What is South-South Cooperation?

South-South Cooperation means countries of the South helping each other by sharing technical or economic knowledge and skills to facilitate development.

What is Triangular Cooperation?

It's the initiative of technical cooperation among two or more developing countries that is supported financially by northern donors or by international organizations.

What is TCDC?

Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries - known as TCDC - is essentially a process whereby two or more developing countries pursue their individual or collective development through cooperative exchanges of knowledge, skills, resources and technical know-how.

Ideally, TCDC activities should be initiated, organized and managed  by developing countries themselves with their governments playing a lead role while involving public and private institutions, non-governmental organizations and individuals.

TCDC can include all sectors and all kinds of technical cooperation activities of developing countries, whether bilateral, multilateral, sub regional, regional or interregional in character.

The challenge is to marshal innovative approaches, methods and techniques that are particularly adapted to local needs without supplanting existing modalities of technical cooperation which have proven useful.

The ultimate goal of TCDC is the promotion of national and collective self-reliance among developing countries, on the one hand, and global interdependence, on the other.

What is the difference between TCDC and South-South Cooperation?

South-South Cooperation is a broader concept because it covers a very wide range of collaboration among developing countries, being generally perceived to have three dimensions: political, economic and technical.

Since the growing integration of TCDC and Economic Cooperation among developing countries (ECDC) has been encouraged by the HLC and the United Nations General Assembly, the Special Unit for TCDC is working on all the dimensions of South-South Cooperation.

When and why was the UNDP' s Special Unit for TCDC created?

In 1972, the General Assembly created a Working Group on TCDC. The Special Unit was established within UNDP in 1974, according to resolution N°3251 (XXIX). When the General Assembly in 1976 called for the Buenos Aires Conference, the Special Unit was the focal point of the preparatory process, and it was strengthened later to deal with follow-up actions.

Since 1997, the work of the Special Unit has been programmed within a cooperation framework that takes into account prevailing trends relevant to TCDC.

The second cooperation framework (2001-2003) was formulated at a time of accelerating integration of the global economy and is focused on activities that will support developing countries in dealing with related problems and opportunities. The focus of current activities is on regional and interregional initiatives aimed at engaging a large number of countries to work together to formulate policies, share information, agree on priorities and translate ideas into programmes.

The strategic aim is to make developing countries effective partners with all other actors in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and targets set by the G-77 Havana Programme of Action, such as halving the incidence of extreme poverty by 2015.

What is the Group of 77?

The Group of 77 (G-77) was established on 15 June 1964 by seventy-seven developing countries signatories of the “Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries” issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. Beginning with the first “Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77 in Algiers (Algeria) on 10 – 25 October 1967, which adopted the Charter of Algiers”, a permanent institutional structure gradually developed which led to the creation of Chapters of the Group of 77 with Liaison offices in Geneva (UNCTAD), Nairobi (UNEP), Paris (UNESCO), Rome (FAO/IFAD), Vienna (UNIDO), and the Group of 24 (G-24) in Washington, D.C. (IMF and World Bank). Although the members of the G-77 have increased to 130 countries, the original name was retained because of its historic significance.

See also: Group of 77

What is the Buenos Aires Plan of Action?

The document is the result of a Conference held in Argentina's capital in 1978, gathering 138 countries. It aims at Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC).

The concept of TCDC already existed and had been thoroughly studied and analyzed for over five years on the international and interregional levels to have its principle objectives spelled out in Buenos Aires.

Endorsed by the General Assembly, the Buenos Aires Plan of Action presents 38 recommendations for the enhancement of TCDC focused on the purpose of increasing the capacity of the developing countries, developing their awareness and confidence in each other capabilities.

What is the HLC or High-Level Committee on the Review of TCDC?

The overall intergovernmental review of TCDC is entrusted to a high-level meeting of representatives of all countries participating in UNDP. This meeting was renamed the "High-Level Committee on the Review of TCDC" (HLC) in 1980. It meets biennially.

The United Nations General Assembly has consistently endorsed the relevance of the recommendations of the HLC, underscoring the importance of implementing its decisions as a basis for strengthening TCDC.

Within UNDP and in addition to other responsibilities, the Special Unit serves as a secretariat of the HLC.

What is UNDP?

UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.

See also: About UNDP

What is the role of UNDP in SSC?

UNDP, the United Nations Development Programme, hosts the Special Unit for SSC.

UNDP is the United Nations global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.

On the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges, UNDP handles issues connected with developing and strengthening SSC through the Special Unit for TCDC (SU/SSC).

What are the pivotal countries?

Pivotal countries are developing countries that, by virtue of their capacities and experience in promoting South South cooperation, are positioned to play a ‘lead’ role in the promotion and application of TCDC, mainly by sharing their capacities and experience with other developing countries in their region or in other regions.

The concept of pivotal countries was created in 1995 within the new directions given to TCDC by the High Level Committee following recommendations of the United Nations General Assembly.

The following are  the 22 countries first identified as pivotal countries: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malta, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, the Republic of Korea, Senegal, Thailand, Trindad and Tobago, Tunisia and Turkey.

What is a focal point?

The focal point - whether it is a specific ministry, an inter-ministerial committee, a development agency or even a special unit - is the national institution responsible for the development of TCDC in a developing country or in a United Nations agency.

The concept of focal point was created at the first session of the High Level Committee, in 1980, as a way to enhance TCDC.

The activities of the focal points are mainly:

• Assisting in the formulation of national TCDC policies, strategies and programs;
• Organizing TCDC orientation seminars, training courses and study tours;
• Serving as a liaison between national enterprises and their foreign counterparts involved in TCDC;
• Assessing the costs, benefits and overall impact of TCDC on a country's development needs;
• Providing guidance in the development of a national TCDC information network.
• Maintaining an inventory of the country's needs and domestic resources that it's willing to share with other countries.

What are the New Directions for TCDC

The report on New Directions was adopted by the HLC in its ninth session in 1995. Among many decisions - such as better integrating TCDC and ECDC or such as creating the concept of pivotal countries - the New Directions establish the need to adopt a more strategic orientation for TCDC, focused on high priority areas like trade and investment, debt, environment, poverty alleviation, production and employment, macroeconomic policy coordination and aid management for strategic focus.

See also: New Directions

What is WIDE?

The Web of Information for Development is an online web-enabled system which gathers information on experts, experiences and institutions of the South.

On one hand, it promotes the use of Southern expertise in development initiatives by providing points of contact with Southern experiences.

On the other hand, WIDE strengthens the ability to identify Southern capacities to carry out technical cooperation.

WIDE supports the efforts of countries and organizations to:

• better identify, index and access their own expertise
• position their expertise for better access by others
• facilitate access to the expertise of others
• improve collaborative work

See also: WIDE - The Web of Information for Development