South South 2015

South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the Post-2015 Development Agenda

Celeberation of Independence

PRIME MINISTER

GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF BANGLADESH 3 Jaistha 1422 17 May 201 5

Message I am happy to know that Bangladesh is hosting the High-level Meeting on "South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Financing for Development in the South and Technology Transfer".

It certainly exemplifies our deeper engagement with the process of South-South and Triangular Cooperation.

In the context of the current volatile global financial scenario and resource constraint, it is imperative to think about the alternative options of development financing cooperation from diverse sources at home and abroad.

South-South and Triangular Cooperation offers the South and the North to be more innovative and creative in harnessing the opportunity of development cooperation and build an effective framework to complement the traditional North-South cooperation.

Trade liberalization, sharing of knowledge, enhancing country capacity, addressing market failures, accessing international climate finance, transferring green-technology, ensuring food security, checking outbreak of contagious diseases, disaster management, counter terrorism and most importantly job creation could be the possible areas where the southern countries can cooperate under the spirit of this approach.

The North can play a catalytic role in boosting cooperation in the new areas.

I hope the two-day meeting would be able to deliver the expected outcome , renew and bolster the existing development cooperation not only in the South, but also between the South and the North. l would like to thank the UN Office of South-South Cooperation and UNDP, Bangladesh for being the partners of this meeting. I hope the delegates of the participating countries would have an enjoyable stay in this historic city of Dhaka.

I wish the meeting a grand success.

Joi Bangla, Joi Bangabandhu May Bangladesh Live Forever.

Sheikh Hasina UNOSSC

Ministry of Finance Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

Abul Maal A. Muhith Minister

Statement by Ms. Helen Clark

UNDP Administrator on the occasion of the High-Level Meeting on South-South and Triangular Co-operation in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Financing for Development in the South and Technology Transfer 17-18 May 2015, Dhaka, Bangladesh I commend the Government of Bangladesh for convening this important High Level Meeting in partnership with UNDP and the United Nations Office for South-South Co-operation (UNOSSC), on South-South and Triangular Co-operation in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

2015 is a critical year for development. In September the international community will define the post-2015 development agenda. The catalytic role and importance of South-South Co-operation in implementing the new agenda cannot be overstated. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, access to diverse sources of financing, knowledge, experiences, technology and innovation will be critical. To this end, South-South Co-operation is a significant driver of human and sustainable development, enabling experiences and solutions to be shared among developing countries regardless of their levels of development. As well, South-South and Triangular Co-operation exchanges are often particularly suited to addressing the challenges and realities that developing countries face.

According to the most recent Report of the Secretary General on the ‘State of South-South Co-operation’, the volume of South-South Co-operation has reached in 2011 between US$16 - 19 billion – a clear demonstration of its value and benefits. But it is not only about the volume of money.

South-South and Triangular Co-operation provide key mechanisms for exchanges of ideas, technologies, experiences, lessons, and solutions.

South-South Co-operation is symbolic of the joined-up effort among nations for forging a shared future, where there is dignity and justice for all.

In its new Strategic Plan for 2014-2017, UNDP is committed to supporting countries to engage in and benefit from South-South and Triangular Co-operation, building on the roles it has long played as a knowledge broker, a builder of capacity and a facilitator of exchanges between countries.

UNDP supports South-South Co-operation throughout the Asia-Pacific region and beyond through its universal presence in developing countries, and as the host of the UNOSSC. Our International Policy Centres in Brazil, Kenya, Republic of Korea, India, Norway, Singapore, and Turkey are helping to identify and disseminate knowledge and experience across the Global South.

We are also working at the request of a number of development co-operation agencies in emerging economies to support the strengthening of their institutional capacity. At the national level, UNDP supports countries to improve their national planning and budgeting systems for managing both inflows and outflows in the context of the increasing complexity of development finance and co-operation modalities. The need for attention to country systems was a key message which emerged from the Asia-Pacific regional consultation on Financing Effective Development Co-operation, hosted earlier this year by the Governments of Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Palau, and supported by UNDP.

Message I am deeply honored to have the opportunity of hosting this High-level Meeting on South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the Post 2015 Development Agenda: Financing for Development in the South and Technology Transfer at Dhaka, the capital and a historic city of Bangladesh. It manifests Bangladesh's firm commitment to the efforts towards promotion of South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTrC) across the globe. The meeting is taking place aiming to contribute to the 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development, consolidating the Post 2015 Development Agenda and other global initiatives particularly reforms of financial architecture for aligning broader perspective of development.

The impressive progress of the South, propelling global economic growth despite financial crisis in the developed region, has created a new window of opportunity for lifting hundreds of millions of people from poverty and improving their living conditions.

However, many challenges are ahead- financing gap for development, sharing knowledge, experience and technology transfer, confronting climate change and sustaining growth. I believe this High-level meeting will contribute in reshaping the framework further for robust cooperation and collaboration among the countries of the South in economic, social, cultural, environmental and technological fields.

It is a historic opportunity and choice for the South, at the juncture of important reforms that are being taken in global financial institutions, to build need-based new financial institutions that can support development agenda and spur inclusive global growth. These institutions should be crafted in such a way that suits the needs of the South best and at the same time complement the institutions of the North. Post 2015 Development Agenda also reinforces the need for such initiatives to bridge the financing gap and boost South-South and Triangular partnership.

I hope this high-level meeting will lay the foundation of an institutional framework for periodic gathering of the Southern member countries.

This hopefully will pave the way for creative policy initiatives in meeting resource gap by innovating alternative finances and effective means to leap-frog in technology adoption as well as adaptation.

I have no doubt that this meeting will provide substantive inputs for the important international and UN Summits and conferences which are taking place this year, and I look forward to hearing about the outcomes.

I wish you all a very successful meeting.

Ms. Helen Clark

(Abul Maal A. Muhith, MP)

Mohammad Mejbahuddin Senior Secretary Economic Relations Division Ministry of Finance Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh

The President of the General Assembly High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation

Message by H.E. Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen

President of the UNGA High Level Committee on South-South Cooperation Ambassador & Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to UN in New York on the occasion of the High Level Meeting on South-South & Triangular Cooperation 17-18 May 2015, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Message

South-South cooperation is the broad framework for cooperation and collaboration among the countries of the South in political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technological fields. In 2012, the countries of the South accounted for half of world's GDP which is projected to reach 60% by 2030. Statistics show that from 1990 to 2008, the volume of exports from developing countries grew consistently faster than exports from developed countries or the world as a whole. In the area of financial market, the South provides more than a third of global investments and the developing world is projected to account for more than half of total capital stock by 2030. Half of the world's economic output is produced in the global South, $5 trillion are held in reserves in the South, and they account for 47% of global trade of which about half is South-South trade . Additionally, several countries of the global South have become economic powerhouses wielding significant influence. The South has also been developing technological capacity at affordable prices transforming traditional deficiencies into unprecedented new opportunities for development.

It is under this immense potential and prospect that Bangladesh, the current President of the United Nations High Level Committee on South-South Cooperation is organizing a High Level Meeting on South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Dhaka on 17-18 May 2015 in collaboration with the UNDP and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC}. This is the first time that Bangladesh is hosting a meeting of this kind at a time when the global leadership is organizing major multilateral events, for example, the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa in July, the 2015 Summit on Post-2015 Development Agenda in New York in September, and the Climate Change Conference in Paris COP21 in November 2015. It is expected that the brainstorming sessions of the Dhaka meeting will feed into these highly important conferences.

