South-South Cooperation

Meetings and Events on South-South Cooperation

Side Event: South-South and triangular cooperation at the Brazzaville Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Three Forest Basins of the Congo, Amazon and Borneo-Mekong

At the margins of the Brazzaville Summit on June 2, 2011 in the Republic of Congo, the Secretariat of the CBD organized a side event on South-South and triangular cooperation (SSC) on biodiversity, showcasing best practices and the Multi-Year Plan of Action for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity for Development. More than 64 participants included delegates from the Congo, RDC, Cameroon, Gabon, Germany, US, France, media representatives from Reuters and BBC, NGOs and executives from ITTO, UNESCO and IUCN. The report is available here

Third Expert Meeting for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity for Development, Incheon City, Republic of Korea

The Secretariat of the CBD and the National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR) hosted on 18-20 May 2011 the Third expert meeting for South-South cooperation on biodiversity for development in Incheon City, Republic of Korea. The adoption of decision X/23 by COP 10 in Nagoya, which welcomed the Multi-Year Plan of Action for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity for Development as an important contribution to the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, also welcomed the offer of the Republic of Korea, through its National Institute of Biological Resources, to host an expert meeting in early 2011.

The objective of the event was to validate the process and roadmap for the adoption of the Multi-Year Plan for South-South and triangular cooperation at the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties, determine best practices on modalities of South-South cooperation, and contribute to the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 adopted at COP 10. Participants were also invited to identify potential regional and South-South collaborative partnerships with international organizations, United Nations bodies, NGOs and centres of excellence, and share their experiences on South-South and triangular cooperation initiatives and projects.

You are invited to click on the following links to view the meeting report and other documents and pictures of the event.

First South-South Cooperation Forum on Biodiversity for Development, Nagoya, Japan

On October 17, 2010, the G-77 and China organized, with the Secretariat of the CBD, a Forum on South-South cooperation on biodiversity for development, at the margins of COP 10. The Forum was attended by 40 participants from many countries including Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Brazil, China, Grenada, Libya, Malawi, Mexico, South Africa, Singapore, St Lucia, and Yemen. Participants revised the document proposed by the Expert Meeting in Nairobi, back-to-back with WGRI-3, and unanimously adopted the Multi-Year Plan of Action on South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity for Development as submitted to COP 10 by Yemen on behalf of the G-77 (UNEP/CBD/COP/10/18/Add.1/Rev.1). The meeting report as well as other documents pertaining to the Forum can be found here.

Side Event: "The Multi-Year Plan of Action for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity for Development"

On 22 October 2010, a side event with the theme of “Multi-Year Plan of Action for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity for Development” was held in Nagoya. The event was co-organized by the CBD Secretariat, the G-77 Secretariat and Yemen as the Chair of the G-77, and was attended by about 40 representatives from Parties, UN agencies, Rio Conventions and partner organizations. H.E. Mr. Ambassador Al-Saidi from Yemen and H.E. Mr. Kondo, Senior Vice Minister of Environment of Japan, delivered opening remarks on behalf of the G-77 and the COP-10 host country government. China, Korea, Grenada and the UNDP Special Unit for South-South Cooperation made presentations on their practices and experiences. The Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda commended the work of the Secretariat on South-South Cooperation. During the event, the President of the Korean National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR) and the Executive Secretary of the CBD signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on behalf of the two institutions for their collaboration on South-South Cooperation.

Second Expert Meeting for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity for Development, Nairobi, Kenya

