Background

Since the 1970s, the countries of the South, at the initiative of the Group of 77, have adopted a number of plans and programmes of action on economic and technical cooperation among developing countries. Some aspects of these plans and programmes of actions have been implemented, while a great many others have not been followed up.

In April 2000, the Heads of State and Government of the countries of the South, at their summit meeting in Havana, decided on the convening of a high-level conference on South-South cooperation in 2003 with a view to identifying ways and means of strengthening and expanding cooperation among developing countries.

The High-level Conference on South-South Cooperation, which will be hosted by the Kingdom of Morocco in Marrakesh from 15 to 19 December 2003, will provide an opportunity for ministers representing countries from the three regions of the developing world to decide on new guidelines for strengthening cooperation among developing countries in the economic and social areas.

The High-level Conference will be preceded by a forum of non-governmental organizations and the private sector on 15 December 2003 as well as by a partnerships event demonstrating several promising sectors for South-South cooperation, such as information and communication technology.

The Conference will be open to participation by representatives of developed countries, civil society, the private sector, interested regional and international organizations and regional and interregional development banks.

Objectives of the Conference

The Marrakesh Ministerial Conference will be called upon to take stock of cooperation among developing countries over the past 25 years, in other words, since the 1978 Buenos Aires Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries. The Conference will highlight the changes that have occurred since that time at the international level and within developing countries themselves. In the light of these changes, the ministers will readjust their vision of South-South cooperation to the new world context, a context characterized by the accelerated globalization, liberalized trade and interdependent national economies.

The Marrakesh Conference will not be “just another conference”; it must represent a step forward by emphasizing the implementation of the priorities that have been identified, and it must extract from existing plans of action a limited number of components to be implemented over the next three to five years. The Conference must put into operation the decisions already taken at earlier conferences and summit meetings.

Through the preparatory process established in April 2003 in New York, the Group of 77 has identified a number of sectors and areas where specific initiatives could be undertaken - namely, trade and investment, food and agriculture, health and education, information and communication technology - while at the same time coordinating positions on the global issues on the international agenda.

The Marrakesh Conference will provide an opportunity to explore possibilities for exchanges among developing countries of resources, expertise and experience in the areas identified, among others.

The potential of South-South cooperation

Cooperation among the developing countries has begun to be favorably regarded in various parts of the world. Cooperation among developing countries, generally known as “South-South cooperation”, has considerable potential, which can be seen in the following points;

- The developing countries have many things in common, and their capacities and resources are often complementary and exist at different but relatively close levels of development. This would facilitate the transfer of technology and exchanges of experience and other resources among these countries;

- Today several developing countries have diversified their economies
And have a large production capacity for goods and services;

- The information society revolution has opened up new opportunities for
Exchanges of information among countries of the South and has made
such exchanges easier;

- The accelerating trend towards globalization and trade liberalization has created new opportunities for exchanges of goods, services and information among developing countries;

- Today several developing countries have human
resources properly trained in institutions of high technical quality;

- In addition to Governments, new participants in international
cooperation are continually emerging in developing countries,
for example, participants from civil society and the private sector,
which play a growing role in South-South cooperation;

- Increasingly South-South cooperation is seen as a necessary and fundamental component of international cooperation for development. South-South cooperation completes North-South cooperation and fits perfectly into triangular cooperation arrangements where the know-how and technology of one or several developing countries are combined with financial support from one or several developed countries to provide assistance and to transfer technology and know-how to one or several other developing countries.

Focus of the Conference

The sectors and areas identified for specific action to be undertaken by the Marrakesh Conference with a view to strengthening economic and technical cooperation among developing countries and exchanging resources, experience and expertise are the following:

Regional Integration

The new trend towards a greater liberalization of trade has opened up fresh opportunities for trade and investment in developing countries. The countries of the South must therefore work to strengthen regional economic groupings, which are the best places to promote trade and investment. The Marrakesh Conference for its part must identify ways and means of strengthening such regional economic groupings and, in particular, of building bridges among these groupings, which are increasingly seen as a dynamic aspect of South-South cooperation.

Trade and Investment

Interregional trade among the countries of the three regions of the developing world has now become a prerequisite for development. The Global System of Trade Preferences among developing countries (GSTP) provides the context within which more than 42 developing countries have agreed to exchange trade preferences with respect to customs duties in order to develop and promote trade among themselves. The Marrakesh Conference will offer an opportunity to explore the possibilities for strengthening and extending the GSTP, both in terms of the number of countries and groupings participating in the System and in terms of its scope, by launching a third round of trade negotiations among its members.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the most promising engines of economic development and growth. The developing countries all need to attract FDI from the countries of the North but also from developing countries whose share of global foreign direct investment flows is steadily rising at the present time. The Marrakesh Conference will be called upon to identify steps that can help to promote investment among developing countries. This can be achieved in several ways, for example, by concluding bilateral investment agreements among developing countries and by introducing the subject of investment into cooperation agreements already concluded among members of regional economic groupings of countries of the South.

