The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation marks the date of Wednesday, September 12 as the annual United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation. This observance serves to recognize and commemorate the economic, social, and political successes realized in countries throughout the Global South, highlighting those in which cooperation among peers in the developing world directly contributed to these achievements. The International Day also acts as an opportunity to take stock of facilitation efforts undertaken by the international community that promote cooperation and technical assistance between these countries.
Initially celebrated on December 14, and later moved to September 12 in honor of the 1978 Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, the annual UN Day for South-South Cooperation was established by the UN General Assembly through Resolution 58/220 on December 23, 2003. The day highlights the importance of the fundamental goals for the promotion of South-South Collaboration enshrined in the Buenos Aires Plan, which are to:
- foster the self-reliance of developing countries by enhancing their creative capacity to find solutions to their development problems in keeping with their own aspirations, values and specify needs;
- promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among developing countries through the exchange of experiences; the pooling, sharing and use of their technical and other resources; and the development of their complementary capacities;
- strengthen the capacity of developing countries to identify and analyse together their main development issues and formulate the requisite strategies to address them;
- increase the quantity and enhance the quality of international development cooperation through the pooling of capacities to improve the effectiveness of the resources devoted to such cooperation;
- create and strengthen existing technological capacities in the developing countries in order to improve the effectiveness with which such capacities are used and to improve the capacity of developing countries to absorb and adapt technology and skills to meet their specific developmental needs;
- increase and improve communications among developing countries, leading to a greater awareness of common problems and wider access to available knowledge and experience as well as the creation of new knowledge in tackling development problems;
- recognize and respond to the problems and requirements of the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing States and the countries most seriously affected by, for example, natural disasters and other crises; and
- enable developing countries to achieve a greater degree of participation in international economic activities and to expand international cooperation for development.)
On this International Day for South-South Cooperation, the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation celebrates the economic, social, and political successes realized through the collaboration of states in the Global South. AIPR urges the international community to work towards further institutionalizing these advances and to continue cultivating durable and fruitful South-South and triangular cooperative arrangements. The resulting norms and frameworks yield peace and stability dividends that diminish inequality and prevent mass atrocities around the globe.