Recover Stronger Together through Decentralised Cooperation: Learning from South-South Cooperation Latin America and Asia Pacific Collaboration for Greater Impact to the World
Global South: Challenges & Opportunities Cooperation among countries in the Global South is not new. In 1955, newly independent countries gathered in Bandung, Indonesia for the Asian-African Conference. Drawing on the principles of the Conference, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was established in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia. Both the Conference and the Movement set the stage for “South-South Cooperation (SSC),” a movement of reciprocal self-reliance in which developing countries collectively assist each other.1 However, the countries of the Global South are facing some challenging issues along the way. Reflecting on the occurrence of global issues, such as climate change,2 the refugee crisis,3 and the COVID-19 pandemic,4 that have disproportionately affected developing countries, the Global South’s roles in the South-South Cooperation (SSC) have never been more relevant and important. As international cooperation has become more open and participatory, developing countries have become increasingly active in the global policymaking process.5 Moving forward at different speeds, some southern countries have become global policy shapers. Multilateral organisations, like the United Nations (UN), have also included South-South aspects in their core business models. Most importantly, southern countries have implemented technical knowledge sharing and policy exchanges that allow them to learn from one another.6 This article will explore how the Asia-Pacific and Latin American countries, as part of the Global South, can strengthen knowledge sharing under the SSC.
Voices of Local Governments Cooperation and collaboration should be implemented not only at the international and national levels but also at the local level. Local governments, as the sphere of government closest to people, are ideally placed to understand the local needs and experience of localising national commitments
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Gray, K. & Gills, B. (2016). “South-South cooperation and the rise of the Global South”. Third World Quarterly 37:4, 557-574 2 O’Sullivan, F. (2022). The World’s Fastest-Growing Cities Are Facing the Most Climate Risk. Accessed on 28 Oct 2022 in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-28/global-south-cities-face-dire-climateimpacts-un-report 3 World Economic Forum. (2022). The Global Risks Report 2022: 17th Edition. Accessed on 28 Oct 2022 in https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2022.pdf 4 Ibid. 5 Inge, K. (2013). The Rise of the Global South: Implications for the Provisioning of Global Public Goods. Accessed on 28 Oct 2022 in https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents//hdro1308kaulpdf.pdf 6 Beleboni, R. (2019). “The Rise of the Global South: Can South–South Cooperation Reshape Development?” Kennedy School Review. Accessed on 9 Nov 2022 in https://ksr.hkspublications.org/2019/11/26/the-rise-ofthe-global-south-can-south-south-cooperation-reshape-development/