Over the years, South-South cooperation has emerged as a
powerful tool for enhancing international cooperation for achieving sustainable
development. In fact, since 2008, developing countries have exported more to
one another than to developed countries, with their total trade in 2015
estimated at over US$ 4 trillion. And, according to the United Nations Office
for South-South Cooperation, trade between Africa and the BRIC1 group of
Parties has grown more than 7 per cent annually over the last 10 years.
Furthermore, the MINT-BRICS2 group of emerging economies provide more than a
third of global investment, and a recent BRICS Summit established a US$ 100
billion development bank to mobilize resources for infrastructure and
sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging market economies
and developing countries to complement existing efforts of multilateral and
regional financial institutions for global growth and development.
International cooperation has changed significantly over the
last decade due to the growing experience, capacity and know-how of developing
Parties and their centres of expertise. This has led to a rise in innovative
scientific and technical solutions, and to new forms of cooperation, where
efforts at increased cooperation between countries of the South are
complemented by more innovative approaches. This includes triangular
cooperation, which also involves developing countries, yet brings resources
from the North to facilitate the exchange of cost-effective and culturally and
socially appealing solutions. For example, the Japan International Cooperation
Agency has a diversified portfolio of assistance programmes in all regions of
the South, ranging from support for the ASEAN University Network, to the
development of earthquake-resistant housing in El Salvador and Mexico, to the
strengthening of mathematics and science education in West, Central, East and
Southern Africa.
South-South and triangular cooperation are especially
important as the overwhelming majority of the Earth’s biodiversity is found in
developing countries. Biodiversity – and the many ecosystem services associated
with it – form the foundation of the Earth’s life support systems and underpin
human lives and well-being. Anchored in the post-2015 development agenda and
the Sustainable Development Goals is a clear objective to mainstream
biodiversity and ecosystem services in key national priorities and help countries
achieve the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi
Biodiversity Targets.
Within the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),
South-South cooperation has been identified as a key mechanism for scientific
and technical cooperation in support of the implementation of the Strategic
Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. Scientists and agencies based in the South are
playing a major role in the implementation of the Convention. Working with the
Secretariat of the CBD, for instance, the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) has scaled up its support to South-South Cooperation and launched a
South-South Cooperation Exchange Mechanism, linked to the Consortium of Scientific
Partners on Biodiversity, and supporting the implementation of the Multi-Year
Plan of Action for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity for Development,
adopted in parallel to the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to
the Convention and recognized by the Parties. An innovative agreement of collaboration signed in 2013 between the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, the Brazilian Agricultural Research
Corporation (Embrapa) and the Brazilian Technical Cooperation
Agency has enabled experts from Embrapa to provide technical expertise to
developing countries. Among the 22 members of the Convention’s Consortium of
Scientific Partners on Biodiversity are several global players from the South,
such as the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), the Mexican
National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), the Costa
Rican National Biodiversity Institute (InBio) and the Colombian Humboldt
Institute. The Secretariat also works with UNEP to support its network of
universities, mostly from the South, through the Global Universities
Partnership on Environment and Sustainability.
An important recent development of relevance for developing
countries is the Convention’s 2015- 2020 Bio-Bridge Initiative (BBI). Launched
by the Republic of Korea in 2014 at the twelfth meeting of the Conference of
the Parties, BBI supports developing countries in their efforts to achieve the
Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
In order to enable more systematic and sustainable technical and scientific
cooperation, with a focus on using Southern hubs and partners, the initiative will facilitate the communication of the technical
and scientific needs and priorities of countries, enhance the availability and
accessibility of information with respect to best practices and expertise, and match
the needs of countries with offers of support by relevant global, regional and
national organizations and initiatives. South-South cooperation for
biodiversity is an example of effective international cooperation that can
point the way to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
