UNDP/Japan
Partnership
Supporting
South-South
Cooperation
Innovative Triangular Cooperation towards theAchievement of the Millennium Development Goals
United Nations Development Programme

What Is South-South Cooperation?
Developing countries working together to findsolutions to common development challenges
through sharing experiences.
Characteristics• Ownership by developing countries• Complement to North-South cooperation• Sharing of appropriate technology and goodpractices among developing countries• Building new partnerships among developingcountries• Diversifying and expanding their development
options and economic links

1What Is Triangular South-South
Cooperation?
• A form of South-South cooperation that fosters
development by leveraging the best features ofcooperation between developing countries withsupport from developed countries• Triangular South-South cooperation complementarily
addresses constraints to South-South cooperationsuch as:1) Weak institutional capacity
2) Insufficient funding3) Limited expertise and technology• Donors promoting triangular South-South cooperation
Japan, Canada, EU, Finland, Ireland, Germany, U.K.,
U.S.A.

Africa-Asia Joint Research: Interspecific Hybridization
Between African and Asian Rice Species2Development and Dissemination ofNERICA RiceKey elements of the system
1. Vital role of WARDA as the centre of excellence in themanagement of the network
2. Complementary division of research: advanced laboratory
research and field evaluation
3. Participatory approaches to varietal selection and seedmultiplication (PVS and CBSS)
Achievements
1. Development of more than 3,000 rain-fed upland NERICA lines
2. Development of more than 300 rain-fed lowland NERICA lines,
which will be ready for dissemination in 2004
3. Launch of the African Rice Initiative (ARI) in 2002
ARI targets (by 2006)•Cultivated area of 210,000 ha in West and Central Africa•Production of 744,000 tons/year in West and Central Africa•
Rice-import substitution value of almost US$88 million•
1.7 million African farmers exposed to NERICAs

Africa-Asia Business Forum3

Ensuring Successful Matchmaking
Key elements of the system
1. Forum as a facilitated business opportunity formatchmaking between African and Asian businesspeople
2. Capacity development of candidate business people inthe screening process
3. Consultancy services for identified partners
Achievements
1. 27 MOUs were signed during AABF I – 4 out of 9 jointventures had a combined value of US$24.5 million
2. 97 MOUs were signed during AABF II – 21 out of 37
joint ventures had a combined value of $74 million

Rural Development and Resettlement Project4

Effective Advisory Services byResident Experts
Key elements of the system
1. Advisory services of resident experts and volunteers
provided by four ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia,Philippines, Thailand) and Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA)
2. Capacity development of farmers and refugees to improvetheir sustainable livelihoods
3. Grass-roots approach for quick impact and recovery in thepost-conflict situation
Achievements
1. Assistance in the formation of 1,930 farmers’ groups
2. Training of 117,000 farmers in improving agriculture(e.g., rice farming, growing of vegetables, reforestation)
3. Training of over 9,500 village inhabitants in incomegenerating skills (e.g., dressmaking, handicraft production)

Africa-Asia Eco-partnership Programme5Unique Partnership for Sharing
Key elements of the system
1. Partnership for sharing specific good practices ofidentified partners in solid waste management, air
pollution control and wastewater management
2. Action-oriented partnerships: seven multilateral and fourbilateral training programmes and eleven local actionplans
3. Promotion of public-private partnership and community
participation
Expected achievements
1. Policy and institutional reforms for building ecologicallysound societies
2. Practices of public-private partnership and community
participation by participating cities
3. An Eco-partnership web site for sharing information

Africa-Asia SME Network

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South-South Cooperation by
Sister Networks
Key elements of the system
1. Twinning system between African and Asian SME
networks: TECHNONET AFRICA and TECHNONET
ASIA
2. Sharing good practices through intra- and interregional
collaboration
3. Strong ownership of participating institutions to conduct
activities
Expected achievements
1. Policy and institutional reforms to promote African SMEs
2. Development of technology and entrepreneurship in
3 strategic industries: Agro-based industry, Foodprocessing industry, and Metal working industry
3. Capacity development of participating organizations
4. Increased sustainability of TECHNONET AFRICA

Credit Analysis and Development Finance in Africa

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Innovative Approach to Trainingof Trainers
Key elements of the system
1. Twinning system to train executives and trainers offinancial institutions in selected African countries(EDP &TOT)
2. In-house/In-country training programmes by trainers
3. Sharing experiences through case studies in Africa andAsia
Expected achievements
1. Strengthened capacity of selected African financial
institutions to conduct credit analysis
2. More effective banking services for SMEs

Four Approaches to Triangular
South-South Cooperation
Approaches

Characteristics

Variations

1. Hosted training &study

Transfer of skills or
knowledge from hostinstitution to individuals
from recipient countries• Meetings and conferences• Adhoc courses andworkshops• Study tours• Training of trainers

2. Advisory services

Resident or short-term
experts• Capacity-building in postconflict situations• Strengthening a centre ofexcellence

3. Networking

Multilateral exchange of
information, expertise
and/or good practices• Multilateral exchange ofexpertise• Capacity-building andtechnology dissemination

4. Partnership forsharing

Forums for partnershipdevelopment among
identified partners• Bilateral partnerships(1- or 2-way)• Multilateral partnerships

8Lessons Learned
There are key elements to ensure success of triangular
South-South cooperation:1.
2.

3.
4.

5.

Ownership of Southern institutions with own ideas
Effective institutional mechanism/system with theparticipation of stakeholders to pursue, coordinate,
and integrate the functional activities
Sufficient amount of financial resources fromreliable sources to run the project activities
Support from Northern institutions to provide
advanced and/or complementary technologies
and expertise
Facilitator to integrate the above four elements

Japan’s Contribution to UNDP for
South-South Cooperation• Total contribution: US$26 million (1996-2002)
US$ million

1996
2.0

1997
2.0

1998
4.0

1999
5.5

2000
4.520014.52002
3.5

TOTAL
26.0

• 54% of the resources were appropriated for the TICAD
follow-up projects for Africa/Asia cooperation• 40 projects were implemented between 1996 and 2002

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