Bridging continents: Advancing Sustainable Development through South-South Cooperation

Today, countries of the South are not just participating in the development landscape, they are leading it. With shared histories, challenges and aspirations, they are uniquely positioned to address their development issues through mutual learning and collaboration. In this context, South-South Cooperation (SSC) offers a powerful mechanism to transform these shared experiences into collective progress.

“This cooperation has been extremely important for me, as it has allowed me to learn about the experiences of Asian countries and their policies,” said Griseida Ponce of El Salvador’s National Commission for MSMEs, during a study tour organized by ESCAP and the Presidential Agency for International Cooperation of Colombia (APC Colombia).  “I am very committed and excited about applying these innovative policies I learnt to my MSME portfolio.”

Similarly, Asha Navaratnam from SME Corp. Malaysia underscored the practical benefits of South-South learning: “I gained valuable knowledge about various SMEs initiatives implemented by countries in Latin America and in Asia. I have also identified several initiatives that could be effectively adopted to benefit Malaysian SMEs.”

The study tour, which convened policymakers from Mesoamerica and Asia Pacific to exchange knowledge on facilitating the green transition of SMEs, is part of a broader programme led by ESCAP, in partnership with APC Colombia and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism (MINCIT) of Colombia. Since 2022, this partnership has fostered interregional cooperation between the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions, establishing mechanisms for sustained engagement and joint actions.

Over the past four years, this partnership has demonstrated SSC’s potential through a series of initiatives:

• Research and analysis and knowledge creation: Five major publications have been developed, offering practical insights and case studies of effective policy measures from the two regions on topics such as the green transition of businesses, financial inclusion, formalizing informal employment, sustainable and inclusive business innovation, and ESG adoption, serving as critical resources for policymakers.

• Knowledge exchange and dissemination, sharing of experiences & good practices: As part of a community of practice connecting policymakers from Asia and Latin America, ESCAP is convening regular meetings and working groups focused on areas like ESG tools for SMEs and training for green enterprises, translates discussions into tangible country initiatives.

• Capacity building and technical assistance: Study tours to Colombia, Cambodia, India, Lao PDR and Malaysia, have provided firsthand learning from successful financial inclusion models to best practices for facilitating access to finance for the green transition of SMEs. Targeted training programmes, such as on FDI attraction, have equipped investment promotion agencies with the skills needed to secure sustainable foreign investments and integrate gender-responsive strategies. Building on this work, several investment promotion agencies have joined a pledge to advance gender equity in foreign direct investment.

As part of this collaboration, the Government of Colombia has played a proactive role in advancing interregional cooperation. As highlighted by Eleonora Betancur, Director General of APC Colombia, “South-South Cooperation represents a strategic pathway to foster knowledge exchange and productive development, expanding Colombia’s cooperation efforts beyond Latin America and the Caribbean and strengthening ties with partners across the Global South.”

The impact of these initiatives is evident from the perspectives of participants. Notably, 96 per cent of policymakers who participated in the project’s capacity-building initiatives now utilize their new skills and knowledge to develop policy measures that foster more inclusive and sustainable economies. Since a study tour to Bogota, Colombia in late 2024, for example, several delegates already made changes in their programmes and several others, including those from Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Philippines have started to adapt and pilot initiatives presented by other countries, such as a training for green entrepreneurship and a tool for MSME ESG assessments, in their contexts.

SSC is more than a development mechanism—it is a pathway to resilience, innovation, and shared prosperity. As emphasized by the Colombian government, these partnerships not only generate benefits for countries, but they also strengthen multilateralism and complementarity in addressing the challenges of achieving sustainable and inclusive development through a multi-stakeholder, territorial approach that recognizes the experiences of local communities.

Increasingly, South-South Cooperation is not merely seen as a complement to traditional development assistance, but as a legitimate and independent alternative, with its own set of principles, priorities and visions of development. It promotes horizontal partnerships and peer-to-peer learning while also reflecting the Global South’s political commitment to shaping context-specific, sustainable and effective development pathways. 

SSC embodies a cooperation model that recognizes and amplifies the South’s capacity to lead its own transformation. Home to 85 per cent of the world’s population, the Global South contributes 91 per cent of global labour across all skill levels. It accounts for 42 per cent of global GDP, and South-South trade more than doubled between 2007 and 2023, signalling new opportunities and the growing importance of Global South economies. More people have been lifted out of poverty in the Global South than anywhere else, and many Southern economies are now outpacing their Northern counterparts in terms of growth. This momentum is accompanied by a new sense of agency and solidarity among the countries of the Global South, as they are shaping their own development paths through South-South Cooperation.