South-South and Triangular Cooperation will play a key role in achieving the goals and targets that will be set by the global leaders in Addis Ababa, in New York and in Paris in 2015. The countries of the South have always played important role in the United Nations. A meeting on the specific issues of how South-South Cooperation can be more effective will definitely have a significant impact on the discussions in United Nations, leading into more substantive and tangible outcomes for the different international high level meetings this year .

To ensure that the South-South Cooperation is feasible and sustainable, the developed countries, i.e., the countries from the North can play the catalytic role, providing fund, technology both tangible and intangible. South-South Cooperation can become stronger when it has South-South and North triangular partnership.

I am hopeful that the Ministers and Senior Officials from countries of the South and the North as well as Senior Representatives from different UN Agencies and other International Organizations will provide substantive recommendations that will help us in chartering the way forward in implementing the post 2015 development agenda; a pro-people, pro-planet, inclusive, equitable, peaceful and sustainable world for all. I wish success of this event.

It is indeed a great honour for the Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance, Government of Bangladesh to host the High Level Meeting on “South South and Triangular Cooperation in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Financing for Development and Technology Transfer. This High Level Meeting is expected to add voice of the southern countries to the upcoming global meeting on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa in July 2015 where decisions will be taken on resource mobilization for implementation of sustainable development goals.

Bangladesh has remained actively engaged with the South-South Cooperation that started almost 50 years ago. We strongly believe that such partnerships are mutually beneficial for all participants. For example, the spectacular growth of trade with the South underlines the huge potential of such form of cooperation. Trade growth has positive impacts on productivity, technological advancement, regional connectivity and modernization of financial system in the south as a whole. As a result, countries in the south are being able to attain multiple development goals including poverty reduction, improved health services and enhanced education enrolment.

We also acknowledge the potential threats to development challenges of the south especially the climate change. We do believe that by sharing experiences countries in the south could benefit from developing appropriate solutions development challenges. Bangladesh is eager to share her home grown development solutions and best practices with southern partners. Poverty reduction, near attainment of universal primary enrolment, food security, women’s empowerment, girls education, near universal coverage of sanitation, enhanced child immunization, climate sensitive budgeting, using IT in public service delivery and financial inclusion, enhanced disaster preparedness are some of the success storied which we can share with the countries of the South.

We also appreciate the potential of the framework of Triangular cooperation under which the traditional development partners from the North can provide support in terms of smart technological solutions and financing to address the critical skill and resource gaps in the South.

Against this background the High Level Meeting in Dhaka emphasizes on exploring the alternative sources of financing as well as on technology transfers aligning with the means of implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

I hope the 2-days meeting would give us opportunity to explore in detail the avenues for accessing multiple sources of development financing.

The Dhaka meeting is also expected to enrich the discussion at the 3rd international conference on Financing for Development to be held in Ethiopia this July. I welcome the participants to Dhaka and hope that their time spent here will be enjoyable and memorable.

Ambassador A. K. Abdul Momen

Mohammad Mejbahuddin Senior Secretary, ERD

The untamed rural Bangladesh in harmony with nature

Bangladesh : A land of surprises

Birth of Bangladesh Bangladesh is one of the few countries of the world that was born through immense and supreme sacrifice by its people – three million of its valiant men and women embraced martyrdom in the war of liberation during the nine months in 1971. Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the greatest Bangali of all time, led the nation to its independence. His visionary leadership ensured that Bangladesh has earned its own place of respect among the states of the world. Bangabandhu, all through his life, envisioned a world of peace, cooperation, development and mutual respect. Bangladesh today marches forward to fulfil the dreams of Bangabandhu, a Sonar Bangla – the Golden Bengal where there is equity, equality, progress and peaceful coexistence and development collaboration with all countries of the world.

Bangladesh: People, landscape and culture People of Bangladesh A vast majority (98 percent) of the people of Bangladesh are Bangalees and they speak Bangla language. Minorities include members of small tribes numbering about a million, with the Chakma being most numerous in number. About 83 percent of Bangladeshis are Muslim. The next major religion is Hinduism (16 precent). Other major religions include Buddhism and Christianity.

A member of the Indo-European family of languages, Bangla is the

official language of Bangladesh. Bangladeshis closely identify themselves with their national language. Bangla has a rich cultural heritage in literature, music, and poetry, and at least two Bangalee poets are well known in the West: Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel laureate; and Kazi Nazrul Islam, as the “voice of Bangalee nationalism and independence.” Bangla has been enriched by several regional dialects.

The dialects of Sylhet, Chittagong, and Noakhali have been strongly marked by Arab-Persian influences. English, whose cultural influence seemed to have picked by the late 1980s, remained nonetheless an important language in Bangladesh.

The total population of small ethnic groups in Bangladesh is 1 million people, just under 1 percent of the total population. They live primarily in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and in the regions of Mymensingh, Sylhet, and Rajshahi.

The majority of these small groups live in rural settings, where many practise shifting cultivation. Most of these people are of Sino-Tibetan descent and has distinctive Mongoloid features. They differ in their social organization, marriage customs, birth and death rites, food, and other social customs from the people of the rest of the country.

They speak Tibeto-Burman languages.

The Land and Landscape If you ever wanted to experience the living reality of the idiom 'when it rains, it pours', Bangladesh is the place to be. During the yearly south Asian monsoon, almost all the water collected by the Himalayas in Nepal, north/northeast India and Bhutan transits through Bangladesh on its journey to the Bay of Bengal, depositing life-giving minerals to the soil all along the Ganges Delta, the largest river delta in the world. It is here the mountains that literally crumble to the sea. This has resulted in Bangladesh's flatland alluvial topography, which is the defining characteristic of the country except in the hilly regions of the southeast and northeast.

The mighty Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers are called the Padma

and the Jamuna in Bangladesh, and both of these massive rivers join several other smaller tributaries to eventually become the Lower Meghna, forming the great Gangetic Delta. At its widest point near Bhola Island, the river stretches to a yawning 12km-wide breadth on its final leg towards the sea. Seen from a boat, the distinctions between land, river, ocean and sky become decidedly uncertain.

As the rivers have gradually shaped and reshaped this land, they have shaped the destinies of its people. It would be a mistake to picture the historic locations of Bangladesh's rivers according to current maps. For instance, the Brahmaputra used to flow east of Dhaka's present location before a major flood caused it to change course over a 30-year time span during the mid-18th century.

Simultaneously, the Ganges has also undergone similar changes, as it used to flow through West Bengal via the Hooghly River (today much smaller than it used to be).

Nowhere is this destiny more uncertain than in the country's two disaster-prone areas. Firstly, the coast bordering the Bay of Bengal is vulnerable to tidal surges from cyclones. Secondly, the country's char areas, or river islands, are also extremely prone to seasonal flooding. These islands lie mostly in the northern reaches of the Jamuna River of Rajshahi Division; many inhabited islands are destroyed and reformed each year by flooding. Despite the fact most of the islands are little more than infertile sandbars, poverty forces millions of people to live on them under the risk that their houses could be swept away each year.

In the Lower Meghna region, another area of exposure lies directly adjacent to the Bay of Bengal. Here, two processes of land loss and land accretion happen simultaneously. While the Meghna tears away strips of land beneath the villages each year, its decreasing speed causes it to deposit massive amounts of Himalayan silt into the bay, forming new land that becomes populated almost immediately despite the fact that the precious land doesn't become fully

fertile for years. Some geologists even claim that Bangladesh is 'gaining landmass', putting the supposed doomsday scenario of climate change into question.

