Part #2: Enhanced UN support to South-South Cooperation? The United Nations Office for SSC Strategic Framework 2014-2017

@karin_vazquez

Three issues to watch for this Wednesday during session 4 of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS Executive Board First Regular Session 2014, and after:

Issue #1: UNOSSC hosting by UNDP, UNOSSC participation in the UN Development Group, and coordination of mandates

In her opening statement at the UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS Executive Board this morning, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark noticed the continued efforts to step up the promotion of South-South and triangular cooperation in UNDP’s new Strategic Plan. “Our two main entry points are through our hosting of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and through our extensive country and program reach. The latter will enable us to provide a global operational arm for South-South co-operation, which is also accessible to the broader UN Development System, as envisaged in our new Strategic Plan. These two entry points complement and support each other.”

However, being hosted by UNDP prevents UNOSSC from participating in meetings of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB). This issue was brought up again today, at the first meeting of UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS Executive Board First Regular Session 2014, by the delegation of Brazil. The Group of 77 and China advocate UNOSSC participation in the CEB and other UN system-wide task forces, teams and similar mechanisms to be established in the future in keeping with its status as a separate entity within the UN for global coordination and promotion of South-South and triangular cooperation for development on United Nations system-wide basis, in accordance with UN General Assembly resolutions.

The G-77 and China note UNOSSC absence from the composition of the UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda and argue that the Office is empowered to participate independently in the work of such system-wide coordination mechanisms. The issue of the independence of the UNOSSC within UNDP will need to be addressed by the HLC.

Regardless of the UNOSSC status, there are specific coordination issues between UNOSSC and UNDP that need to be further clarified. UNDP has placed SSC at the heart of its policies and programs in its Strategic Plan, 2014-2017 and while developing its corporate SSC strategy, it will need to step up its support for UNOSSC in a coordinated fashion.

Some of these coordination challenges were outlined in Part #1. The study Enhancing Management Practices on South-South and Triangular Cooperation further exemplifies UNOSSC and UNDP potential for coordination in terms of enabling an effective institutional environment for SSC partners. This collaboration could be deepened, for instance, through joint evidence-based research and analysis of country examples for the annual report of the UN Secretary General, the biannual reports of the HLC, policy briefs, policy dialogue, and knowledge products for the Global South-South Centers of Excellence Facility.

Issue #2: UN programming support to SSC, including to transferring knowledge, measuring progress and assessing results

Despite efforts made by many organizations at mainstreaming SSC into their work and operational activities, lack of understanding of the definition and concept of South-South and triangular cooperation, and of the differentiation between the regular technical cooperation programs and those dealing specifically with SSC persist. Few UNDAFs make reference to SSC, and even fewer have a relevant SSC-related outcome. 

More needs to be done in terms of planning, tracking, monitoring and evaluating SSC activities supported by the UN system. Some ideas are the development of programming instruments that allow for the UN organizations to plan jointly with the governments in the concerned regions, and of a “South-South Cooperation Marker”, inspired on the Gender Marker, to measure the degree to which UN outputs and projects support SSC.

In regard to knowledge sharing, the delegation of Bulgaria at the first meeting of UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS Executive Board First Regular Session 2014 reinforced the need to scale up global knowledge and country experiences through forward-looking, multidisciplinary research, a multi-year research agenda, and partnerships with the global centers, the Human Development Report Office, and other UN entities – and to put less emphasis on traditional programmatic approaches.

Issue #3: SSC partners and OECD-DAC countries contribution to South-South and triangular cooperation

Inadequate financing has been a major stumbling block in advancing support to SSC within the United Nations Development System. The delegation of India at the first meeting of UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS Executive Board First Regular Session 2014 noted that “as host to the only entity in the whole of the UN system, which has a singular mandate to promote SSC, the Office needs to be given the resources, both financial and human, which it needs for its effective functioning and discharge of its mandate.”

There are a few possible reasons for this funding stalemate. First, much activity in the UN system - including SSC initiatives - is now governed by what can be described as a hub and spoke bilateralism, whereby individual state and non-state actors contract directly with UN agencies and forgo the collective decision-making associated with multilateral governance.

Second, despite the increase of triangular cooperation, there is still a lack of strategic thinking with regard to policies and financing mechanisms governing such cooperation.

Third, if UNOSSC is indeed to become an independent office as claimed by the G-77 and China, funding for its work needs to be immediately mobilized from its new hosting organization – possibly UN Secretariat funding.

What can be expected from SSC partners in the UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS Executive Board (e.g. Brazil, China, Indonesia, Korea, Russia)? How are OECD-DAC countries in the board (e.g. Germany, UK, Norway, Finland, Sweden) responding to triangular cooperation as a complement to SSC? Could thematic trust funds like the Perez Guerrero Trust Fund and the IBSA Fund play a greater role in bridging UNOSSC funding gap while reducing the transaction costs for SSC partners?

What other issues should we be watching for?

Watch session 4 of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS Executive Board First Regular Session 2014 this Wednesday (29 January) live at http://webtv.un.org

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Part #1: Enhanced UN support to South-South Cooperation? The United Nations Office for Development Cooperation Strategic Framework 2014-2017
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