Unity statement on the formation of southern CSO alliance on south-south cooperation – Reality of Aid Network

Whereas, South-South Cooperation, having arisen from the Global South’s search for alternatives to the paternalistic and unequal traditional North-South development aid and cooperation framework, poses opportunities and has raised high hopes for people from the South;

Whereas, emerging in the 1950s in the context of the common struggle of former colonies for genuine independence and development, 29 countries from Asia and Africa met at the Bandung Conference in 1955 to promote economic and cultural cooperation between and within the two regions on the basis of mutual interest and respect for national sovereignty. The Bandung principles also emphasized respect for human rights, equality, non-interference, and international justice as the guiding principles and binding agreement of cooperation and partnership among third world countries in the South;

Whereas, the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA) strengthened the Bandung agreement with additional emphasis on national and collective self-reliance, exchange and sharing of expertise and knowledge transfer, capacity development, economic independence as the foundation for a new economic order;

Whereas, the Nairobi outcome document of the High Level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation in 2009 made a compelling affirmation of the human rights and people-oriented principles including transparency and mutual accountability, environmental sustainability, horizontality, inclusivity and participation, non conditionality, and looking at results and impact;

In fulfillment of our role as development actors in our own right, civil society organizations (CSOs) need to engage and contribute to the discourse and implementation of South-South Cooperation, to ensure that it does not replicate the flaws of traditional North-South aid and development cooperation, especially given that the 2030 Agenda requires reinvigorated cooperation of all development actors, and even more especially given that evidences gathered on practice do not live up to the above-stated principles on which it is anchored;