International Day for South-South Cooperation 2017 observed globally

12 September: International Day for South-South Cooperation

The International Day for South-South Cooperation was observed on 12 September 2017 by United Nations (UN).

The day celebrates the economic, social and political developments made in recent years by regions and countries in the south. It also highlights UN's efforts to work on technical cooperation among developing countries.

South-South cooperation is a broad framework of collaboration among countries of the South in the political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technical domains.

This year, the Global South-South Development Expo 2017 will be hosted by Turkey and will take place in Antalya from 27 to 30 November 2017.

The theme of this Expo will be 'South-South Cooperation in the Era of Economic, Social and Environmental Transformation: Road to the 40th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA+40)'.

Background
The history of the South-South cooperation begins in 1949 with the establishment of the UN technical aid programme by the Economic and Social Council and the creation of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1969.

In the year 1978, the conference of the Global South on TCDC adopted Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA) for promoting and implementing technical cooperation among developing countries. This was one of the main pillars for the South-South cooperation.

Another milestone was  the 2001 Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries which stressed the importance of South-South cooperation in capacity-building in the areas of health, education, training, environment, science and technology, trade, investment, etc.

All these efforts were extended in 2015 with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the UN General Assembly.