South-South Global Thinkers: The Global Coalition of Think Tank Networks for South-South Cooperation

The world has adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an agenda calling for a new and inclusive global partnership, of which South-South and Triangular cooperation (SSC and TrC) forms an integral part. Goal 17, in particular, places emphasis on the critical role of SSC and TrC in achieving this ambitious development agenda. It places importance on the need to enhance knowledge sharing through improved coordination among existing mechanisms.

Yet, the potential of SSC and TrC to contribute towards sustainable development and poverty eradication has not been fully leveraged. Knowledge gap and uneven access to solutions and resources are major obstacles hindering progress and the full realization of the SSC potential and its impact on sustainable development. The availability of information and quality of research on the scale and impact of SSC and TrC have not kept pace with the growing demand among Southern partners for peer learning to further improve results. In addition, policy incoherence, together with a lack of understanding of the respective legal and policy environments for cooperation, can create ‘thick borders’ between countries and hinder the expansion of SSC and TrC. Addressing these knowledge gaps will be critical in the context of scaling-up SSC for sustainable development.

Think tanks globally, and especially from the Global South, are best positioned to tackle these challenges. As public policy research, analysis and engagement organizations, think tanks can play a vital role in the political and policy arenas at the local, national level, and global levels and assist governments in understanding and in making informed choices about issues of domestic and international concerns. Thus, they can strategically champion the thought leadership on SSC and TrC.

However, scale and complexity of SSC require multidisciplinary knowledge and analysis, which can be very difficult to fully master by any individual think tank or a single network of think tanks. It takes a platform to pool knowledge and expertise of multiple think tank networks to work together to tackle the knowledge gaps in SSC.

Therefore, UNOSSC and UNDP have supported the establishment of the “South-South Global Thinkers- the Global Coalition of Think Tank Networks for South-South Cooperation”, which pools together over 200 think tanks from across all regions. This initiative allows think tanks to better connect with each other in order to collectively address multi-disciplinary challenges, and to find channels to inform and influence global development agenda through the development of frontier research and knowledge.

One of the most recent activities of the South-South Global Thinkers, is an event on South-South investment in Europe and CIS region which was held in Prague on 15-16 May 2018. This event brought together over 80 participants from government, thinks tanks and private sector in which they were collectively able to identify challenges and good practices in policy and legal areas that can facilitate better South-South investment for sustainable development. (event can be watched via https://youtu.be/JwexwIwhDZg)

Think Tank networks members through this event were able to identify and formulate a research agenda on South-South investment. The aim of such research is to inform better policy-making to promote investment within the region and beyond. The final research developed will be used to influence policy discussions on South-South and triangular cooperation including discussions in preparations for the upcoming Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South cooperation to be held in Buenos Aires in March 2019.

If you want to learn more about the network’s current and future work, please visit their website and subscribe to the newsletter on www.ssc-globalthinkers.org.