FOREWORD
Good practices to accelerate sustainable human development are increasingly available in the global South. They can be found in the policies, institutions and programmes that have enabled a number of developing countries to acquire a skilled labour force, create decent jobs, raise productivity and lift millions of their citizens out of grinding poverty. Beyond the countries acting individually, there is a notable surge in international collective actions known as South-South and triangular cooperation. The development community recognizes these approaches as viable pathways to progress in the developing world. In such initiatives, developing countries turn to one another and their Northern partners to address challenges through cooperative alliances and peer-to-peer learning, leading to the widespread application of policies, strategies or practical programmes that have worked to raise living standards in the South.
Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development, the first in its series, highlights Southern good practices that are relevant to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Policymakers and development practitioner seeking to understand better how South-South and triangular cooperation can contribute to the improvement of peoples’ lives will find ample answers in this book. Many of the good practices featured were recommended by member agencies of the United Nations Development Group Task Team on South-South and Triangular Cooperation and other development partners at the subregional, regional and global levels. Others were selected from among the good practices that had been nominated and showcased during the annual Global South-South Development Expos organized by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation since 2008.
Priority has been given to highlighting activities that illustrate the main characteristics of effective South-South and triangular cooperation; initiatives that involve and benefit a great number of people in two or more countries of the South; solutions that have addressed transnational development challenges that would be difficult to tackle singlehandedly; and programmes that have been tested, validated, adapted and/or scaled up in various locations. The objective is to demonstrate the efficacy of South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation in inspiring international solidarity in efforts to overcome shared obstacles and jump-start or accelerate progress towards sustainable human development.
As the Co-Chairs of the United Nations Development Group Task Team on South-South and Triangular Cooperation, we hope that this publication will serve as a reference for United Nations resident coordinators, United Nations country teams, South-South and triangular cooperation focal points in the United Nations development system as well as national governments and development practitioners who facilitate the integration of South-South and triangular cooperation approaches into national development plans and actions.
Jorge Chediek
Envoy of the Secretary-General on South-South Cooperation and Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation
Vinícius Carvalho Pinheiro
Special Representative to the United Nations and Director International Labour Organization Office for the United Nations