Where the land ends, the Bay of Bengal begins.

Most of the sea adjacent to Bangladesh is quite shallow, a result of sedimentation from the region's mighty rivers. About 50km of the coast from the Sundarbans Forest is a deep under sea canyon known as the 'Swatch-of-No-Ground', where the sea floor drops to a depth of over 1,200m at some points. The swatch transports nutrient-rich sediments from the continental shelf to the deep-sea alluvial fan making up the bay. The abundance of these nutrients results in a relatively abundant population of cetaceans at the swatch.

In terms of forest cover, Bangladesh's natural places are sadly few and far between. While the world's largest mangrove forest at Sundarban remains protected, many of Bangladesh's other national parks have not fared so well. Thankfully, with increasing stability and economic development, conservation programmes are finally starting to get off the ground.

As you start travelling eastward, Bangladesh's geographic portrait takes on a new perspective. While most of the country lies at or just above sea level, the flat landscape gives way to low undulating hills in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the hilly regions of Sylhet, some of which climb to 1,000m above sea level. This landscape is the result of the Indian tectonic plate pushing up against the Asian landmass, the same phenomenon that has resulted in the creation of the Himalayas. Visits to this area offer an experience of the true diversity that Bangladesh possesses, both geographically and culturally.

Finally, the region's last major significant geographical feature is a massive 120krn-long strip of beach lining tile internal eastern coastline of Bangladesh, said to be the longest natural beach in the world (at 254km, Brazil's Cassino Beach is longer, but according to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is partly manmade). Starting at Cox's Bazaar, the white sand stretches all the way down to the Teknaf Peninsula, poking up again briefly at the coral reef island of St Martin's. Most of this beach lies undeveloped except at Cox's Bazaar, where modern tourist facilities are more prevalent.

Festivals and Tradition Bangladeshi daily life is replete with traditions and festivals that reflect the unique culture and tradition of Bangladeshis. Some of the tradition and customs are as ancient as prehistoric days, while others are relatively recent. The indigenous customs and festivals that has been preserved and nurtured through the ages are principally centre around agricultural practices. These include ‘nabonno’ (the festival of the new harvest) and ‘pawhela boishakh’ (the Bangalee new Year). Religion has also played a distinct role in shaping the mores and traditions ofBangladeshi life.

Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim country, and Islam’s adherents in Bangladesh celebrate the joyous festival of the two Eids,

Eid-ul-Fitr, and Eid-ul-Azha, the month of Ramadan, Shab-e-Qadr, Shab-e-Barat etc. Hindus in Bangladesh celebrate Durga Puja, Kali Puja and Janmastami. The Buddhists celebrate Buddho Purnima and the Christians Christmas. These are just a few of the religious festivals and feasts that Bangladeshis celebrate in their day to day life.

National occasions also mark Bangladeshi life, and these include Independence Day, Victory Day, and the historic Language Martyr’s Day. Social customs like birth, naming ceremony, marriage, and death too have a distinct Bangladeshi flavour with each ethnic and religious group having their own unique way to mark these traditions.

The path to Modern Bangladesh The Development Story The economic situation facing Bangladesh as it emerged from the war of independence in 1971 included the highest rural population density in the entire world, an annual population growth rate between 2.5 and 3 percent, chronic malnutrition for majority of the people, and the dislocation of 10 million people who had fled to India and returned to independent Bangladesh by 1972. There were critical shortages of essential food grains and other staples because of wartime disruptions.

The war of independence had crippled the transportation system.

Hundreds of road and railroad bridges had been destroyed or damaged, and rolling stock was inadequate and in poor repair. The new country was still recovering from a severe cyclone that hit the area in 1970 and caused 250,000 deaths.

At the time of Bangladesh’s independence the country was the original development “basket case”. In particular, for Bangladesh, it implied that its citizens would remain crammed onto a flood plain swept by cyclones and without big mineral and other natural resources. It may be recalled that Bangladesh suffered famines in 1943 and 1974 and military coups in 1975 and 1982. When it split from Pakistan in 1971 many observers doubted that it could survive as an independent state (see Bangladesh: The Test Case of Development, Faaland and Parkinson 1976).

More than 40 years later, doubts and doubters have been proven wrong. With sustained growth in food production and a good record of disaster management, famines have become a phenomenon of the past. The relentless struggle of the poor to find indigenous solutions to address their problems and increase resilience in the face of natural and man-made disasters, coupled with the pro-poor policy regime, has worked for Bangladesh.

The new wave since 1990s: Economic implications Over the past two decades, Bangladesh has made some of the biggest gains in the basic condition of people’s lives ever seen anywhere. In 2012, The Economist published an article titled “Bangladesh: Out of the basket” where it showcased how a country once labelled a ‘test case for development,’ could have made such

striking gains in development outcomes over the past two decades.

Within the least developed country (LDC) caucus, Bangladesh today stands clearly as an outlier in terms of the size and strength of its economy and the country recorded strong resilience during the global economic turmoil. The latest LDC report by UNCTAD finds that of all Asian LDCs, Bangladesh is the top when it comes to structural transformation of its economy – the country has gone from being aid dependent to become trade reliant While 10 out of 13 LDC exporters of services saw an increase in investment flows, the increase in FDI to LDC exporters of manufactured goods was driven mainly by higher flows to Bangladesh (up from $1.3 billion in 2012 to 1.6 billion in 2013) Bangladesh alone accounts for 45% of total remittances to LDCs. In absolute terms, Bangladesh continued to be the largest recipient of remittances, receiving almost $15 billion in 2014.

The economy of Bangladesh is rapidly integrating with the global economy as a result of increased trade liberalisation pursued through various economic and trade policy reforms executed in the mid-1980s and in the 1990s. The trade integration of Bangladesh’s economy with the global market registered a remarkable rise in the last three decades indicating a strong structural transformation.

Overall, the external sectors share in the GDP has tripled between 1980 and 2011 from barely over 20% of GDP to 60%. Specially, whilst trade in services constituted less than 1% of GDP in the 1980s, it now accounts for more than 10% of GDP. This transformation has entailed a positive effect on the rural poor through increased consumption and savings, as a result of remittance inflows.

Also worth noting is that ODA, which was significantly higher than remittance two to three decades ago, has been overtaken by the latter by nearly five times. Remittance inflows today dwarf both ODA as well as FDI inflows in Bangladesh. Accordingly, the share of ODA in GDP declined from 4% in 1991 to 2% in 2011.

The new wave since 1990s: Social implications Between 1990 and 2014 life expectancy rose by 11 years, from 59 to 70. According to The Economist’s 2012 article, “Bangladeshis now have a life expectancy four years longer than Indians, despite the Indians being, on average, twice as rich.” Even more remarkably, the

improvement in life expectancy has been as great among the poor as the rich.

Bangladesh has also made significant strides in education and health sectors -more than 98% of girls enrolled in primary school in 2014, slightly more than boys. Infant mortality has more than halved, from 97 deaths per thousand live births in 1990 to 31 per thousand in 2011. Over the same period child mortality fell by two-thirds and maternal mortality fell by three-quarters. It now stands at 144 deaths per 100,000 births. In 1990 women could expect to live a year less than men; now they can expect to live two years more.

These improvements are not a simple result of increases in people’s income. Bangladesh remains a poor country but firmly on track to become a middle-income country (MIC).During the first decade of its independent history, Bangladesh’s economy grew annually by a paltry 2%. Since 2000 its GDP has been rising at a more respectable 6%+ a year, in real terms. The belief that growth brings development with it—the “Washington consensus”—is often criticised on the basis that some countries have had good growth but little poverty reduction and vice versa. Bangladesh embodies the latter: it has had disproportionate poverty reduction for its amount of growth.

