Mr Adel Abdellatif, director a.i. of the UN Office for SSSC (UNOSSC)
Members and representatives of the South-South Global Thinkers’ think tanks community
Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen

Happy UN South-South Cooperation Day!

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you all to this celebration on behalf of UNDP, and I thank you all for joining us today in this event jointly organized by UNDP and UNOSSC.

More than a decade ago, the General Assembly adopted a resolution to commemorate the International South-South Cooperation Day yearly.

This is an opportunity to reflect on the invaluable role of South-South and Triangular cooperation (SSTC) to support the achievements of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The spirit of global solidarity evidenced in the SSTC is now more important than ever, not only in responding to the COVID-19 but also in building forward better.

Today is a great opportunity not only to reaffirm our commitment to SSTC, but also to highlight the key contributions of Southern and Northern think tanks through  this important endeavor.

As highlighted by the Outcome Document of the 2nd High-Level Conference on SSC in 2019 it is crucial to strengthen think tanks and knowledge networks as institutional spaces for knowledge development and sharing on South South and Triangular initiatives. The same document requests UN entities to support them in this endeavor .

Similarly, the 20th Session of the High-Level Committee on South South Cooperation held in June this year recognized the key role of Southern think tanks and related actors that have been engaging more dynamically in global policy dialogues .

Since 2017, UNDP and UNOSSC are proud to host the South-South Global Thinkers Initiative - A Global Coalition of Think Tank Networks for South-South Cooperation.

The initiative supports the production of frontier research on SSTC, contributing to a growing body of evidence and knowledge on issues pertinent to SSTC, and to inform policy dialogues and advance thought leadership. I am pleased to note that to-date more than 250 think tanks have pooled their research and knowledge to inform policy dialogue and agenda setting on SSTC globally.

Today, we are pleased to launch and present the findings of commissioned research papers “South-South Ideas” developed by members of the South-South Global Thinkers, grouped under two very important aspects of SSTC: its institutionalization and its impact assessment. These research papers come in very timely, as many Member States are challenged by the gap of institutional capacities and tools in managing, coordinating and monitoring the flux of more multi-dimensional, multi-actor SSTC. The papers presented today are well-positioned to address these needs and gaps. I hope you all can be inspired by the research and can seize this opportunity to exchange views and perspectives on the challenges, experiences and opportunities of the two topics. By working together, we will advance thought leadership in better managing, implementing and assessing SSTC, in order to support the capacity of Member States in areas in which SSTC could have the highest development impact.

Our hope is to see this event as an opportunity to bring forth the vision expressed in the outcome document and the High-Level Conference decisions.

UNDP is fully committed to this vision, and in fact, the recently-approved Strategic Plan 2022-2025 recognizes that South-South and triangular cooperation as integral to how UNDP works and thinks about the future of development.

We look forward to continuing our collaboration with UNOSSC.

I wish you all a very successful event. Thank you for your attention.