Enrique Maruri, TT-SSC chair, during the DCF policy dialogue

In the midst of a changing global governance of development, the Task Team on South-South cooperation (TT-SSC) successfully launched its second phase of work during a side event at the UN Development Cooperation Forum on 29 and 30 June 2010 in New York City. Inspired by the surrounding DCF policy dialogues, the TT-SSC discussed and agreed on its ambitions for the High-Level Forum (HLF) on Aid Effectiveness in Korea in late 2011, the next DCF in 2012 and the G20 process. Apart from generating policy recommendations and good practices on the interface between South-South cooperation and aid effectiveness, the TT-SSC members will invest even more efforts in bringing horizontal partnerships and knowledge exchange to the forefront of global development policies.

The NYC meetings included a session for the members of the Steering Committee, the newly established executive body of the TT-SSC, which adopted the work plan [pdf] based on the agreements included in the Bogotá Statement. Over the next 18 months the TT-SSC will engage in the following three work streams:

1.- Deepened analytical work on the synergies between South-South cooperation and aid effectiveness, including independent case studies and a continued work on country-led case stories

2.- A Community of Practitioners (CoP) hosted at the TT-SSC, which will share experiences and discuss case stories/studies around the key challenges within a consolidated knowledge exchange platform.

3.- A practice-based policy outreach on SSC, through communication, coordination and engagement with global and regional platforms, champions and actors.

With these inputs, the TT-SSC will generate good practices and policy guidance for the HLF and other global processes such as the UN-DCF and the G20. The practice base of the policy work is seen as particularly inspiring for many actors, and has proven very successful in the preparations of the Bogota High-Level Event on South-South cooperation and capacity development earlier this year, which generated 110 case stories on South-South cooperation in the context of aid effectiveness.

Aki Nishio, Tubagus Choesni, Jessica Longwe, and Monowar Ahmed

After endorsing its work plan, the TT-SSC gathered around 70 representatives from all over the world [pdf] in a lively launch event. Following an overview [pdf] presented by TT-SSC chair Enrique Maruri from Colombia, five key members shared their views on the value of the TT-SSC. Monowar Ahmed from Bangladesh stressed the importance of peer learning on national capacities and the impulse of the TT-SSC to inclusive partnerships at the country level. Jessica Longwe from AWEPA explained how parliamentary South-South knowledge exchange has sensitive potential for boosting institutional democracy, but needs deeper research as planned by the TT-SSC. Tubagus Choesni from Indonesia explained how the Task Team work is informing directly Indonesia’s policies as a South-South provider willing to adopt and enrich the aid effectiveness principles. Aki Nishio from the World Bank Institute welcomed the push of the TT-SSC to match demand and supply of South-South solutions at the global and regional level. Brenda Killen from OECD emphasized the importance of good practices for ensuring the coherence of development cooperation with capacity development and ownership of the receiving partners.

The discussion with all participants addressed the welcomed links between real-life practice and policy-making on effective South-South knowledge exchange. According to several attendees, there is a sensitive need to study the actual comparative advantages of South-South and triangular cooperation, taking also a fresh look on what works and what does not work. Particular attention needs to be drawn to demand-driven mechanism to match providers and receiver of South-South knowledge exchange, which an online survey is currently exploring.

More information on the second phase of the TT-SSC:

- Overview: Extending the Bogota spirit [pdf]
- TT-SSC work plan 2010-11 [pdf]
- Agenda [pdf] and LoP [pdf]
- More pictures of the event
- Want to participate? Please contact us at southsouthcases@gmail.com