South to South

In a growing trend towards cooperation among countries of the global South, developing countries are cooperating more and more in programmes to help each other improve food security.

This reality is highlighted in particular by new agreements fostered by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) among member countries.

As Linda Bordoni discovered speaking to Abdul Kobakiwal, Chief of FAO's Integrated Food Security Support Service, the organization recently co-signed two new tripartite agreements between the People’s Republic of China and the Republics of Liberia and Senegal, respectively, to support implementation of a series of food security initiatives and projects in Liberia and Senegal.

As Kobakiwal explains, the South-South Cooperation initiative goes back some fifty years and has steadily developed to to provide technical support to country-level action on food insecurity.

He says that experience has shown that the knowledge and skills of technical experts and field technicians from the South have made an invaluable contribution to efforts to modernise small-scale agriculture throughout the developing world for a number of very concrete reasons.

Kobakiwal revealed that a total of 47 tripartite agreements have been signed to provide technical assistance among developing countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean.

He says more than 1500 experts and technicians have been fielded in the framework of various food security initiatives.

Kobakiwal lists the names of some of the countries invoved in the programme which include Argentina, Indonesia,Vietnam, Chad, Malawi, Myanmar, Venezuela, Brazil and he said, discussions are currently underway with Morocco

This week the annual Global South-South Development Expo is underway at FAO headquarters in Rome.

Kobakiwal says it aims to inspire more strategic alliances with developing countries which are in the position to provide experts, technicians and funding for countries which are eligible for SSC projects, but are not able to shoulder the costs.

The event since 2008, features representatives of countries, civil society, private sector and UN agencies and is designed to showcase, enhance, and foster new South-South alliances that will help countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals through sustainable, equitable development.

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