Please see attached, the statement delivered by the International Co-ordinator at the UNESCAP Asia-Pacific Outreach Meeting on Sustainable Development Financing which took place in the context of the ongoing sustainable development goals (SDGs) process.
LDC Watch addressed the session on South-South, triangular, and regional cooperation. We focused on the need for South-South Cooperation (SSC) to be an alternative development paradigm which is a departure from the dominant aid architecture of North-South cooperation guided primarily by political and economic interests. SSC should be focused on social sectors and human development as opposed to the existing trend of trade and investment with corporate interests. SSC should based on solidarity and equality and should not be a substitute for ODA which is based on historic debt and redistributive justice. We also called for increased inclusion of civil society in SSC in order to ensure democratic ownership.