How to do what exactly?

Four main factors explain this surprising ‘out of the basket’ success.

First, Bangladesh made birth control free and government workers and volunteers fanned out across the country to distribute pills and advice. In 1975, 8% of women of child-bearing age were using contraception (or had partners who were); in 2011 the number was over 61%. Family planning had a positive effect on reducing fertility rate which recorded above 6 during the 1970s and today, it records 2.2 (replacement level). This has allowed Bangladesh to enjoy an imminent “demographic dividend”.

Second, Bangladesh managed to restrain the fall in rural household incomes that usually leads to extreme poverty. Villages have found non-agriculture resources beyond Bangladesh. Around 10 million Bangladeshis work abroad, mostly in the Middle East, and they remit a larger share of the national income to meet financial obligations at home. The World Bank calculates that between 2000 and 2010, real agricultural wages rose 59%, compared with 42% for all sectors. Whilst most countries have seen a reduction in rural living standards and a resultant increase in extreme poverty, Bangladesh has not.

Third, remittances and family planning cannot suffice to tackle extreme poverty. The government has maintained a consensus in favour of social programmes focusing more on the role of women.

That said, the magnitude of public investment that go on education and health in Bangladesh coupled with the spending by the large number of NGOs on these sectors made Bangladesh’s way of fighting poverty unique and effective.

Fourth, a culture of innovation and tendency to find customized solutions to the countries development challenges made a great deal of difference in the development outcome. Whilst in the 1990s Bangladesh pursued first generation reforms under Washington Consensus that led to opening up of its economy, there is a wide consensus that a modernising economy such as Bangladesh, in order to graduate to the next phase of development, will need to undertake new policy initiatives in key areas of economic management and development. The newly elected government that came to power in January, 2009 committed itself to undertaking the much-needed policy initiatives and reforms in a number of areas, in line with its Digital Bangladesh election manifesto and the Vision 2021 document, building on two five year plans (sixth and seventh).

Achieving sustainable economic and social prosperity According to KPMG (2012), “traditionally an agrarian economy, Bangladesh has established itself as the Textile and readymade Garment powerhouse of the world, with almost all major global apparel brands sourcing from Bangladesh. [The country] has been listed in the “Next 11 after BRIC” in Goldman Sachs analyst reports, while JP Morgan has included Bangladesh in the “Frontier Five”

economies. Credit rating agency Standard and Poor (S&P) and Moody’s have also placed Bangladesh ahead of all countries in South Asia, except India.”

In closing, one must acknowledge that Bangladesh has leapfrogged development in all its forms. The famous quote by Lewis Carroll in the book Alice in Wonderland, “You have to run as fast as you can just to stay where you are. If you want to get anywhere, you'll have to run much faster” is a reminder that making progress is not enough today; rather, the speed of progress is what determines real progress. Be it in infrastructure development or in human resource development, in improving governance and service delivery, or in creating new industry sectors for employment, strategies and policies must be formulated, implemented and monitored with relevant indicators in order to protect Bangladesh’s resilience so that its competitiveness grows faster than its competitors, which will inevitably move the country closer to Vision 2021 and beyond.

Climate Change—the most critical development challenge

Bangladesh has led the world in integrating climate change and poverty considerations into national policy and strategies. Dedicated Policies and Strategies Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction such as Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, in support of the Bali Action Plan (2008), updated in 2009, National Adaptation Programme of Action (2005), updated in 2009, National Plan for Disaster Management 2010-2015, Standing Orders of Disasters (revised 2010) are globally accepted good practice for strategic interventions. These strategies are then operationalized through various plan of actions and projects.

The development of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, together with the recent operationalisation of a national trust fund (USD 100m), represents national commitment to adaptation, with a strong focus on disaster risk reduction and pro-poor development. This will further being complemented by a World Bank administered multi-donor Climate Resilience Fund (USD 120m) which is under development but facing challenges to becoming operational. Despite strong global and national policy leadership and advocacy by the Prime Minister and senior government officials at climate change talks, progress on the ground is weakened by

Climate change impacts in Bangladesh in the short to medium term will likely manifest in the form of increased disaster risks. The greater frequency and severity of climatic events, such as flooding, cyclones, storm surge, and drought, will lead to increased mortality and loss of assets and livelihoods. It is also likely to undermine macro-economic growth, reduce food security, and increase migration pressure. Furthermore, sea levels are expected to rise by up to 45 cm by 2050 (IPCC), directly affecting the lives of 35 million people living in coastal areas.

Poor people are already experiencing the impact of climate change in their life, livelihood and environment. It has become an additional obstacle for poor people to enjoy their basic right.

People living in inequality experience differential impacts, and also experience greatest hurdle to access resources to adapt to the impacts and to influence policies that affect them. Being one of the least polluting countries, climate change has already become a major challenge for the nation to overcome poverty and achieve desired human development.

Vision 2021 and Digital Bangladesh After the new goverment came to power through the 2008 general election, they have adopted the "Vision 2021" and "Digital Bangladesh" action plans to trans2008 Poverty 45% form Bangladesh into a fast developing Middle 2008 2013 Income Country by 2021. Agri : industry : service 8% CAGR 22 : 28 : 50 of GDP 2012 Indeed, this remarkably 48 : 16 : 36 of Labour Food pro-poor manifesto has self-sufficiency not came from a void but 2010 2013 2008 100% Primary represents a modern day Free tuition 40% Enrolment upto Degree translation of the vision Unemployment of a "Sonar Bangla", or golden Bengal, promised 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 by the Father of the 2008 Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

2013 2011 Pure Drinking Water

deficiencies in the global system of governance of climate funds and resources. Additional capacity development measures are also highly relevant in the current context.

Sanitation

As part of this unique 2008 development vision, the Infant mortality 5.4% Maternal mortality 3.8% ‘Digital Bangladesh’ has emerged not only as a vision but also as a 2013 2011 unique development 7000MW 5000 MW Electricity Electricity approach to leverage ICT in delivering the social goods for the underFigure 1: Vision 2021 and Digital Bangladesh served—a promise that no other than the honourable Prime Minister made. In many ways, Digital Bangladesh is a reincarnation of the Sonar Bangla vision. Whilst Sonar Bangla envisages economic and social prosperity, Digital Bangladesh organically extends the vision by conceiving the usage of ICT as an enabler. Without doubt, one of the key tenants of Digital Bangladesh is its bias towards the poor, comprising women, elderly, physically challenged, rural constituents, etc., who constitute the majority of Bangladeshis. From that perspective, this was the first ever development strategy in the world that deliberately attempts to leverage ICTs for poverty reduction and transformation of the fate of common women and men of Bangladesh.

Digital Bangladesh is an umbrella initiative which is helping to plant the seeds for cultivating a culture of innovation within the civil service bureaucracy, which has been traditionally resistant to any change in status quo. It runs close to two key provisions mentioned by the National Integrity Strategy, Commitment for Golden Bengal (Sonar Bangla): (a) a happy, prosperous and socially just Bangladesh - the Golden Bengal; and, (b) establishment of good and effective governance in state institutions and society. The juxtaposition of 2021 Poverty 15% 2021 Agri : industry : service 15 : 40 : 45 of GDP 30 : 25 : 45 of Labour

2017 10% CAGR

2014 100% Literacy

2014

2021 15% Unemployment

2015

2016

2017

2015 100% Housing

2015 8000MW Electricity

2018

2019

2020

2021

2021 Birth 2021 Control 2021 80% 85% Citizens with Full Nutrition 2021 Infant mortality 1.5% Maternal mortality 1.5% No contagious disease Longevity 70yrs

2021 20,000MW Electricity 2021

Digital Bangladesh

the National Integrity Strategy and Digital Bangladesh rests on the use of ICTs to “bring transparency and establish accountability in government offices and commercial establishments.”

