Mr. Jorge Chediek, Envoy of Secretary-General on South-South Cooperation and Director of UNOSSC, met with President of China Agricultural University, Professor Sun Qinxin, on 31 May in Beijing and signed a MOU.
Mr. Chediek congratulated the China Agriculture University (CAU) on their recent launching of the China Belt and Road Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (BRIAC) and the China Institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture (CISSCA). He acknowledged agriculture and rural development as important areas in which South-South cooperation played a vital role in achieving poverty eradication and sustainable development. He expressed appreciation for the partnership and support of CAU to the work of UNOSSC – particularly the “Youth4South” Advanced Youth Leadership Programme.
Professor Sun Qixin acknowledged the important role that UNOSSC played in promoting SSC UN-system wide and globally. He expressed his hope that, through this programme, UNOSSC, other institutional partners, and participating young leaders from national governments and respective sectors will have a better understanding of the vision and work of the CAU and the newly launched institutes.
Professor Li Xiaoyun, Dean of CISSCA, participated in the meeting and expressed strong interest in collaborating with UNOSSC on agriculture and rural development youth leadership training.
The “Youth4South” Programme aims to develop established youth leaders\’ capacity to utilize South-South cooperation tools and methodologies to scale-up development solutions and projects in achieving sustainable development in their own communities, home countries and globally. The pilot orientation of the Programme will be held from 20 to 22 June in Istanbul, in partnership with the UN System Staff College, CAU, UNFPA, IsDB, and SESRIC of OIC. CAU developed the training module on agriculture and rural development, and will send 2 resource persons to convene that training module.
An MOU was signed between the two sides. Under this partnership framework, UNOSSC and CAU agree to cooperate in the areas of research, knowledge sharing, capacity development and joint activities to strengthen South-South cooperation in agriculture and rural development for achieving the SDGs and advancing the “Belt and Road Initiative”, specifically though: conducting policy research; mapping good practices and needs in South-South cooperation in agriculture and rural development among the “Belt and Road Initiative” member countries; promoting youth leadership and capacity development in South-South cooperation in agriculture and rural development; and organizing joint events and hosting “South-South cooperation and United Nations Chair” lectures.
Article by Dingding Sun (UNOSSC Programme Coordination Specialist, dingding.sun@unossc.org)
