Trends and progress in triangular and South-South cooperation – DCF Thailand High-level Symposium

To ensure a comprehensive consultative process in preparing for the 2010 DCF, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs is supporting the organization of several high-level symposiums. As the first in this series the Asia Pacific Regional Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) took place on 21-22 October 2008 in Bangkok. The forum focused on triangular and South South cooperation in the Asia Pacific region.

The meeting was co organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) and the UNDP Special Unit for South South Cooperation. It was organized around four segments and common plenary sessions with presentations, country-based case studies and discussions, addressing among others the following questions: Can lessons learnt in Asia on triangular and South South development cooperation apply to other regions? How to support the development of voluntary systems in monitoring and evaluation? How to improve monitoring and data collection on South-South and triangular development cooperation? What should be the role of the United Nations System?

Outcome

As a major preparatory event for the 2010 DCF, the discussions solicited the views of all stakeholders. The discussions and recommendations were captured in a joint statement, including key policy messages, which would serve to inform the consultative process and analytical preparations for the 2010 DCF.

• Joint Statement
• Report of the Forum

Background documentation

For more details on the symposium, please refer to the following documentation:

• Background Study
• Asia Pacific Regional Forum in brief
• Agenda and list of participants

Opening Statements

• Mr Shigeru Mochida, Deputy Executive Secretary, ESCAP
• Mr. Nikhil Seth, Director, Office of ECOSOC Support and Coordination, DESA
• Message from Yiping Zhou, Director, Special Unit for South-South Cooperation

Presentations

The forum featured a number of presentations to facilitate discussions:

• Triangular and South-south cooperation in the ESCAP region: a paradigm shift of development cooperation? Prof. Nagesh Kumar, RIS
• Lessons learned from the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) 4, Mr. Jiro Usui, Embassy of Japan
• Building Bridges: GTZ’s Experience with Trilateral Cooperation, Mr. James Tomecko, GTZ
• Accra high-Level Forum: relevance to triangular and South-South development cooperation, Mr. Stephen Groff, OECD/DAC
• Triangular cooperation, case study, Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan, Rural Support Programmes Network, Pakistan
• Civil society engagement in a participatory approach of an ongoing triangular development cooperation project, Ms. Mariko Kinoshita,Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
• KOICA Data Management, Ms. Mira Go, Deputy Director, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)
• Changing the Balance of Power Aid Management Tools, Mr Aidan Cox, UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok
• The Role of the UN in Strengthening South-South and Triangular Cooperation, Mr Denis Nkala, Chief, South-South Unit UNDP