Food and Agriculture

With the assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Preparatory Committee for the Marrakesh Conference has identified food security as a promising area for South-South cooperation. The goal is to reduce the causes and consequences of famine and malnutrition through exchanges of experience and expertise among developing countries.

This would involve enabling developing countries at a less advanced stage of development to benefit from the expertise of more advanced developing countries. The latter would provide experts and technicians in the field for a period of two to three years to help agricultural workers and farmers to increase their agricultural production. Financing for such programmes could come from third parties, for example, international organizations or bilateral donors.

Water

After the century of “black gold”, which still dominates the global economy, the world is entering an era of “blue gold”, where access to water will be the determining factor in every development effort. Drinking water resources have become more than ever before a strategic issue, not only for countries that suffer from water shortage but also for the richest countries in the world. As a result, the Marrakesh Conference must consider possibilities for exchanges of experience and expertise among developing countries in the area of water management as a factor of development.

Health and Education

Health and education are among the areas where there is considerable potential for South-South cooperation. Indeed, there are vast opportunities for exchanges of expertise and know-how among developing countries in the areas of health and education. Several developing countries have highly qualified human resources that can be made available to developing countries in need of such resources. The Marrakesh Ministerial Conference will also be called upon to identify the existing possibilities for exchanges of resources among developing countries in the areas of health and education and to undertake initiatives to help strengthen this form of South-South cooperation. Cooperation will aid in combating disease in the most underprivileged regions of the South and in promoting education.

Information and Communication Technology

Know-how, information and communication are at the heart of human progress, of humanity’s endeavours and of human well-being. These factors have already led to profound changes in people’s lives. Recent developments in information and communication technologies have given a new dimension to know-how, to exchanges of information and to communication in a world of growing globalization. They have also created new opportunities for those involved in the economic and social sectors, including in the developing world.

The Marrakesh Conference will be held immediately after the Geneva Conference on the Information Society and must therefore take into account the results of the Geneva Conference, which may contain development aspects and may be of interest to the countries of the South. The Marrakesh Conference will identify ways and means of helping to promote and strengthen cooperation among developing countries in the area of information and communication technology.

Coordination of Positions on Global Issues on the International Agenda

Exchanges of information and coordination of positions among developing countries in international forums on questions of concern and of common interest are of particular importance, including in the areas involved in trade negotiations. The Marrakesh Conference is taking place after the WTO Conference, held in Cancun from 10 to 14 September 2003, and will provide a better opportunity to launch specific initiatives to help to coordinate policies and define common positions with respect to the agenda for trade negotiations resulting from the Cancun Conference. The Marrakesh Conference will be able to identify mechanisms to promote policy coordination and the elaboration of common positions on global issues.

Vulnerable Groups of Developing Countries

The Marrakesh Conference will examine the role of South-South cooperation in solidarity with the least-developed countries (LDC), the most vulnerable group of countries of the South.

South-South cooperation embodies considerable potential, which could help to support the development efforts of the least-developed countries.

Using the momentum generated by the Ministerial Conference on LDCs held at Rabat from 24 to 25 June 2003, the Marrakesh Conference be called upon to launch concrete initiatives for South-South cooperation on behalf of this group of countries.

The Marrakesh Conference must also take into account the specific concerns and requirements of land-locked developing countries and small island developing States.

South-South Cooperation and North-South Cooperation

South-South cooperation is not a substitute for but a supplement to North-South cooperation. South-South cooperation is operational only in the global framework of international cooperation, where cooperation between countries of the North and countries of the South is a basic component.

Consequently, the Marrakesh Conference must examine South-South cooperation in the international context of cooperation for development. The Conference will need to draw a connection between the modalities of North-South cooperation and South-South cooperation, which should converge in the search for the same development objectives.

South-South cooperation should be seen as an essential means of contributing to the national efforts of developing countries with a view to attaining the Millennium Development Goals, goals which the international community at the highest level pledged to implement on the occasion of the United Nations Millennium Summit.

Triangular Cooperation

The relationship between South-South cooperation and North-South cooperation can be expressed in triangular cooperation arrangements where the expertise of developing countries, with the financial support of developed countries, can be used to assist developing countries at a less advanced stage of development. This type of cooperation is at times more effective and less costly. The Marrakesh Conference will emphasize such arrangements in identifying ways of implementing South-South cooperation programmes.