Roundtable on “South-South Cooperation: the role of regional and intergovernmental organisations and multilateral institutions in promoting and intensifying cooperation among developing countries – Lessons learned and best practices”

Distinguished Ambassadors
Excellencies,
Dear colleagues:

It is with great pleasure that I join you here today to celebrate the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Day. I appreciate that the Roundtable on “South-South Cooperation” has managed to bring together such an eminent gathering of experts. It is a really great example of the cross-cutting exchange that Geneva contributes to the global conversation. Thank you to Ambassador Trad and Ambassador Chikh and their teams for making this happen.

As we now move from the Millennium Development Goals towards the post-2015 development agenda, it becomes increasingly evident that actors on all levels – local, State, regional and global, and across civil society and business – need to be involved. The OIC is a central platform that can bring together those actors around a common vision of development across these levels, and it is a crucial player in shaping post-2015 development priorities.

Already, the “global South” has made significant progress. By 2025, the South is likely to account for 600 million households with incomes of over USD 20,000 and an overall annual consumption of USD 30 trillion. South-South cooperation has contributed substantially to this trend. Since 2009, developing countries have exported more to one another than to developed countries. Since 2011, their total trade has been over USD 4 trillion. All of this takes place within a joint South-South position in addressing the challenges of climate change, as reflected in the lead-up to the 2015 Paris Summit. But challenges remain. Several of the MDG targets will not be met.

One of the valuable aspects of South-South cooperation is that it gives those in need of development the chance to shape the future they want. It is crucial that organizations such as the OIC together with partners like the African Union and the Non-Aligned Movement take the lead in realizing this potential.

As the Secretary General’s Report on the State of South-South Cooperation of 2014 shows, the United Nations system focuses on areas where South-South cooperation has proven particularly effective, such as policy coordination, regional integration, interregional linkages and the development of national productive capacities through exchanges of knowledge and technological innovation.

UNDP is of course the main actor in the United Nations system providing technical expertise and we are privileged that Mr. Rodgers of UNDP is with us today.

Many of the United Nations entities that are part of strengthening South-South cooperation are here in Geneva working in the areas of trade, environment, human rights and refugee and migrant protection. As just one example, the ILO adopted a strategy for South-South Cooperation in 2012. Specific know-how on development strategies in South-South trade is also developed by UNCTAD, and its Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Draganov, is here today to share UNCTAD’s expertise.

Practitioners and academics from different sectors need to work together in promoting sustainable development. The large presence of intergovernmental organizations such as the South Centre as well as NGOs and think tanks like the Africa Progress Panel based in Geneva are equally important assets.

Today’s panel discussion serves as an opportunity to exchange expertise and to build connections between the activities in Geneva and those elsewhere by organizations such as the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries, and the Islamic Centre for Development and Trade, also represented here today.

All of the actors in Geneva will be particularly critical when it comes to implementation of the post-2015 development agenda, and I hope that the discussion today will also touch upon how we can work better together when it comes to this phase.

I hope that the discussion here today will provide a useful exchange and bring forward practical proposals for how to strengthen South-South cooperation as an integral part of our new development agenda overall.

I wish you all a very constructive discussion.

Thank you very much.