Source: http://www.un.org/en/events/southcooperationday/

"South-South cooperation has the potential to balance growth and equity on a global scale. Even in the midst of severe economic, social and political instabilities, South-South cooperation has continued to drive buoyant trade and financial flows in recent years."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Message for the UN Day of South-South Cooperation
12 September 2012

http://www.un.org/en/events/southcooperationday/2012/sgmessage.shtml

South-South cooperation, as an important element of international cooperation for development, offers viable opportunities for developing countries and countries with economies in transition in their individual and collective pursuit of sustained economic growth and sustainable development.

Developing countries have the primary responsibility for promoting and implementing South-South cooperation, not as a substitute for but rather as a complement to North-South cooperation, and in this context reiterating the need for the international community to support the efforts of the developing countries to expand South-South cooperation.

By resolution 58/220 of 23 December 2003, the General Assembly decided to declare 19 December, United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation. This was the date on which the General Assembly endorsed the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technica... .

By resolution 58/220 of 23 December 2003, the General Assembly decided to declare 19 December, United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation. On 22 December 2011, the General Assembly, in its decision 66/550, decided that, beginning in 2012, the observance of the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation would be changed from 19 December to 12 September, to mark the day in 1978 when the United Nations Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries adopted the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries.

The Assembly also urged all relevant United Nations organizations and multilateral institutions to intensify their efforts to effectively mainstream the use of South-South cooperation in the design, formulation and implementation of their regular programmes and to consider increasing allocations of human, technical and financial resources for supporting South-South cooperation initiatives.

Posted by: Bruno Ayllon Pino (IUDC/UCM - Pesquisador no projeto Cooperaçao Internacional para o Desenvolvimento - PNPD - IPEA/Brasil)