Mohammad Mejbahuddin Senior Secretary Economic Relations Division

The Old and the New Dhaka City – unity in diversity

countries and their creditors. Despite provision of debt relief by international community, low-income countries find it challenging to preserve long-term debt sustainability. Despite recent successes in the MDGs, progress across the South has been uneven. More than two billion people still live in abject poverty. About 1.4 billion people, the majority in the South, still have no access to electricity, 900 million are without supply of clean water and 2.6 billion do not have adequate sanitation. In the face of this stark reality, South-South and triangular cooperation offers an alternative to balance growth with equity leading to shared prosperity, sustainable development and a life of dignity for all.

The South-South cooperation engages a wide range of partners, public and private sector, UN entities, multilateral bodies, civil society organizations and financial institutions in order to provide the most efficient, effective and comprehensive support for development. It attempts to address the critical development challenges through home grown development solutions. The process involves innovating, showcasing and transferring forward-thinking ideas, best practices and transforming the existing systems. South-South Cooperation is more than just the exchange of solutions; it is about the South taking ownership of its own development process by exploring new avenues for technical collaboration under the framework of North-South and Triangular partnership.

South-South and Triangular Cooperation: Bangladesh Perspective South-South cooperation is a broad framework for collaboration among countries of the South in the political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technical areas. Involving two or more developing countries, it can take place on a bilateral, regional, sub-regional or interregional basis. Developing countries share knowledge, skills, expertise and resources to meet their develop-

ment goals through concerted efforts. Traditional donor countries and multilateral organizations facilitate these initiatives through provision of funding, capacity development, technical and management support, system development, scientific research and development is referred to as the triangular cooperation.

Debt in the last two decades has become costlier both for debtor

Phenomenal growth of South-South trade has surpassed the traditional North-South trade which has been possible through removing trade barriers, technological advancement, increased connectivity, dispersed production networks; less interference of non-trade issues such as human rights have also contributed to the growth of trade among the southern countries. The emerging economies particularly Brazil, China, India, South Korea, South Africa and Turkey, among others, have become major markets for LDCs exports. They are becoming the important providers of development assistance and key sources of FDI. However, LDCs’ exports to the emerging countries are mostly primary commodities and investments from emerging economies are mainly in mining. There is a pressing need to diversify this trade. Nevertheless, emerging countries in the global south are constrained by their own development challenges in terms of less access to advanced technology, unstable capital markets, inefficient financial institutions and regulatory framework, weak governance and wrong policy which largely can be addressed by North-South cooperation. Therefore, South-South co-operation should not be perceived as a substitute of traditional North-South cooperation.

The capacity or resource gaps of South-South Cooperation can be

bridged by Triangular cooperation.

South-South flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) are on the rise.

Developing countries now provide 33 per cent of global investments, and are projected by the World Bank to account for more than half of total capital stock by 2030. In 2012, overall global FDI declined by 18 per cent, whereas flows to the least developed countries, mostly in the South, rose by 20 per cent to a record $26 billion.

Traditional donors continue to account for close to 95 per cent of official development assistance but the middle-income economies of the South have become outstanding sources of South-South development assistance estimated to be between $12 billion and $16 billion. Hence, South-South cooperation provides an important and effective framework as a complement to traditional North-South cooperation.

Despite these remarkable gains, however, the benefits of

pate in emerging growth industries of the South; and most importantly integrate the diverse views of the South into multilateral negotiations such as the Doha Development Round. Moreover, there is ample opportunity for South-South investment in pro-poor sectors, where productivity is generally low, but the potential for poverty reduction is high.

Ship building is one of the growing indsutries of Bangladesh among many others.

South-South cooperation are not evenly distributed across countries and sectors in the South. Close to 80 per cent of South-South trade is concentrated in East Asia. Increases in South-South financing are predominantly targeted at mines (coal, oil, gas) and the infrastructure necessary to export the extracted minerals. This is clearly not enough for a comprehensive development in the South, the newly established Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and BRICS Bank are huge steps by the emerging economies towards financing the development needs of the South.

While trade is growing among Southern countries, they continue to experience unique challenges in global markets. By sharing experiences on trade liberalization, collectively addressing the supply side constraints and enhancing productive capacity the LDCs can well place themselves in global and regional value chains; take advantage of preferential access to developed markets; invest and partici-

Facilitating the technology transfer through South-South Cooperation is another area of great importance which is expected to be discussed at the high-level meeting. Countries like China, India, Brazil and South Africa have achieved significant science and technological progress.

The evolving South-South cooperation in science, technology and innovation between least developed countries and emerging economies has added critical value to the South-South co-operation. For example, the report of the Secretary-General on the state of South-South Cooperation noted in 2013 that an Indian drug company had invested in the pharmaceutical industry in Uganda, while Brazil had provided research and educational support to many African countries in science and technology. In 2011, Brazil announced plans to invest more than $2 billion to finance 75,000 African students to study science and technology in that country.

These efforts in science, technology and innovation, which respond to the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011-2020, need to be stepped up in the course of implementing the post-2015 development agenda.

South-South cooperation is being practiced in Bangladesh and has a history of almost half a century. Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has been providing project aid and commercial credit to Bangladesh since 1976, OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has a fair economic operation in Bangladesh. Countries beyond OECD such as China, India, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and UAE are major bilateral contributors to the economic development of Bangladesh.

the debate to identify and make sure the means of implementation of Post-2015 development agenda. Along with innovative and creative ideas huge investment is needed in terms of finance and advanced technology in key sectors such as agriculture, health, infrastructure development, climate change and renewable energy.

The South or the North – none can alone address the worldwide development challenges including financial shocks which cause millions of people out of job and push towards poverty. The universal nature of the post 2015 agenda reinforces the need of robust South-South and Triangular partnerships to address the new emerging threats like climate change or outbreak of contagious diseases like Ebola virus in West Africa which caused colossal damage to the economies of the affected countries.

The outcomes of the Bangladesh meeting will inform other international deliberations and related negotiations on financing South-South and Triangular initiatives and on the facilitation of Korea and Turkey are trade and economic partners of Bangladesh for a long time. China has a considerable presence in developing power, telecommunication, transport and other infrastructure of Bangladesh. India has extended US$800 million Line of Credit for balance of payment and project support. Moreover, India, China and Gulf States have a range of active humanitarian and emergency support during humanitarian crises. Bangladesh is playing proactive role in the process of accelerating South Asian Preferential Trade regime under SAARC framework and BIMSTEC. South-South development cooperation has limitation in terms of up-scaling the southern initiatives. Lack of credible data and information on different aspects of South-South and Triangular cooperation is still a barrier in harnessing the expertise and experiences of developing countries. There are some other challenges that may inhibit South-South and Triangular Cooperation. Developing countries are sometimes afflicted with their national and regional geo-political interests driven by internal security, regional conflicts, border issues, governance and management capacity.

