Committee of Experts of the Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund Discuss South-South Projects for Sustainable Development

New York – The 32nd Annual Meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund (PGTF) convened in New York today. The Committee will be in session through 28 July.

“This meeting will result in the Fund reaching significant milestones: The total number of projects approved to receive PGTF support is expected to reach 300 or more, and the cumulative financial contribution to the Fund will exceed $14 million,” said Mr. Eduardo Praselj, Chair of the Committee of Experts.

“PGTF is a valuable mechanism for the Group of 77 to implement South-South cooperation facilitated by the United Nations system, in particular UNDP country offices,” said Mr. Jorge Chediek, Envoy of the Secretary-General on South-South cooperation and Director, United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC).

The Committee comes together annually to review proposals for South-South cooperation projects involving a minimum of three developing countries. These applications for PGTF funding are submitted to the Executive Secretariat of the Group of 77 by the governments involved through their Permanent Missions to the United Nations in New York.

The PGTF has supported South-South cooperation activities for over three decades, during which it received $13.7 million in financial support and implemented 291 projects benefitting 143 countries. 47 United Nations Member States, including Least Developed and Small Island Developing States have contributed financially to PGTF, while 127 countries have participated, adding parallel and in-kind contributions to PGTF activities at the project-level.

PGTF projects have contributed towards the attainment of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The Committee makes recommendations on projects for their subsequent approval at the Group of 77 Ministerial Meeting. The agenda of the Committee also entails:

•  A review of the financial status of PGTF, including the performance of its endowment fund and its reinvestment strategy;
• Discussions on the overall implementation of the PGTF project portfolio;
• An analysis on feedback received from beneficiaries and implementing partners; and
• Approaches for the intensification of their resource mobilization strategy.

The Committee is comprised of six delegates, two from each region of the South following G77 groupings: Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Committee is chaired by Mr. Eduardo Praselj, former Vice President of Petróleos de Venezuela, former President of Petroquímica de Venezuela and former Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines of Venezuela. Other Committee members include Mr. Rabii Al-Hantouli, First Counsellor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine; Mr. Abdelhakim Mihoubi, Counsellor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Algeria; Mr. Lizwi Nkombela, Counsellor (Economic Affairs) at the South African Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva; Mr. Paisan Rupanichkij, Deputy Director-General of the Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA); and Mr. Marcelo Suárez Salvia, Ambassador of Argentina to Canada.