Documenting One Success Story at a Time for Stronger Global Cooperation

South-South in Action (SSiA) is one of UNOSSC’s flagship report series. We designed it as a platform to advocate for and promote our partners’ successful policies, initiatives, and activities that are leading to the achievement of some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Over the past 15 years, publications dedicated to South-South cooperation have been mostly academic reports or findings from research work, and partners’ ownership of these publications has been limited. Therefore, we saw the need to hear the voice of the “Doers” – policymakers and practitioners who are making a difference in their communities. The SSiA report series was launched in 2016 to fill this gap. To date we have published a total of six SSiA reports that focus on success stories from Member States Thailand and Bangladesh, plus experiences of intergovernmental organizations, including the Union for the Mediterranean region, the g7+ group of countries, the Turkic Council, and the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization.

Here are some of the highlights from our SSiA reports:

1. South-South in Action: Inspiring Sustainable Development with Bamboo

Did you know that bamboo has an important role in inspiring action and enabling international development? Just a few of many benefits bamboo can offer include local employment opportunities, women’s empowerment, and climate change alleviation. Are you curious about how China, for example, uses bamboo in construction, flooring, and energy, while Ethiopia builds a charcoal pulverizer with a cyclone dust collector? By reading this report, you will learn more about specific cases on what bamboo can do for a more inclusive and creative future in the South.

2. South-South in Action: Sustainability in Thailand

Thailand is the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia with a high level of human development initiatives and leading sectors of machinery, electronics, and automobile parts. One of Thailand’s best practices is the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) that focuses on three interrelated components of development, including wisdom, moderation, and prudence along with two underlying conditions of knowledge and morality. Do you want to find out what each concept means and learn more about what these components entail? Then, our Thailand report is just for you to read and get inspired!

3. South-South in Action: Citizen-Friendly Public Service Innovation in Bangladesh

Through experimentation and innovation in poverty reduction, disaster mitigation, and economic management, Bangladesh has an increasingly important role in international development and gained respect from South-South partners over the years. One of Bangladesh’s success stories is its initiatives in public service innovation, such as digitalizing public service delivery. You will find more details on how Bangladesh is working towards achieving the SDGs, especially Goals 16 and 17 from this report. Learn more about what Bangladesh has to offer today!

Now that you know more about these reports, we hope that you will read and share them within your network to support our work at UNOSSC. All reports are available online on our website: www.unossc.org. We hope that these reports will provide you with basic information on the South-South cooperation activities and be a window for development partners to see and recognize opportunities for collaboration that exist in the South.

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