Webinar: Promoting South-South Solidarity for SDG3, 30 September 2020

30 September 2020 – Earlier this month, the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) in collaboration with its development partners launched the 3^rd Volume of the “Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development”. The 3rd volume features innovative solutions from the Global South that are relevant to the implementation of the SDGs. The objective is to demonstrate how South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation support countries to overcome shared challenges and accelerate progress towards sustainable development.

UNOSSC, jointly with UNICEF, UNFPA, PAHO/ WHO organized a virtual event to showcase the health-related solutions featured in this new volume.

Also available on Bilibili.

To download the Summary Notes, please click here.

The publication includes a dedicated chapter on SDG-3: Good Health and Well-being which brings together a collection of 30 good practices in the areas of provision of quality essential health services, including reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH).  This joint event enabled the sharing of success stories, and experiences, which are also relevant to the unprecedented global health crisis triggered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These solutions demonstrate measures to improve access and outcomes of health services through the use of innovative techniques and replication measures.

Additionally, this September marked the first anniversary of the launch of South-South Galaxy, a digital platform designed for knowledge sharing and partnership-brokering to promote cooperation among the southern countries. During the event, partners highlighted the added value of South-South Galaxy and its utilization in their work to promote and facilitate South-South and triangular cooperation. Good practices from the publication are featured on the platform to help build connections and partnerships for the replication and scaling up of these good practices to overcome shared challenges.

This year’s UN General Assembly will mark the United Nations 75^th anniversary with an overall theme on “The future we want, the United Nations we need: reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism – confronting COVID-19 through effective multilateral action”. It will come at a time of great disruption for the world, brought about by an unprecedented global health crisis with severe economic and social impacts.  The anniversary will provide an opportunity to reflect on the vital role of international solidarity and collaboration to support the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while effectively responding to the global COVID-19 crisis and recovering better, especially in the Global South.

South-South cooperation provides an effective horizontal development cooperation mechanism between State and non-States actors in the health sector of developing countries, and more than ever, country-to-country learning proved its value. South-South and triangular cooperation continues to make important contributions to addressing and mitigating the impact of emerging and re-emerging public health crises such as COVID-19 and Ebola, and vaccine-preventable diseases. In the current global health crisis, countries in the global South contribute to the global response by demonstrating effective measures to deliver essential health and social protection services while responding to COVID-19.

Demand for country-to-country learning increased as countries struggled to respond to COVID-19, including on how to ensure delivery of basic health and reproductive health services as governments sought to contain the pandemic.  Achieving the SDGs broadly calls for a need for more effective development cooperation among countries of the South to address the health system and public health challenges.

Agenda

Moderator: Dr. Guillermo Mendoza, Senior Country Program Advisor, PAHO/WHO

1. Opening Remarks by Mr. Adel Abdellatif, Director a.i, UNOSSC
2. Video screening: partners perspectives on South-South Galaxy
3. Speakers:

• Ms. Naa-Amy Wayne, Youth Leader and founder of  the FHL (Faith, Hope and Love) Group, Ghana
  • Good practice on: Youth4Youth Forum – Creating Youth-Led Avenue for Dialogue and Creating Solutions

• Ms. Belén Bogado, Director General of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Argentina
  • Good practiceon: Strengthening Antimicrobial Resistance Detection and Surveillance in CARICOM

• Ms. Sirithon Wairatpanij, Minister Counsellor, Partnership for Development Bureau, Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA)
  • Good Practice on: Towards the Elimination of Mother-To-Child Transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and Syphilis
  • Good Practice on: Calculating the Social Return of Investment in the Thailand-Lao PDR Partnership on Midwifery
• Dr. Juan Carlos de Jesus, Director of Maternal and Child Health from the Min of Health in the Dominican Republic
  • Good practice on: Improvement of Maternal and Child Health on the Northern Border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti

4- Q&A

5- Closing remarks by Dr. Luwei Pearson, Principal Adviser Health, Programme Division, UNICEF.