ACP Group commits to promoting greater South-South Cooperation in development programmes
Macau, China, 26 August 2015/ ACP: The Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States H.E Dr. Patrick Gomes called for more innovation in South-South and Triangular collaboration in development cooperation, during a High-level Multi-stakeholder Strategy Forum held in Macao, China from the 25th to the 26th of August.
At the opening session of the event, organised by the United Nations General Assembly’s High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and its Global South-South Development Expo Secretariat (GSSD Expo), the ACP Secretary-General underlined the Group’s commitment to working together with UN agencies, such as UN Habitat on slum-upgrading projects and the International Labour Organisation on child labour. These programmes have benefited in the past from the Intra-ACP envelope of the European Development Fund.
“For the past 40 years we have had significant experience of development cooperation, trade and political dialogue with our interlocutor, the European Union, and we have rich examples of how South-South and Triangular cooperation opens up development opportunities in various sectors and across borders,” the Secretary-General stated. [Read his full statement]
For instance, the lessons from the 34 ACP countries participating in the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme enables countries to revise their national and city strategies and design participatory policies to empower slum dwellers to improve their communities. The programme is an initiative of the ACP Group, funded by the European Union and implemented by UN Habitat.
Recent activities by the ACP Group, which includes 79 member states from across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, also illustrate how it can serve as a “facilitator and hub” of South-South & Triangular Cooperation. The role of the ACP Group would be to identify prospective benefactors and harmonise supply and demand, by means of a “brokerage mechanism”.
The 3rd ACP Symposium on South-South and Triangular Cooperation to be organised jointly in the near future by the ACP Group, UN FAO, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and the Commonwealth Secretariat, will further contribute to a medium-term action plan and Road map for Intra-ACP activities of the 11th EDF and in the post-2015 Development Agenda.
“The ACP Group looks forward to deepening partnerships that generate new knowledge and carve out alternative and complementary means of implementing development priorities identified by developing countries,” stated the Secretary General.
The High-level Multi-stakeholders Strategy Forum was aimed at reviewing and strategically aligning existing instruments and innovative new approaches with diverse institutional partnerships and networks toward building an institutional alliance of the Global South to address global and regional challenges.
– ACP Press