StatsTalk-Africa: Quantifying South-South cooperation with data of the South

Financing Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) process and achievement has been at the heart of global leaders around the way due to the challenge it represents in terms of amounts to be mobilized and their sources. The SDG agenda foresaw in its Target 17.3 the need to “Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources” as a supporting means to implement the Agenda beside ODA flows and strengthening of domestic resources mobilization. In this respect, understanding the contribution of South-south Cooperation (SSC) constitutes an important step in better comprehending the sources of development support for developing countries as well as the specific challenges faced by developing countries in meeting the SDGs.

The Economic Commission for Africa, African Center for Statistics (ECA-ACS), in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Statistics Service, are organizing a session during the StatsTalk-Africa webinar on progress and challenges regarding the measurement of SSC, as part of the new SDG indicator 17.3.1 on ‘additional financial resources mobilized for developing countries from multiple sources’. The new indicator’s methodology was adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) at its 53rd session in March 2022.

Thanks to the joint efforts of the South, now for the first time there is a global, voluntary Conceptual Framework to Measure South-South Cooperation which will support countries’ reporting on the SDG indicator. The Statistical Commission, at its 53rd session, welcomed the development of this conceptual framework and “requested that further work on this, including on global reporting and capacity-building, be enabled by the co-custodianship of UNCTAD and be led by countries from the global South, building on country-led mechanisms”. The Commission also invited countries involved in SSC to work closely with UNCTAD to that effect. This event will update heads of National statistical offices (NSOs) and international cooperation agencies across Africa as well as other participants interested in this field. Specifically, this event on the quantification of SSC aims to:

1. Share information on the new SDG Indicator 17.3.1 and on the Framework to measure South-South cooperation elaborated by countries of the South;
2. Present the ongoing UN Development Account project on Quantifying South-South cooperation to mobilize funds for the SDGs;
3. Discuss African perspectives on South-South cooperation and its measurement.

Kindly register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_e8vHNn2MSOq7vMuyGHnYMg