Developed countries can fulfill pledges by supporting South-South: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said the North could realize their own agreed development commitments through supporting South-South development cooperation programmes.

“Many developed countries still fall behind their internationally agreed development commitments. For them, supporting South-South development cooperation programmes can be one way of realizing their own commitments,” she said.

The premier made this remark while participating in a high level panel discussion titled “South-South and Triangular Cooperation” in Paris Peace Forum (PPF) in Paris, France, BSS reports.

Mentioning that a good number of home-grown development solutions are already available in the Global South, she said, “With additional financing, many of these solutions can be implemented and scaled up across other developing countries, and this can help avoid re-inventing the solution in the name of technical assistance.”

She noted that there are better chances for South-South cooperation to respond directly to national development priorities. “The financing and technological support of the North can help enhance the transparency and cost-effectiveness of South-South cooperation programmes,” she added.

Referring to Bangladesh’s offer to set up a “South-South Knowledge and Innovation Centre” placed in 2019, Sheikh Hasina said, “It would ideally serve as a platform for co-creating technological solutions for development challenges in the South.”

In this connection, she urged the UN, G20 and OECD to consider investing in such forward-looking proposals.

The Prime Minister said the idea of South-South cooperation is around the world community for more than four decades, which has found its place in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

She observed that South-South cooperation initiatives have been on the rise in recent years and many of them stand out for their creative development solutions.

“Yet, South-South cooperation tends to take a back seat in international development discourse. It has been hard to change the traditional thinking and narratives around international development cooperation as such many potential South-South cooperation projects remain under-funded.”