South-South cooperation-related political will, national strategy, information bases, stakeholder participation, technical cooperation agency profile, financing mechanisms, South-South cooperation interventions, and monitoring mechanisms.
In March, a Global Advocacy Dialogue Series was launched by UNOSSC and IsDB to explore the latest development and partnership trends focusing on the innovative and evolving nature of South- South and triangular cooperation. The first dialogue in the IsDB-UNOSSC series – organized together with the Government of Portugal – introduced the potential for triangular cooperation to accelerate sustainable development, as an important bridge between South-South and North-South cooperation.
With its mandate to advocate for and coordinate South-South and triangular cooperation on a global and United Nations system-wide basis, in moving forward, UNOSSC stands ready to scale up its partnership with IsDB to bridge gaps, locate synergies, and improve livelihoods across the Global South.
Click here to read the IsDB Special Edition SDGs Digest: Cherishing our Past Charting our Future
