The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) stands out among multilateral development banks (MDBs) as the only major MDB to have a fully Global South membership and shareholder base. IsDB is essentially a ‘South-South’ bank, uniting its members with the desire to address the challenges facing humanity together.
Since 2019, IsDB has been promoting a new institutional arrangement framework for South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTrC), which was launched through the publication entitled “Developing National Ecosystems for SSTrC in IsDB Member Countries to Achieve Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development”.
On the other hand, South-South Cooperation is witnessing both a growing international consensus on its importance and a broadening of its definition. South-South Cooperation has also been useful in developing human capacities and, to some extent, institutional capacities. However, South-South Cooperation outputs are far from reaching their full potential, especially at the national level. One obvious obstacle has been the lack of a universal mechanism for measuring and evaluating the scale and effectiveness of South-South Cooperation efforts.
To address this obstacle, the IsDB team proactively developed this document on the “IsDB South-South Cooperation (SSC) Index”, which has been peer- reviewed by relevant partners such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Office for South- South Cooperation (UNOSSC).
The IsDB South-South Cooperation Index is a composite measure that assesses the existence, effectiveness, and growth of each element of the SSC national ecosystem of a Southern country, plus the scale and diversity of its South-South Cooperation activities.
It is worth noting that this document does not include real SSC-related data from Southern countries nor from international organizations. However, the definition of the SSC Index can now be used by the Southern countries to undertake voluntary and self- managed assessments of their South-South Technical Cooperation.
