By establishing a UN Day for South-South cooperation, (Dec 20) the UN General Assembly, and thus the international community as a whole, has recognized the strategic, political and practical importance of cooperation among developing countries.
South-South cooperation is not new. The developing countries were working together on the world scene from the earliest days of the UN existence. One can recall the anti-colonial struggle, the SUNFED initiative, or the Bandung Conference, as some of the early instances of such cooperation.
The birth of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961 and of the Group of 77 in 1964 marked the beginning of the collective, group action of the developing countries in the multilateral arena.
Following the first UNCTAD in 1964, trade expansion, economic cooperation and regional integration among developing countries were formally introduced on the international development agenda.
Forty years of efforts to energize and put into practice various forms of South-South cooperation are behind us. The record is mixed. A lot has been invested in studies, debates, resolutions, conferences.
We are rich in documents, ideas and recommendations for action. Although a great deal has been also achieved in practical terms, the advances have been slow and uneven relative to needs and the underlying potential for South-South cooperation.
There are many objective and subjective reasons for this. One can thus mention the lack of established links and habits, lack of financial resources and the absence of the necessary infrastructure, traditionally strong links with the North, similar structures of commodity producing economies, the lack of institutional mechanisms, etc.
The developing countries also were not keen to put too much emphasis on South-South co-operation in the multilateral arena, and concentrated their attention on the North-South development agenda. It is of political and symbolic importance that we have at last established a UN Day for South-South Cooperation.
It will make the international community, and in particular the countries of the South, focus systematically on the issue of South-South cooperation; on what has been achieved, what needs to be done, who is doing what, as well as on what the international community as whole, and the multilateral institutions in particular, are doing to support, promote and facilitate the many facets of South-South co-operation.
As we mark the first United Nations Day for South-South cooperation, we stand on threshold of a new era. The build up of South-South horizontal links and cooperation represents a means to overcome some legacies of the colonial division of labour and the vertical dependence on the North.
Much more importantly, South-South links will make it possible to tap into immense and diversifying development potential for mutual economic, social and political cooperation that exists within the South, and which has been barely harnessed thus far.
The development of many of our economies in the South has made it possible to diversify and expand links within the South. This new policy and economic space already exists. It is a new frontier, as was highlighted at the recent UNCTAD XI held in Sao Paulo.
It can be witnessed daily in the world news describing new and diverse South-South ventures and initiatives, including in the most advanced domains of science and technology.
The occasion of the first UN Day for South-South cooperation should be used not so much to review past experiences, but, more importantly, to contribute to elaborating a strategy and plan of action for the future.
The developing countries, as the responsible and concerned actors, should elaborate their own, self-reliant strategy. The Second South Summit in 2005 presents an opportunity for launching such a strategy. However, the real challenge will be in its effective follow up and implementation.
The international community and specifically the developed countries and the multilateral institutions working in the related domains of money, finance and trade, should also come forward with a blueprint of how they intend to support and facilitate various forms of South-South cooperation, including regional integration.
The South is coming of age. South-South cooperation will make it possible to open up and harness the tremendous and growing potential that exists in the South for bilateral and multilateral mutually beneficial ties among developing countries.
The South accounts for almost four-fifths of world population. When economically, socially and politically empowered, and once liberated from the chains of social marginalization and poverty, the young, upcoming generations in the South will also shape the world order, hopefully in the image that the earlier generations of the leaders from their countries struggled for but did not see materialize.
In conclusion, it must be recognized that one of the preconditions for South-South cooperation to progress and prosper is the existence of effective and well-equipped institutional mechanisms that will back it up.
The South Centre experience confirms this fact, and highlights the need to create robust institutions and mechanisms dedicated to South-South cooperation - globally, regionally, nationally and even locally - that will propel such co-operation.
Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali is chairman of the South Centre board, an inter-government organization of developing countries with Pakistan as one of its members.
