UN hosts first Global Thinkers Dialogue on South-South cooperation with China

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 2– Representatives from around 10 missions
to the United Nations (UN) and officials from different UN agencies
discussed with Chinese experts here Wednesday to find out ways to
facilitate South-South cooperation.

The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) co-organized a Global Thinkers
Dialogue with the China Center for International Knowledge on Development
(CIKD). “South-South cooperation enables us to build our economies based
on the experience of others,” said Dr. Sen Gong, executive vice president
of the CIKD. “This think tank network provides new options for countries
who want to scale up development while preserving their independence.”
Modest Jonathan Mero, permanent representative of Tanzania to the United
Nations, said “dominant development frameworks often cannot adequately
explain the success of developing countries including China, who share
historical perspectives.”

The dialogue was organized under the umbrella of the South-South Global
Thinkers: the Global Coalition of Think Tank Networks for South-South
Cooperation initiative, which was launched by the UNOSSC and the UNDP in
2017 as a joint effort to draw on the high-quality expertise of academic
institutes and to develop a platform for South-South cooperation research
and knowledge sharing. The research and consensus generated under this
initiative will offer reference and instruction to the upcoming Second
United Nations High-level Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA+40).
Jorge Chediek, the UN Secretary-General’s envoy on South-South cooperation
and director of the UNOSSC, reiterated the importance of generating and
sharing research on South-South and triangular cooperation in the lead-up
to the 2019 Second High-level Conference on South-South Cooperation
(BAPA+40) to be held in Buenos Aires. “There is presently no systematic,
widely available information on the trends and patterns of South-South
cooperation,” Chediek said. “It is for this reason that UNOSSC and UNDP
jointly launched the South-South Global Thinkers initiative,” Chediek said,
reiterating his desire for the UNOSSC to become a robust knowledge hub.

The informal round-table discussion featured interventions from
representatives of UN member states and entities, as well as civil society.
Participants agreed on the need for better platforms and systems to
generate and disseminate knowledge on South-South and triangular
cooperation. In her closing remarks, Simona Marinescu, director of the
Development Impact Group of the UNDP, stressed the importance of
high-quality research, and in this regard commended China for its
commitment to South-South knowledge exchange. The establishment of the CIKD
was announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the UN Sustainable
Development Summit in September 2015. It provides a platform for
various countries to research and exchange development theories and
development practices that suit their respective national contexts. – XINHUA