South-South cooperation is an invaluable complement to North-South cooperation.

Collaboration in which traditional donor countries and multilateral organizations facilitate South-South initiatives through the provision of funding, training, and management and technological systems as well as other forms of support is referred to as “triangular cooperation”.

Countries at similar levels of development, and that share similar philosophies of development, are particularly well placed to help each other.

Much of the growing cooperation is between middle-income and low-income countries. Middle-income countries are both donors and recipients of aid, giving them a unique perspective on the development process. They play an increasingly important role in the international development architecture, as donors, trading partners and sources of expertise.

In the past, South-South cooperation consisted primarily of sharing technical developments, including the improvement of livestock breeds, health, food processing and efficient water use. Today, in addition to exchanges at the technical level, this cooperation involves dialogue on regional policy coordination and other government actions that are crucial to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. It also involves sharing knowledge, skills, expertise and resources. Recent developments in South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) have taken the form of increased volume of South-South trade, South-South flows of foreign direct investment, movements towards regional integration, technology transfers, sharing of solutions and experts, and other forms of exchanges.

IFAD South-South and Triangular Cooperation

South-South and Triangular Cooperation is a broad framework for promoting and supporting collaboration among countries of the South in several domains.

As a traditional entry point to partnerships among developing countries, south-south and triangular cooperation is increasingly emerging in the international development scene as a cost-effective tool for contribution to rural poverty reduction.

IFAD has proactively undertaken to define its role and focus. Over the years IFAD has participated in SSTC international events linked to various interagency or intergovernmental processes or under IFAD funded programmes, such as Global South-South Development Expo, High Level meetings on South-South knowledge exchange, SSTC consultation meetings and more.

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Global South-South Development Expo

IFAD is participating in the fifth edition of the Global South-South Development Expo, which will take place in Vienna from 19-23 November 2012.

IFAD, together with FAO and UNIDO will co-lead and participate in several specific meetings. IFAD will be one of the main players of the Exhibition Floor where representatives of IFAD-funded projects and programmes will showcase successful and scalable SSTC activities.

This event provides the opportunity for:

• cross-fertilisation of experiences  relevant to the objectives of country programmes
• enhanced  SSTC engagement such as learning and partnership spaces for scaling up.

IFAD will build a long-term network for follow-up and scaling up of activities and continue investing in SSTC in the medium-long perspective, as we consider south-south and triangular cooperation a strategic tool for rural poverty reduction.