NEW YORK, Sep 15 2025 (IPS) – Because the United Nations commemorated the UN Day for South-South Cooperation final Friday, we’re reminded that solidarity among the many international locations of the International South isn’t just a matter of historical past or precept, however a confirmed pathway to constructing a fairer, extra sustainable future.
This 12 months’s commemoration befell at a defining second.
We’re previous the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda, but world progress is lagging. Greater than 800 million individuals nonetheless dwell in excessive poverty. Many growing international locations proceed to spend extra on debt servicing than on important public providers like well being, schooling, or infrastructure.
On the similar time, shared crises – local weather change, meals insecurity, digital divides, battle, and systemic inequalities – are colliding and compounding what the Secretary-Basic has known as a polycrisis.
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And but, South-South and triangular cooperation are rising as beacons of resilience and collective motion. They aren’t summary ideas, however vibrant modalities driving innovation, scaling examined options, and guaranteeing possession by the communities most affected by immediately’s challenges. They present us that each nation – no matter revenue stage – has one thing to contribute to our widespread future.
Throughout the International South, we see highly effective examples of options which can be each home-grown and extensively adaptable. By peer-to-peer studying and solidarity, international locations are advancing digital transformation, increasing entry to well being protection, creating resilient meals methods, and mobilizing revolutionary financing reminiscent of blended finance, debt swaps, and impression investments.
Triangular cooperation – the place Southern-led initiatives are complemented by the experience of developed-country companions or multilateral actors – is amplifying these outcomes, connecting experiences throughout areas and continents.
UNOSSC is offering greatest practices, providing peer-to-peer studying and innovation to attach and scale these efforts. Our South-South Galaxy makes examined options accessible to policymakers, practitioners, and growth companions worldwide.
These vary from local weather adaptation methods in Small Island Creating States to sustainable agriculture improvements in Africa and Latin America. Our new South-South and Triangular Cooperation Options Lab is incubating promising concepts and linking them with companions and financing mechanisms to attain impression at scale.
However we should go additional. On the twenty second Session of the Excessive-level Committee on South-South Cooperation earlier this 12 months, Member States made clear that the financing hole stays a crucial impediment. They known as for sustained, predictable sources — and for the UN system itself to design revolutionary financing home windows that align with the size of ambition required.
Assembly this name to motion is important if South-South and triangular cooperation are to achieve their full potential. As the first intergovernmental physique guiding South-South cooperation throughout the United Nations, the Excessive-level Committee performs a significant position in shaping world insurance policies, mobilizing political will, and guaranteeing that the voices of the International South are heard on the highest ranges. Its management is indispensable to driving collective motion and fostering equitable partnerships.
The theme of the 2025 United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation – New Alternatives and Innovation by South-South and Triangular Cooperation – resonated deeply. It mirrored the selection earlier than us: to recommit and reimagine partnerships that depart nobody behind, and to harness the creativity, management, and resilience of the International South to rework immediately’s challenges into tomorrow’s alternatives.
As we marked this Day, we known as on all companions and stakeholders – governments, worldwide establishments, the UN household, civil society, and the non-public sector – to affix fingers in strengthening South-South and triangular cooperation. We should scale up what works, deepen cross-regional ties, and put money into institutional structure that allows collaboration, innovation, and resilience.
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The stakes couldn’t be increased. However with an economically empowered and revolutionary International South, we are able to pave the best way towards a extra simply, inclusive, and sustainable future.
As we marked the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation final week, allow us to have a good time the spirit of solidarity that unites us – and allow us to recommit to creating it the power that carries us ahead to 2030 and past.
Omar Hilale is Ambassador of Morocco and President of the twenty second session of the Excessive-level Committee on South-South Cooperation; and Dima Al-Khatib is Director of the United Nations Workplace for South-South Cooperation.
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