FAO’s Commitment and Approach to South-South Cooperation

 

Excellencies, Dear Colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Global demand for South-South and Triangular Cooperation is at an all-time high. Countries in the South have much to share given their recent experiences in overcoming development challenges where one country context can readily relate to another.

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (the SDGs), and implement the new development agenda, business as usual will not deliver at the pace and scale required and South-South Cooperation has a crucial role to play. 

 

FAO is making a strong effort to ensure it is is well positioned to rapidly respond to increasing number of requests to facilitate the scaling-up of knowledge and technologies that have contributed to enhancing agricultural development and food security in the global South.  

South-South and Triangular Cooperation are strategically relevant to both FAO and its Members, and FAO has firmly placed South-South Cooperation at the heart of its delivery. 

Member States also stand to gain as each can benefit from using South-South and Triangular Cooperation to achieve their own development priorities, as well as foster their external economic, developmental and foreign policy agendas.

FAO offers a framework for cooperation, setting South-South transfers in a broader context to reach national and regional food security and agricultural development goals;

 

The Organizations approach to South-South Cooperation builds on a successful 20 year track record, working with over 80 host countries, 20  provider countries and 15 triangular partners. Its approach rests on 4 major pillars:

 

First: Facilitation of  exchanges of development solutions at grassroots level

FAO supports the process of identifying, transferring, adapting and scaling-up development solutions from one country to another.

FAO also provides practical guidance and support to ensure the quality of the knowledge-sharing.

 

Second. Promoting SSC knowledge networks and platforms at the institutional level

FAO matches ‘demand’ and ‘supply’ by bringing together countries and institutions via southern platforms to share expertise, as well as through its own SSC Gateway.

FAO’s SSC Gateway showcases southern institutions and their expertise and is a starting point through which countries can engage with FAO to consider how SSC could be of benefit to them.

 

Third: Provision of  upstream policy support

FAO engages in SSC and Triangular Cooperation at the highest policy level with governments and strategic partners as an important pathway in achieving agricultural development.

FAO also supports strengthening the capacity of Member countries to make evidence-based decisions, allowing them to develop their own national South-South Cooperation strategies.

 

Fourth: Fostering  an enabling environment for effective SSC

As mentioned, FAO is positively mainstreaming South-South Cooperation as a means to deliver, building broader partnerships and strategic alliances, mobilizing resources and raising the visibility of SSC.

By concluding, let me underline, that all countries, institutions, state and non-state actors are invited to partner with FAO as a facilitator, to building further South-South partnerships, by providing technical know-how, expressing needs, facilitating SSC exchanges and providing financial resources to deliver.

 

We can and we must “leave no one behind” in order to achieve a Zero Hunger World

 

Thank you.