Promoting the South-South cooperation is of critical importance towards achieving sustainable development goals. It can play catalytic role to promote growth and help countries in the South to be resilient to economic, social and environmental shocks. Participants at the high-level meeting in Bangladesh will discuss the options of alternative financing for development and technology transfer under the framework of South-South Cooperation. The impact sessions on different thematic areas would allow the participants to sharpen their understanding and consolidate position in

South-South technology transfer in the post-2015 development agenda. It is also envisaged that the high-level meeting will lay the groundwork for the establishment of a forum to collectively plan the financing of transnational South-South initiatives and the enabling policy environment for technology transfer within the South-South approach.

Md. Ashadul Islam Additional Secretary Economic Relations Division Ministry of Finance

Agriculture remains the foundation of the Bangladeshi economy.

The Government of Bangladesh, in partnership with the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and the United Nations Development Programme, will convene an important global meeting on 17-18 May 2015. The theme for the High-level meeting will be “South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Financing for Development in the South and Technology Transfer”, the event will bring together Government ministers, senior officials and practitioners both from the South and the North for discussions on how South-South and triangular cooperation could be better oriented towards the attainment of internationally agreed upon development goals today and in the years ahead.

Bangladesh will host the High-level meeting at a time when the country holds the Presidency of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, the highest body in the United Nations for the promotion of South-South Cooperation.

Sharing of knowledge, experiences and best practices in financing for development and technology transfer will be a key aim of this event towards the achievement of the post-2015 development goals.

High-level Meeting on “South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Financing for Development in the South and Technology Transfer” 17-18 May 2015, Dhaka, Bangladesh

The High-level meeting comes amid growing recognition that South-South cooperation is the broad framework for cooperation and collaboration among the countries of the South in political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technological fields. South-South Cooperation is thus recognized as playing an important role in the sustainable development and resilience of Southern countries. In the economic sphere, flows of South-South trade, bolstered by trade liberalization, technological advancement, increased connectivity and dispersed production networks, have recently surpassed North-South flows. About 56 per cent of exports from developing countries went to other developing countries in 2011.The share of the most heavily exported manufactured products from developing countries amounted to more than 60 per cent of the world total for 2010 and 2011.

South-South flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) are on the rise and, in addition to capital, account for technology and skills transfers to recipient countries across the South. Developing countries now provide 33 per cent of global investments, and are projected by the World Bank to account for more than half of total capital stock by 2030. In 2012, overall global FDI declined by 18 per cent, whereas flows to the least developed countries, mostly from the South, rose by 20 per cent to a record $26 billion.

Traditional donors continue to account for close to 95 per cent of official development assistance but the middle-income economies of the South have become outstanding sources of South-South development assistance estimated to be between $12 billion and $16 billion. Hence, South-South cooperation provides an important and effective framework as a complement to traditional North-South cooperation.

Despite these remarkable gains, however, the benefits of South-South cooperation are not evenly distributed across countries and sectors in the South. Close to 80 per cent of South-South trade is concentrated in East Asia. The increases in South-South financing are predominantly targeted at mines, oil wells and the infrastructure necessary to export the extracted minerals. Numerous tools and examples of South-South Coop

research and educational support to many African countries in science and technology. In 2011, Brazil announced plans to invest more than $2 billion to finance 75,000 African students to study science and technology in that country. These efforts in science, technology and innovation, which respond to the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011-2020, need to be stepped up in the course of implementing the post-2015 development agenda. That China and India are becoming significant sources of environmentally friendly technologies for countries of the South and the North shows that there is immense potential for South-South collaboration on sustainable development aided by scientific and technological know-how.

eration remain underutilized, and South-South investments have yet to provide the support necessary to create a useful supplement to traditional North-South assistance. Additionally, non-traditional donors such as private sector foundations represent a significant and largely untapped resource in financing all spheres of development.

importantly integrating the diverse views of the South into multilateral negotiations such as the Doha Development Round. Moreover, there is ample opportunity for South-South investment in pro-poor sectors, where productivity is generally low and potential for poverty reduction is significant.

While trade is growing among Southern countries, they continue to experience unique challenges in global markets.

Sharing experiences in trade liberalization, addressing supply side constraints and increasing productive capacity can provide strategic insights into issues such as: positioning in global and regional value chains; taking advantage of preferential access to developed markets; investment and participation in emerging growth industries of the South; and most

As the international community sets the development agenda for the coming decade, the Government of Bangladesh aims to spur inclusive debate among Southern policymakers, development practitioners from the South as well as from the North, and their partners in civil society and the private sector. Central to the high-level meeting will be discussions on the subject of financing development programmes within the framework of South-South cooperation.

The panelists leading the discussion will be invited to identify and share information on arrangements or mechanisms that have proven to work in the provision of predictable financing of South-South development initiatives. Particular emphasis will be placed on the funding of programmes to complete the unfinished business of meeting the Millennium Development Goals and the priority South-South initiatives to be undertaken at the start of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, once they have been adopted by United Nations Member States later in 2015. Participants from both North and South are expected to identify areas where, and ways how, Northern partners can come in to provide financing for development programmes of the South. Effective triangular cooperation can play transformative role in implementing the Post 2015 Development Agenda, and this meeting will go a long way in creating those critical partnerships.

South-South cooperation in the facilitation of technology transfer is another area of great importance that will be discussed at the high-level meeting. As a number of countries in the South have achieved significant scientific progress, evolving South-South cooperation in science, technology and innovation between least developed countries and emerging economies needs to be enhanced. For example, the report of the Secretary-General on the state of South-South Cooperation noted in 2013 that an Indian drug company had invested in the pharmaceutical industry in Uganda, while Brazil had provided

Harnessing this potential is of critical importance to sustainable development, growth and resilience to economic, social and environmental shocks. Participants at the high-level meeting in Bangladesh will discuss the framework to promote South-South collaboration on science, technology and innovation with a view to exchanging experiences in policymaking and applying technology in key sectors such as agriculture, health, infrastructure development, climate change and renewable energy. Scaling up innovations will be discussed as a key driver of more effective South-South Cooperation.

The universal nature of the post 2015 agenda reinforces the need for the Bangladesh meeting to work towards more robust triangular partnerships whose effectiveness has been recently demonstrated through the collaborative efforts of Cuba, Uganda, the United States and other developed and developing states in the provision of assistance to Ebola affected countries in West Africa.

The outcomes of the Bangladesh meeting will inform other international deliberations and related negotiations on financing South-South and Triangular initiatives and on the facilitation of South-South technology transfer in the post-2015 development agenda. It is also envisaged that the high-level meeting will lay the groundwork for the establishment of a forum that would regularly bring Southern ministers of finance together to collectively plan the financing of transnational South-South initiatives and the enabling policy environment for technology transfer within the South.

A thriving RMG sector is a major element of national exports and a source of substantial industrial employment.

mentioned that developing countries must first build infrastructure for energy, water, transportation and housing as well as education and health facilities. They also recommended connectivity through Information Communications Technology (ICT).

Infrastructure is important for developing country economies to perform better. Transportation infrastructure allows movement of goods locally and to international markets. Landlocked countries are especially depended on the transport infrastructure. ICT helps to increase knowledge access, transmit data and increase productivity. Leapfrog technologies are especially available in ICT including fixed broadband internet and mobile cellular. Constructing transport infrastructure such as railways, bridges, highways and airports requires significant financial and human capital investments.

Under the Sustainable Development Goals, the road to development passes through infrastructure development which is itself driven by science, technology and innovation. The provision of infrastructure, it was argued, would lead to foreign direct investment and the growth of indigenous as well as small to medium enterprises that have proven to be the best source of employment creation, commerce and trade, and wealth creation. It is in this context that SDG 9: “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation” brings about the link between infrastructure, industrialization and innovation and poverty reduction through employment creation.

