UN / SOUTH SOUTH COOPERATION

The 21st session of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation opened on Tuesday to discuss issues like recovery from the pandemic, climate change and ongoing conflicts. UNIFEED

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:14
• Production Date: 30 May 2023
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: ACHIM STEINER
• Subject Topical: SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION
• MAMS Id: 3049821
• Parent Id: 3049821
• Alternate Title: unifeed230530d

Description

STORY: UN / SOUTH SOUTH COOPERATION
TRT: 2:14
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 30 MAY 2023, NEW YORK / FILE

Shotlist

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters

30 MAY 2023, NEW YORK
2. Wide shot, conference room 2
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohan Pieris, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York and President of the 21st session of the High-Level Committee on South-South Cooperation:
“We meet here at a time when developing countries need multilateral solutions to recover and build forward better from the pandemic while addressing the effects of climate change and other ongoing crisis, including conflicts.”
3. Med shot, conference room 2
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“This era of – as it has come to be known – polycrisis has also severely disrupted South-South and triangular cooperation in key areas such as trade and investment, infrastructure, and remittances. Yet it has also prompted a range of new opportunities that includes supporting developing countries to manufacture and deploy COVID-19 vaccines, benefiting hundreds of millions of people. We have seen multiple new institutional arrangements. For instance, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum comprised of 21 economies is advancing a cutting-edge bio circular green economy model.”
5. Med shot, conference room 2
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“There is a pressing need – often already articulated by our Secretary General – for global efforts to address the debt and liquidity crisis at a time when some 25 developing economy governments are spending one in every $5 they collect simply to service their debt, this limiting their ability to invest in the future. Everything from tackling poverty to investing in the green energy transition or indeed, an economic recovery.”
7. Wide shot, conference room 2
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“We must heed the lessons of the pandemic and build upon developing countries many new forms of cooperation. That includes sharing knowledge in key areas like digital public infrastructure or DPI. For instance, that will allow countries to rapidly roll up better, more effective social protection programs and other supports when the next crisis hits.”
9. Wide shot, conference room 2

Storyline

The 21st session of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation opened on Tuesday (30 May) to discuss issues like recovery from the pandemic, climate change and ongoing conflicts.

On the agenda, there is the review progress made in implementing the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, the New Directions Strategy for South-South cooperation, the Nairobi outcome document of the High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation and the Buenos Aires outcome document of the second High-level United Nations.

Opening the session, Mohan Pieris, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka and President of the 21st session of the High-Level Committee on South-South Cooperation, said, “We meet here at a time when developing countries need multilateral solutions to recover and build forward better from the pandemic while addressing the effects of climate change and other ongoing crisis, including conflicts.”

The Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Achim Steiner, also addressed Member States, saying that “this era of – as it has come to be known – polycrisis has also severely disrupted South-South and triangular cooperation in key areas such as trade and investment, infrastructure, and remittances.”

“Yet it has also prompted a range of new opportunities that includes supporting developing countries to manufacture and deploy COVID-19 vaccines, benefiting hundreds of millions of people. We have seen multiple new institutional arrangements. For instance, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum comprised of 21 economies is advancing a cutting-edge bio circular green economy model,” added UNDP’s chief.

According to Steiner, “there is a pressing need – often already articulated by our Secretary General – for global efforts to address the debt and liquidity crisis at a time when some 25 developing economy governments are spending one in every $5 they collect simply to service their debt, this limiting their ability to invest in the future.”

Steiner also said that this situation is affecting “everything from tackling poverty to investing in the green energy transition or indeed, an economic recovery.”

The UNDP administrator concluded, “We must heed the lessons of the pandemic and build upon developing countries many new forms of cooperation. That includes sharing knowledge in key areas like digital public infrastructure or DPI. For instance, that will allow countries to rapidly roll up better, more effective social protection programs and other supports when the next crisis hits.”