Challenges

Developing countries are increasingly championing innovative practices and solutions to health-related issues and making significant progress in areas related to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being). However, sharing of solutions and expertise at global and regional levels is not sufficient, and many good practices are not well documented and shared. In 2020, with the outbreak of COVID-19, health systems struggled to cope with the emergency response while at the same time maintaining the delivery of essential health services. Demand for South-South and Triangular Cooperation increased further, especially for the sharing of experiences of countries which were ahead of the global pandemic curve and early successes of government responses.

Toward a Solution

In February 2018, UNICEF and the International Policy Center for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build a partnership that promotes South-South and Triangular Cooperation for child-related SDGs. The partnership includes jointly hosting face-to-face and online events, as well as the management of a global online Community of Practice on South-South cooperation for Children (CoP-SSC4C). 

The Community of Practice is hosted on the socialprotection.org platform (a knowledge sharing and capacity building platform hosted by IPC-IG that leverages innovative approaches to virtual collaboration, allowing cooperation among different actors, despite geographical and sanitary barriers). The Community of Practice became the first on this platform to be primarily dedicated to SSTC to achieve the SDGs. 

The CoP-SSC4C methodology (focus, people and practice) supports and promotes South-South and Triangular Cooperation and country- to-country learning around SDG 3 (Health and Well-being), focusing on primary health care, reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, and within the overarching framework of Universal Health Coverage and health systems strengthening. The Community connects policymakers, government officials, experts, civil servants, civil society, academia, United Nations agencies and other development practitioners to exchange knowledge on the focus areas and to build relationships. Practitioners share their national capacity development objectives and solutions through exchanges of knowledge, good practice and lessons learned.

Among CoP-SSC4C initiatives, the regular organization of thematic webinars has been highly successful, enabling systemic and cross-country transfers of information and sharing on health thematic areas. Since its launch, CoP-SSC4C has promoted 10 webinars on topics such as maternal and child health, sanitation and hygiene and South-South development and cooperation, with a focus on COVID-19 responses since 2020. The webinars attracted more than 2,300 registrants and 1,200 attendees from governments, NGOs, research institutions, academia and the private sector and had 1,400 YouTube views. Through these webinars, varied experiences were shared and widely disseminated, including from countries such as Argentina, China, India, Iran, South Korea and Thailand.

These global discussions were effective in terms of geographical coverage, relevance and interaction. According to a post-webinar survey for the Leveraging South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Advancing Child and Adolescent Mental Health in the Context of COVID-19 webinar held in July 2021, the meeting brought together a diversified audience, with attendees from a variety of organizations and from 57 countries from all regions of the globe. The large majority of respondents (93 percent) agreed or strongly agreed that the webinar was relevant and useful to their work. Most respondents (97 percent) found the webinar delivered clear knowledge and information and was well structured. 

In its first year of activities, the CoP-SSC4C was one of the most accessed pages on the socialprotection.org platform and was featured in its 2018-2019 Annual Report. As of October 2021, the community had over 6,800 page views. On average since its inception, four new members join the Community every month, and as of October 2021, there were 191 members and practitioners in SSTC and thematic areas. 

CoP-SSC4C is adaptable and sustainable in terms of knowledge sharing. The initiative has taken an active role in enabling sharing of best practices among practitioners who have a common goal, across organizational boundaries and geographic distances. CoP-SSC4C supports organizational knowledge management and facilitates cooperation and innovation through enhanced communication opportunities, with a focus not limited to SDG3, but extended to all the SDGs. As a South-South Cooperation modality, the Community of Practice represents a valuable space and can deliver a cost-effective mode of continuous collaboration among development practitioners, policymakers and government officials from the South and effectively facilitates the promotion of capacity building and the sharing of solutions and experiences from the South to enable collaboration towards addressing common development challenges.