28 November 2017 - Rome/Antalya. At the Global South-South Development Expo in Antalya (Turkey), the Rome-based Agencies (RBAs) presented todaya joint roadmap which aims to strengthen the three agencies’ collective efforts to facilitate South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the context of achieving progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2, zero hunger, by 2030.

“Considering our respective mandates, comparative advantages and distinctive strengths, all centered around the realm of food security and agriculture, we know we will be more effective if we work together in mainstreaming this cost-effective and innovative mechanism into the development cooperation agenda to achieve the SDGs,” said Dongxin Feng, FAO’s Deputy Director of the Division for Partnerships and South-South Cooperation.

Country-led and based on the notion of solidarity among equals, South-South and Triangular Cooperation helps to complement the traditional north-south cooperation mechanisms.

“It is a proven cost-effective delivery mechanism that attaches great importance to the in-kind contributions that can help bridge the gap in many cases for exchanges to happen, meaning that every country has something to offer,” said Ashwani Muthoo, IFAD’s Director, Global Engagement, Knowledge and Strategy Division.

Muthoo stressed IFAD’s commitment to support South-South and Triangular Cooperation, which has become one of the Fund's preferred implementation modalities. “It will be one of IFAD’s key drivers for the future alongside the work with the private sector and youth employment,” he said.

The Roadmap

The three agencies already share a common vision for an effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, through holistic approaches aimed at achieving, in particular, SDG2.

This joint roadmap builds upon the overall framework of collaboration signed last year among the United Nations Rome-based Agencies to deliver on the 2030 Agenda.

“With this roadmap we aimed to identify our shared priorities in South-South and Triangular Cooperation and to put in place a working methodology to enhance our coordinated efforts in the years to come to make zero hunger a reality by 2030,” explained Kenn Crossley, WFP’s Deputy Director of the Policy and Programme Division.

Strong partnership

This partnership will facilitate building on and further creating synergies and complementarities between the RBAs, as well as increasing visibility related to the benefits of South-South and Triangular Cooperation and the concrete results that can be achieved through this alternative development mechanism.

Crossley noted that this roadmap is a step towards a more systematic collaboration, moving away from ad hoc initiatives. “We now envision a systematized collaboration amongst the Rome-based agencies on South-South Cooperation at all levels,” said Crossley.

The three agencies want to respond to the growing demand for South-South and Triangular Cooperation by joining forces to mainstream this modality throughout their organizations and Member States. “This joint event and the roadmap are a clear and strong signal that we take our collaboration very seriously,” said Feng referring to the joint agency session held in Antalya on how to accelerate country-led progress towards zero hunger through joint and complementary efforts.

The roadmap focuses on the period 2018-2019 which leads up to a high-level event organized by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation. The event celebrates the 40^th anniversary of the adoption in 1978 of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing technical cooperation among developing countries, known as BAPA+40.