Plenary Session I: Technology, Science and Innovation At the turn of the Millennium, the United Nations adopted the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) implemented from 2000-2015. A lot of progress was achieved under the MDGs. However, a number of short-comings were also identified which were largely addressed in the consultations for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Among these shortcomings were; a government-centric approach whereby the Private Sector and Civil Society were not stakeholders; there was no clear focus on cross-cutting issues or priority issues

such as youth employment, growth of small to medium enterprises (SMEs); and, soft development issues such as education, health, gender, human rights and the environment were the focus instead of other potential solutions for poverty reduction especially through employment creation.

The shortcomings of the MDGs in relation to solutions for poverty reduction were addressed by the Task Force of the Millennium Project on Science, Technology and Innovation.

The Task force published the Science, Technology and Innovation report entitled, “Innovation, Applying Knowledge in Development”. The importance of the report is that it differs from the previous emphasis on research and development as the main drivers of innovation. Instead the recommendations emphasise the application of science, technology and innovation to drive infrastructure development. The Task Team

Without the relevant technology and know-how, capabilities of local industry may be limited to trading and some limited value addition. Greater support for better technological capability may help industrial competitiveness. Government procurement and marketing of products may help support local industries. In agro-industries for example, inadequate mechanization, lack of inputs and lack of skills can keep the agro-industry challenged.

There is a role for the public sector to support industry.

Since the link between science, technology and innovation in the SDGs is established through infrastructure, the level of investment required is an issue to grapple with. For example, in 2012, China announced a package of infrastructure projects including highways, waterways, rail lines and waste water treatment plants worth more than $150 billion. Not many countries can afford the level of investment that a foreign-reserves rich China can afford. In the rest of Asia, the ADB has

indicated that between 2010 and 2020, USD8.3 trillion or $750 billion per year will be needed for infrastructure. In Latin America, the World Bank reported that if the region spent at least 4% of GDP on infrastructure instead of the current average 2%, it would need $223 billion per year. For Africa, the International Monitory Fund suggested that an amount of $20 billion is required annually. None of the countries or regions are close to the spending requirements in infrastructure. These infrastructure requirements show why the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will be an important addition for southern countries’ resources to achieve the SDGs. Another aspect of Science and Technology relates to the maintenance of infrastructure. Human resource development is an important requirement to achieve this goal. The distribution of fields of academic study in relation to industrial and economic development needs have to be better aligned. There may be excess labor in some industries and not sufficient skilled labor for adaptation and diffusion of technologies in other industries. Where new technologies are introduced, there is a need to develop indigenous technical expertise and project management skills. It is imperative to enhance and nurture technical expertise for maintenance of built infrastructure. Another issue worth noting is the role of brain drain. Sufficient incentives may have to be developed to retain the available human resources. The only worse state to a lack of human resources is losing the ones a country has invested and developed.

Lastly, SDG 4 aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all.”

This SDG refers to the importance of formal technical and vocational education training. It is linked with the previous assertion that there is a need to develop human capital. Infrastructure for vocational education is required. Besides, it is likely that each country will have Science and Technology institutions for research or for governance of research. These also need to be supported and cooperation between them and government ministries is essential.

In conclusion, financial and human resources, conducive policies and strategies for science, technology and innovation towards economic development and industrialization require a country strategy incorporated into the national development plan. The strategy may be better developed for a sector or for the economy through Innovation System Diagnosis and STI Strategy Development.

The Parliament Building : The Heart of Democracy

Plenary Session II: Complementing ODA As the international community moves beyond the Millennium Development Goals and into the Post-2015 era, it is essential to recognize the fundamentally different nature of our world today as compared to the turn of the millennium. The landscape of global development has transformed through poverty reduction, environmental changes and financial booms and busts, and the lines between traditional and new forms of development finance have already shifted. Traditional donors continue to account for close to 95 per cent of official development assistance, but the middle-income economies of the South have become outstanding sources of South-South development assistance, estimated to be between $12 billion and $16 billion. As we consider which policy and regulatory changes to make when designing the Post-2015 agenda it is essential to look at the ways in which the world has already changed, promoting emerging trends in financing for development and, with equal vigor, adapting to newfound risks.

Trade continues to drive economic development across the Global South, and with growing incomes, increased connectivity and technological advancements, South-South trade flows have recently surpassed those of the North-South. Approximately 56 percent of exports from developing countries went to developing countries in 2011, showing that substantial growth can be found within the South. While this signals a valuable increase in potential development finance, LDC participation in the world trade in goods and commercial services remains low, and the relationship between Aid for Trade and poverty reduction is fickle at best. Trade can serve as a catalytic source of development finance in the Post-2015 era, if polices are in place to ensure trade benefits the poor. Reducing key infrastructural, market and communications bottlenecks must be a priority, while targeting value chains where SMEs and the poorest market actors are consistently unable to unlock the potential value. It is an opportune time to reflect on Aid for

Trade and the Enhanced Integration Framework, and to consider approaches in agriculture, manufacturing, services and other sectors that have stimulated growth and poverty reduction in different countries of the South.

It is important to note that Official Development Assistance remains an essential enabler of development progress. The commitments made in Monterrey and re-affirmed in Doha represent a core global development promise which all countries must honor. In 2013 OECD-DAC countries allocated on average just 0.3% of GNI to ODA – the upcoming Third International Conference on Financing for Development represents an opportunity to reaffirm the 0.7% commitment and pledge to allocate at least 0.15-0.2% to LDCs. However the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be achieved through ODA alone, there is a need for other forms of international public finance and investments in areas such as communicable disease control; climate change adaptation and mitigation; science, innovation and new technologies. Now is an opportune time for Northern and Southern countries to consider our toolkits and weigh new approaches to complementing ODA and delivering the SDGs. Although our countries are arguably more interconnected than ever, prudent public finance at the national level remains an essential element of financing for development. Strong public finance at the domestic level facilitates an environment conducive to macroeconomic growth and stability, while also providing pubic goods and promoting equitable societies. One of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the intergovernmental Open Working Group centers on reducing inequality – a result that stems from effective domestic policies, and gains momentum through the strengthening of social safety nets and promotion of financial inclusion. There is much to learn in this respect from countries of the South, from the pioneering application of mobile technology to facilitate money transfers, to the poverty reducing phenomena of micro-finance. Today, innovative solutions to global problems are occurring all across the South, using the approach of South-South Cooperation to share these practices will allow the impact to go from local and incremental to global and exponential.

While public finance lays the foundation of our development efforts, the Post-2015 agenda cannot be achieved through this toolkit alone – most of the resources needed to finance it will come from private sources such as households, businesses and investors. Although the realm of private investment is not entirely in the hands of governments, smart public policy is still needed to address misaligned incentives, minimize risks and facilitate the growth of critical infrastructure. Sharing of South-South experiences in aligning FDI with national and international development goals, especially from the middle-income countries, would be crucial for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Least Developed Countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) who require this investment to catalyze their economies. Channeling private investment to sectors where the social gains appear to outweigh the monetary ones remains one of the biggest challenges, as social sectors and SMEs are too easily overlooked by capital inflows. In this sense, foundations, corporate philanthropy and impact investing can be targeted to fill the gaps.