On May 29 and 30, 2010, immediately after WGRI-3, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) and the chair and Secretariat of the Group of 77, with financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), convened the Second Expert Meeting for South-South Cooperation (SSC) on Biodiversity for Development at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The main objective of the meeting, chaired by Mr. Awsan Al-Aud representing Yemen and the Chairman of the G-77, was to review and adopt the draft Multi-Year Plan of Action (MYPA) for SSC to be submitted to the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010. Presentations on regional South-South and triangular experiences were made by Mr. Jimmy Blas (Philippines) on cooperation and biodiversity issues in the ASEAN region, as well as by Benin, Cuba, Grenada, Guinea Bissau, Kiribati, Malawi, Saint Lucia, Thailand, Uganda, UNDP’s Special Unit for SSC and Yemen. The meeting was also attended by participants representing Antigua and Barbuda, Egypt, Haiti, Mexico, South Africa, and Sudan, as well as by staff of the SCBD. Participants reviewed the draft MYPA and provided insightful comments and feedback regarding its overall structure, its vision and mission statements, its implementation, coordination and funding, as well as the development of partnerships in SSC. The roadmap of the MYPA was also discussed, outlining the next important steps, namely: (1) its mention by the Ministers of the G-77 at a high-level special event to be held in September in New York, in conjunction with the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly; (2) its showcase at the South-South Cooperation Forum on Biodiversity for Development to be held on 18 October 2010, in Aichi/Nagoya, Japan just prior to the opening of COP 10; and (3) the submission to COP 10 of the Plan of Action and a report by the Executive Secretary of the CBD, Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, as defined in decision IX/25.

Explore the following links to access some of the presentations made by participants to the meeting:

You can find the meeting documents at this link.

Side-Event: South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the CBD

At the margins of WGRI-3, a side-event on South-South and triangular cooperation was organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity with the collaboration of the Group of 77 on May 27, 2010, at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, to update participants on progress achieved in preparing a Multi-Year Plan of Action on SSC and the mechanism for its submission to COP-10. Introductory remarks were made by Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the CBD and Mr. Awsan Al-Aud, representative of the Chair of the G-77 in New York and delegate of the Permanent Mission of Yemen to the United Nations. Contributions on experiences in South-South and triangular cooperation were made by SBSTTA chair Spencer Thomas, COP Bureau member Prof. James Seyani, Mr. Braulio Diaz (Brazil), Ms. Nenenteiti Teariki-Ruatu (Kiribati), Mr. Suhel Al-Janabi (GTZ), Mr. Jimmy Blas, (Philippines) and Mr. Kazuaki Hoshino (Japan), who announced that part of the Japanese funds targeted towards the implementation of COP 10 will be devoted to South-South Cooperation. In total, 40 participants attended this side event.

To view photos of the participants taken during the side-event, click here and here.

High Level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation, 1-3 December 2009, Nairobi, Kenya

The General Assembly decided, by resolution 64/1 of 6 October 2009, to convene the United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation in Nairobi, Kenya and stipulated that it was to be held “at the highest possible level”. It had the overarching theme of “Promotion of South-South Cooperation for Development” and consisted of plenary meetings and interactive multi-sector stakeholder round tables on two sub-themes: (i) Strengthening of the role of the United Nations system in supporting South-South and triangular cooperation; and (ii) South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Development: complementarities, specificities, challenges and opportunities.

Non-governmental organizations in consultative status to ECOSOC were invited to attend.

Please go to South-South Conference for more information.

First Meeting of the Steering Committee for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity, Montreal, Canada

The first meeting of the Steering Committee for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity took place on 29 October 2009 in Montreal. You can find the meeting documents at this link. The meeting discussed the Multi-year Plan of Action for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity for Development and the process on the road to the South-South Cooperation Forum on Biodiversity for Development, scheduled to be held on 18 October 2010, at the margins of the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD.

Read the Opening Statement by the Executive Secretary and the Report of the Steering Committee, including the draft Multi-Year Plan of Action.

First Expert Meeting

With financial support from the Global Environment Facility and in partnership with the Chairman of the Group of 77 in New York, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity convened an expert meeting in Montreal, on 6-7 November 2008, to:

  • Review the draft framework for South-South cooperation on biodiversity for full integration into the G-77 Development Platform for the South;
  • Identify activities for inclusion in the Multi-year Plan of Action on Biodiversity for Development.

Read the Meeting Report and related documents.

Brainstorming Session

A Brainstorming Session was held 6-8 November 2006, in Montreal, Canada, to discuss the preparation of a four-year plan of action on South-South Cooperation for the implementation of the threefold objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity.