South-South Cooperation

Hon’ble Foreign Minister Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen addressing at the Plenary of Second High Level UN Conference on South- South Cooperation(BAPA+40) held in Buenos Aires , Argentina, 20-22 March 2019

Permanent Mission of Bangladesh attaches high importance to the South-South Cooperation as an effective mechanism for development cooperation among the southern countries.

The Second UN High Level Conference on South-South Cooperation was held in Argentina from 20-22 March 2019. As it was held after 40 years since the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA) was adopted, the Conference was also called BAPA+40 Conference. The intergovernmental negotiations on the outcome document was held under the co-facilitatorship of Uganda and Lithuania. The Mission actively participated in the negotiations on the outcome document as a G77 member and emphasized on several issues such as more trade opportunities among the Southern Countries, strengthening of SSC in public service delivery, special consideration for the LDCs in technology transfer and support for Technology Bank, robust cooperation on frontier technology related issues, accelerate cooperation in climate actions in the global south, more support for the LDCs and graduating countries from the UN Development System, and the promotion of the private sector in the framework of SSC. The Mission also emphasized on the need to broaden the scope of the SSC and strengthen it particularly in the backdrop of the increasing protectionism in the western markets

A high level delegation led by Hon’ble Foreign Minister Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen participated in the BAPA+40 Conference.

Hon’ble Foreign Minister Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen holding a bilateral meeting with President of the General Assembly Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés on the sideline of the High-Level UN Conference on South- South Cooperation (BAPA+40) held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 20-22 March 2019

Bangladesh has included South-South Cooperation in its National Policy for Development Cooperation. The Access to Information (A2I) programme of Bangladesh is currently leading three platforms following SSC approaches to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experiences and best practices and find innovative solutions: South-South Network for Public Service Innovation, Alliance for Asian Apprenticeship, and South-Asia Civil Registration Network.

The UN Global Publication on Best Practices has incorporated 5 innovative development solutions of Bangladesh which are Union Digital Centre, SDG Tracker, Empathy Training, Service Innovation Fund and Time Cost Visit Model of public service delivery. Bangladesh has laid out its vision to utilize SSC in implementing SDGs in a publication “South South Cooperation for Financing SDGs”. This publication outlines potentials of financing SDGs and in addition, highlights 48 successful cases of the South that are adoptable in other Southern countries. The UNOSSC publication “South-South in Action: Citizen Friendly Public Service Innovation in Bangladesh” tells our success in ensuring good governance. Bangladesh is also trying to facilitate match-making with other southern partners who excelled in different areas as it put 22 best practices from different countries in a report entitled ‘The South- South Match Maker’.