Some of the biggest emerging challenges faced at this moment are indeed very complex to finance. Mitigating crises and adapting to our changing climate will require us to generate additional resources beyond ODA, as these challenges are in addition to and not in the place of existing ones such as poverty reduction, gender equality, good nutrition and child mortality. Pledges made to the Green Climate Fund under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are very promising, and the goal of developed countries to jointly mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries is an important commitment. The UN Secretary-General has also proposed an expert technical group to present options for a more coherent framework that accounts for climate finance and ODA. Overall, climate finance is guaranteed to be an ever-changing area, and will require strong South-South and Triangular partnerships and monitoring of financial flows to see commitments through to action.

While countries and populations across the world have to adapt to new changes in the global environment and economy, there are also new tools emerging for countries to leverage.

The establishment of multilateral development banks such as the New Development Bank (formerly BRICS bank) and the Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank prove that the landscape of international public finance is indeed shifting.

These new banks will ideally be able to leverage substantial

contributions and capital, mobilizing resources from capital markets to provide critical concessional and non-concessional development finance to LDCs, LLDCs, SIDS and fragile and conflict situations, as well as middle-income developing countries. Seeing that multilateral development banks engage directly with countries, instruments to channel resources towards sustainable development sectors should be given much thought. The role of these emerging development banks of the South in relation to the traditional ones also deserves attention – as more ‘second opinions’ than ever will be available in relation to accessing large-scale development finance.

Finally, it is important to recognize the value of efficiently managing and measuring finance flows in the South and the North. A hurdle to guaranteeing maximum development impact of Financing for Development in a South-South Context is often the high level of institutional capacity required.

Considering that the Financing for Development agenda covers a vast range of policy areas – from trade to employment to credit – there is a distinct need for more effective cooperation in accurately monitoring ODA commitments, and measuring the effectiveness of policy reforms both in the realms of public finance and investment promotion.

Improved quality standards are needed to ensure that poverty reduction and development impact are at the center of any type of cooperation. With effective standards and data, it is possible to allocate resources where they are most productive, a practice which should lay at the core of all South-South and Triangular Cooperation.

Heritage of Bangladesh: Steeped in the past, but keen on the future

Plenary Session III: Towards more Effective Cooperation & Implementation

the most developed and not just developing countries (as for example sustainable consumption and production). It is also an agenda that aims to reach excluded or marginalized people, build around the principle of “leaving no one behind”.

The MDGs have been successful in accelerating progress towards development, and even though not all goals have been reached many of the issues remain relevant for individual countries. The MDGs have helped to focus attention and resources behind common goals and fostered greater awareness of what it takes to achieve development.

Many lessons can be drawn from the experience with the MDGs. And while overall the MDGs are recognized for their positive contribution to development, the framework also had its weaknesses. One of the often-cited shortcomings of the MDG framework was the goal on the global partnership for development (Goal 8). It was included in the framework as a driver for the achievement of the other MDGs. It aimed to establish more conducive conditions of international cooperation, generate resources, and help build the capacities needed to deliver on the first seven MDGs, covering the areas of ODA, market access, debt sustainability, access to essential drugs and ICT. Goal 8 did not live up to expectation, and its potential for strengthening regional and global partnerships for development remained underutilized. Some of its shortcomings were imprecise quantitative targets, weak accountability and weak links with the other goals. The post-2015 development agenda offers a fresh opportunity to renew the global partnership for development and associated means of implementation that can help successfully implement the Sustainable Development Goals.

progress. To harness and sustain development gains a compelling and supportive international framework of development cooperation is needed that cuts across boundaries.

In addition, the traditional focus on ODA as the main resource for financing of development goals is no longer relevant. For many developing countries, ODA presents a small portion of the available resources and a more comprehensive sustainable development agenda will require new and innovative ways of looking at financing. For a renewed global partnership for development and follow-up to MDG8, these new realities should be taken into account.

The contours of such a new framework have started to emerge. With the proposal for the Sustainable Development Goals as made by the intergovernmental Open Working Group, there is a concrete follow-up framework to the MDGs on the table.

Since the formulation of the MDGs, the world has changed considerably. Important progress has been made against the MDG areas. Millions of people have been lifted out of poverty and have seen their living standards improve. At the same time, the world has come to face new challenges, such as climate change and growing inequalities within countries.

The new agenda is responding to the changed world and taking up lessons learned from the MDGs in its design. For one, it is an integrated and overlapping agenda that addresses sustainable development in all its aspects. Sustainable development was long treated as an environmental issues only, but with the SDG proposal the international community is clearly recognizing it as a combined environmental, social and economic pathway to a better world.

Moreover, fifteen years after the MDGs, in a progressively globalized world, the levers for change are no longer within the purview of domestic policy space, but increasingly outside it.

National action are not always adequate in lifting barriers to

The new agenda is also set to be relevant to all countries and all people. It is to be universal, as many issues cannot be addressed within countries only (climate change is a classic example), while others are predominantly the responsibility of

The post-2015 agenda will also encompass a renewed global partnership for development, some of the elements of which have already been defined in the SDG proposal. For the continued discussions, including under the Financing for Development umbrella, it is important to note that the means of implementation should respond to the new aspects of the agenda, including its integrated and universal nature. For one, this would entail that any means of implementation is not treated as a silo issue, but one that cuts across. Several of the means of implementation issues actually can enable the achievement of an integrated agenda. Green technology for example can spur economic growth and social progress, while preserving the environment. Such benefits, however, are not automatic.

It also entails looking at partnerships in a new way. For one, the traditional North-South division that framed the MDGs is less relevant for the post-2015 agenda, given the wide variation in country circumstances.

These individual circumstances offer opportunities for strengthening the use of South-South, triangular and regional cooperation mechanisms, which have grown in strength and provide alternatives to the traditional North-South transfer or resources. Moreover, in the development of the post-2015 agenda the importance of multi-stakeholder engagement has gained attention.

It is now widely recognized that governments, while still in the driving seat, cannot do it alone and that new ways of working need to be explored with civil society, the private sector and people directly. While there are many successful examples to draw and build upon, there is no blue print for an effective partnership and many of the parameters will need to be set based on the specific context.

The universal spirit of the new agenda also requires us to rethink the way we look at partnerships in general, and a renewed Global Partnership for Sustainable Development in particular. The role of developed countries is envisaged much more broadly than just the provision of resources; they have a larger responsibility in achieving the development goals than was envisioned for the MDGs. These more articulated responsibilities should be reflected in cooperation mechanisms and particularly give new substance to triangular partnerships.

It is difficult however to see the full picture of the wide variety of southern partnerships among developing countries. There is a need for clear cut institutional arrangements to identify and support these partnerships, and internal government coordination is crucial to ensure a coherent approach to managing and encouraging partnerships across diverse policy areas. .

Additionally, the results coming out of southern partnerships need to be sustainable in the long term. Inclusive ownership, cooperation based on national needs, accountability and transparency are vital for all forms of development cooperation. A lack of coordination among southern countries is often the biggest impediment to reaching the full potential of South-South Cooperation. Further regional cooperation could unlock key growth and development potential by boosting regional connectivity, trade and investment.

As an example of the complexity of South-South and Triangular partnerships, the Asia-Pacific Regional MDG report argues that by signing on to the post-2015 agenda, all countries agree implicitly to the transfer and dissemination of technologies that are essential for sustainable development. This would also imply that in formulating their domestic policies, developed countries would take into account the effects they have on developing countries, formulating policies that are supportive to developing countries’ efforts in harnessing technology for sustainable development. Clearly, fresh partnerships and commitments are needed to navigate the multi-dimensional nature of South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the post-2015 era.

The cultural heritage of the country is a unique blend of the traditional and the modern.