DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL ENCOURAGES MEMBERS OF UN FAMILY TO INCLUDE SOUTH-SOUTH DIMENSION IN OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES

7 October 1998

Press Release
DSG/SM/21
GA/9473

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL ENCOURAGES MEMBERS OF UN FAMILY TO INCLUDE SOUTH-SOUTH DIMENSION IN OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES

19981007 Louise Fréchette Says Renewed Efforts to Advance South-South Cooperation Call for Coordinated Approach

Following is the text of the statement by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette at the opening of the General Assembly commemorative meeting to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action:

Welcome to this meeting held to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action in keeping with the General Assembly resolution adopted to that effect last year. Over these two decades, the international community has taken seriously the recommendations contained in the Plan of Action.

Against the background of growing disparities between rich and poorcountries, the Plan was designed to provide a road-map for narrowing that gap. The Plan urged all partners involved in international development cooperation to bring South-South solutions to shared development challenges by increasing the use of the human capacities and material resources that exist in the South.

South-South cooperation has enjoyed official recognition in the United Nations since the Buenos Aires Conference in 1978. It encompasses two types of partnership: technical cooperation among developing countries and economic cooperation among developing countries. The two interrelated approaches are intended to enable the South to promote collective self-reliance and to participate effectively in the international economic system.

Since the 1970s, the benefits of South-South cooperation have been most manifest in the formation of regional groupings across the South. Through regional integration, many countries have expanded their market size, accelerated the pace of industrialization and laid the foundation for a more

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systematic integration of production structures across national boundaries. While some of these integration schemes have stagnated, many have made steady progress and gained vitality and momentum during the 1980s and 1990s.

The profound changes that have occurred in the international system since the late 1980s have had an equally profound impact on multilateral development cooperation.

They have established a new context and a new rationale for promoting technical cooperation and South-South cooperation in general. These developments have underscored the futility of unilateral action in an interdependent world.

Since the 1970s, the United Nations has played an important role in promoting technical cooperation. It has provided guidance on policies and procedures. It has supported institutional capacity-building, networking, information systems.

Many United Nations organizations and agencies, including regional commissions, have actively promoted policies that place great emphasis on South-South cooperation.

In the area of capacity-building, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has provided support to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Central American Common Market and commodity groups such as the Union of Banana Producing Countries, in efforts to strengthen their overall capacity. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the International Trade Union (ITU) have provided similar assistance to various regional groupings in the development of national and regional institutions of developing countries in keeping with their respective mandates and expertise.

With support from the United Nations organizations and agencies, improved networking and twinning arrangements have become a significant feature of technical cooperation in recent years. The UNESCO has supported educational networks in the Caribbean and fostered exchanges among various scientific organizations worldwide. The ILO has facilitated exchanges among various centres of excellence in the field of labour administration. Using networks to foster food security, the FAO has been instrumental in the creation of the Biogas Network in Latin America and has supported the establishment of Food Crops Networks. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has supported a trade information network linking a number of Asian countries in addition to sponsoring the Global Trade Point Network which applies modern information technology to trade promotion.

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Many developed countries have been very supportive of technical cooperation activities initiated by groups of developing countries. Japan, Ireland and South Korea have contributed generously to the Trust Fund for South-South Cooperation established in 1995 by the Administrator of the UNDP. Brazil and Chile have set up special funds to assist other developing countries in Latin America in the framework of technical cooperation among developing countries (TCDC). In light of the declining trend in official development assistance (ODA), as well as in core resources available to the UNDP and other United Nations agencies, increased contributions to the Trust Fund for South-South cooperation are needed.

The unprecedented changes which have occurred in the international economic system since the 1980s -- principally the globalization of markets and production structures -- make South-South cooperation more valid and relevant than ever as an instrument for helping developing countries to participate effectively in the emerging economic order.

Several challenges lie ahead. First, despite the accelerated differentiation in socio-economic performance among developing countries, we must recognize that the countries of the South still share a number of basic development needs. These include the need for external capital and development assistance; access to export markets and foreign exchange; the need for technologies; and an external economic environment that is fair, predictable and stable.

Second, these shared needs establish a new rationale for South-South cooperation. It is one that requires developing countries to pool their human and material resources and to work collectively for a more just, equitable and democratic world system. If the countries of the South are to be masters of their destiny, they need to have an effective voice in all international forums.

Third, given the complex mix of opportunities and challenges presented by globalization, the United Nations system and the international community as a whole must adjust to the demands of the new development context and redouble their efforts in support of technical and economic cooperation.

Fourth, all organizations and agencies of the United Nations system must implement Economic and Social Council resolution 1992/41. They must ensure that technical and economic cooperation are given "first consideration" in the design, formulation, implementation and evaluation of their operational activities. The United Nations family should also increase the allocation of resources for technical and economic cooperation from their regular programme budgets.

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United Nations organizations and agencies should find opportunities to promote joint cooperative arrangements and bring their various sectoral competencies to bear on South-South cooperation activities. Regional commissions should play an active role in promoting and supporting intraregional and interregional activities of strategic importance to subregional and regional groupings.

This meeting, on the eve of the new millennium, provides an opportune moment for the international community to reflect upon the resources, strategies and partnerships that developing countries need to seize the opportunities our globalizing world presents.

In this era of dwindling resources for development, it is critically important to build new partnerships to draw on mutual knowledge and capacities. United Nations organizations and agencies should strengthen contacts with organizations in the developing world, and help foster effective participation of the private sector in technical and economic cooperation activities. And I urge all countries to contribute to the Trust Fund for South-South Cooperation.

Renewed efforts to advance the goals of South-South cooperation call for a coordinated approach among the entire United Nations family.

This session of the General Assembly will be considering a revised version of the Guidelines for the Review of Policies and Procedures concerning technical cooperation, and the Secretary-General's report on strengthening the integration of technical and economic cooperation approaches to development. I encourage all the members of the United Nations family to include a South-South dimension in their operational activities in keeping with the guidelines once they are endorsed.

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