WASHINGTON DC, US - Nearly 700 participants from 174 government agencies/Institutions, permanent missions and embassies joined 24 UN System partners, 71 private sector representatives, 180 non-governmental organizations and several academic institutions at this year’s United Nations Global South-South Development Expo (GSSDE).
The 2014 event stressed the role of public, private partnerships in financing development projects, as well as in the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda. It also highlighted the significant role played by the collaborative frameworks of south-south cooperation in disaster responses, highlighting the positive response to the Ebola crisis provided by effected countries through the provision of humanitarian corridors, deployment of healthcare workers, sharing of best practices and enhancing of public health capacities.
Gina Casar, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the UN Development Programme, declared in her speech on the opening day that south-south and triangular cooperation offer a path to balancing growth and equity in the context of a "new collaborative global partnership for sustainable development" where all stakeholders stand “shoulder-to-shoulder in their political, social and environmental development efforts.”
Several Memoranda of Understanding in the area of south-south cooperation were also sealed at the week-long event. For example, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of the Republic of Gambia and a Chinese enterprise, Henan Qingshuiyuan Technology, agreed to cooperate in the area of wastewater treatment, while the Organization of American States and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) signed an MoU to collaborate on fostering respect for environmental laws and sustainable development.
Yiping Zhou , envoy of the UN Secretary General and Director of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation said the annual Global UN South-South Development Expo is proving effective in bringing together development organizations from all sectors to establish inclusive and innovative partnerships, south-south, north-south, triangular and public/private so that the impact of successful development solutions can be scaled up.
“Since its inception in 2008, the Global UN Development Expo has featured documented best practices from hundreds of partner countries, UN agencies, private-sector enterprises and civil-society organizations”, said Zhou. “To effectively build on this broad global partnership, the eight thematic areas of this year’s GSSD Expo 2014 at the Organization for American States (OAS) addressed sustainable development with a particular focus on poverty eradication, food Security and public/private partnerships.”
By Valerie Tullar(info@koreaittimes.com)
