Kenya Hosts Second African Workshop on SSTrC for Sustainable Development

A technical workshop on South-South and triangular cooperation for sustainable development was held at the Hilton Hotel, Nairobi from 2 to 4 May, 2017. The meeting was hosted by the Government of Kenya, with support from the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Kenya Country Office and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The meeting followed a workshop hosted by the Government of Benin in February 2017 focused on West Africa, and is expected to be followed by a meeting to share experiences of Southern African countries in the coming months. Participants – representing Member States, United Nations system organizations among others – developed a shared conceptual understanding of actions needed to finance, expand and scale up South-South and triangular cooperation for sustainable development.

Participants exchanged knowledge and experiences on methods of managing and promoting South-South and triangular cooperation through the identification of frameworks, mechanisms and tools, as well as by exploring strategic partnerships based on national priorities. Issues discussed included:

• Institutionalization and promotion of South-South activities
• Measurement and mapping of South-South cooperation activities
• The role of regional cooperation institutions
• Capacity building
• Resource mobilization and innovative financial solutions
• The role of science, technology and innovation in enhancing productivity and efficiency
• Mainstreaming South-South cooperation in national development plans, policies and budgets
• Trade and investment
• The role of the private sector, academia and other non–state actors
• Partnerships and networking for South–South cooperation
• Advocacy and communications for South-South cooperation

Moving forward participants agreed to:

• Develop roadmaps at the national and regional levels within the next six months for the mainstreaming and promotion of South-South and triangular cooperation for sustainable development. The roadmaps will embrace public, private, academic and other non–state actors.
• Strengthen South-South coordination institutions through: Legal, policy and regulatory frameworks; Human and financial resources; A mandate for focal points, Ministry Departments and/or cooperation agencies to convene and coordinate national and regional policy and actions on South-South cooperation; and Mapping of South-South impact
• Provide enabling instruments at the national and regional levels including South-South Funds, procedures, manuals and guidelines for implementing South-South and triangular cooperation.
• Develop a standardized measurement of South-South cooperation in-flows and out-flows, as well as their impact using both quantitative and qualitative indicators.
• Develop, with the support of UNOSSC, a standardized reporting mechanism on progress in implementing the roadmap within the next one year.

Participants called upon UNOSSC to schedule a consultative meeting before the second United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation in Buenos Aires (BAPA +40) to synthesize lessons learnt from the implementation of the roadmaps.