Intensification of cooperation urged among developing nations

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has called for further intensification of cooperation among developing counties to complement North-South cooperation, calling it critical as the world contends with interlinked crises of finance, food and climate change.

“The South-South cooperation can have a robust impact in multiple domains including, but not limited to, trade; infrastructure connectivity; human capital; education; health; agriculture; science and technology; climate resilience, and; disaster risk reduction, among others,” Ambassador Aamir Khan, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told a session of the High-Level Committee dealing with the subject.

The Committee on South-South Cooperation is reviewing progress made in implementing the 1978 Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries,

“South-South cooperation is not a substitute for, but rather a complement to, North-South cooperation and the developed countries must fulfill their commitments for North-South cooperation,” the Pakistani envoy said.

“We are hopeful that the South-South partners will continue to promote collaboration based on equal footing, mutual benefits, and win-win outcomes.”

Pakistan, he said, stands fully committed to replicating the successful templates of the South and sharing lessons that the country learned in the context of Disaster Risk Reduction and climate resilience, particularly in the wake of 2022 climate-induced floods.

The Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework (4RF) presents a comprehensive strategy to ensure resilient recovery and to reduce the impact of the climate catastrophe and disasters on developmental gains.

“There is a need to further tap into the enormous potential of South-South and triangular cooperation aimed at ensuring that no one is left behind,” the Pakistani envoy said, and in this regard made some recommendations.

Among them, he called for contributing more generously to the work of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC); developing a mechanism, under its auspices, to measure the impact of South-South cooperation to collect empirical data, and creating interregional and global frameworks to provide a platform for sharing best practices.

In this regard, Aamir Khan stressed the need for strengthening knowledge-sharing to promote e-commerce and digitization of agriculture and rural economy; maintaining robust South-South and triangular cooperation, besides providing funds, enhancing other means of implementation such as trade, investment, and tax reforms;

“South-South cooperation can play a pivotal role in the transfer of technology among the countries of the South, and thus aid their economic empowerment and development process,” the Pakistani envoy said.

“Finally,” he added, to achieve sustainable development, the cardinal focus of the triangular support should be the capacity development of the South.