Summit of the Future Side-Event: Accelerating SDG Progress through Triangular Cooperation Financing

Join us for a high-level side event at the Summit of the Future, focused on leveraging triangular cooperation to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

• Date: Friday, September 20, 2024
• Time: 09:45 AM – 11:00 AM
• Location: UNOSSC Doha Conference Room, 304 East 45th Street, 11th Floor, New York
• Registration link: https://forms.office.com/e/HQ8VERZpnG
• Registration will close on 18 September 2024

In the Pact for the Future, UN Member States reaffirm their enduring commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals, committing to urgently accelerating progress towards achieving the goals, including through concrete political steps and adequate finance. The Agenda 2030, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Buenos Aires outcome document of the second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA+40), all acknowledge the contribution of triangular cooperation to this end. More recently, the Outcome Document of the Third South Summit and the Rabat Declaration on Middle-Income Countries (MICs) reaffirmed the important role of triangular cooperation, as a complement to South-South cooperation, in providing developing financing and expertise towards achieving the SDGs, with developing countries repeatedly emphasizing the need for support in industrialization, science, technology, innovation (STI), technology transfer, digitalization, trade facilitation, and human capacity development. The Pact for the Future itself calls for the strengthening of North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation to build capacity and improve access to science, technology and innovation, and to increase resources for the implementation of technical and scientific initiatives (Action 31 (d)).

Recognizing the potential of triangular cooperation, the 2022 Report of the UN Secretary-General on the State of South-South Cooperation called for the establishment of a Triangular Cooperation Window. Progress has been made in response to this call, with efforts underway to mobilize partnerships and leverage expertise through triangular cooperation. Along with partners interested in triangular cooperation, UNOSSC aims to advance in the establishment of the Triangular Cooperation Window within the UN Fund for South-South Cooperation (UNFSCC). As called by the UN Secretary-General, advocacy for development needs to expand by collectively showcasing results.

Given the forward-looking nature of the Summit of the Future and the ability of triangular cooperation to not only contribute to the acceleration of progress in the achievement of the SDGs but to do so in an innovative and multistakeholder manner, bringing together actors from various sectors and corners of the world, whether as beneficiaries, pivotal or facilitating partners, Portugal and UNOSSC are organizing a side-event focusing on the financing of triangular cooperation as a way to accelerate progress towards the SDGs, in partnership with the ImPACT Coalition on International Financial Architecture Reform and Financing for Development.

The event will occur in a hybrid format at the UNOSSC Conference Room, 304 East 45^th Street, 11^th floor, on 20 September, from 09:45 AM to 11:00 AM (total 1h15).

• Help inform global thinking on the future of development cooperation, engaging partners from across sectors and regions on the role of triangular cooperation in the evolving system and architecture of development support;
• Contribute to building future foresight on triangular cooperation, including how it can most instrumentally enable sustainable development, climate resilience, global and intergenerational equity, and the reduction of major conflicts, as well as leveraging cutting-edge technologies like AI, blockchain, and renewable energy to drive equitable growth and address pressing global challenges;
• Showcase successful triangular cooperation projects and their contributions to specific SDGs, spotlighting their transformational impact as case studies to advocate for further triangular cooperation, share good practices and recommendations to enhance effectiveness and a focus on results;
• Share knowledge on financing mechanisms for triangular cooperation such as the Portugal-Latin America-Africa triangular cooperation fund, recently launched by Portugal in partnership with the General Secretariat of the Ibero-American Conference (SEGIB);
• Update Member States on the consultations towards creating a dedicated triangular cooperation window within the United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation (UNFSSC).

The side event will also serve as a stepping-stone towards the annual International Meeting on Triangular Cooperation that Portugal is organizing with the OECD in Lisbon, on 7-8 October, back-to-back with the 2^nd G20 Multiregional Technical Meeting on Triangular Cooperation.

Agenda

For more information, please contact:

• Duarte Valente, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Portugal to the United Nations (duarte.valente@mne.pt)
• Tahmina Anvarova, Strategic Management Specialist, UNOSSC (tahmina.anvarova@unossc.org)