Over the past decade, strong political backing from PAHO Member States has pushed South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation to the center stage of development. This is not only reflected in the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation but is also noted as an important mechanism for the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Also, following the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (March 2019), Member States renewed their commitment to the diverse modalities and principles of South-South and triangular cooperation. In collaboration with the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and other agencies, funds, and programs, PAHO will work on the development of the forthcoming UN System-wide Strategy on South-South Cooperation with the aim of demonstrating the contribution of this modality to the achievement of national, regional, and global health targets.

PAHO continues to promote cooperation among countries by linking a country’s challenges in dealing with new and reemerging public health problems to existing capacities and proven solutions in the other Member States. This will maximize the added value of technical cooperation not only by leveraging expertise within the Bureau, but more importantly, by identifying and mobilizing financial resources and technical expertise within countries themselves.

PAHO currently promotes and facilitates cooperation among countries for health development through three different approaches: (a) its own triangular cooperation initiative, known as Technical Cooperation among Countries (TCC); (b) subregional technical cooperation programs; and (c) ongoing support for public health networks.

On 23 March 2022, as part of the Global South-South Development (GSSD) Expo pre-launch activities, the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is launching the publication “Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation: Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goal on Good Health and Well-being“.

The joint publications aim to support and promote South-South and triangular cooperation through the country to country learning around SDG 3 on Health and Well-being, focusing on primary health care (PHC); reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH); the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV & Syphilis (EMTCT); and within the overarching framework of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health systems strengthening. The good practices in this publication illustrate the central tenets of effective South-South and triangular cooperation; address transnational development challenges relevant to SDG 3; highlight solutions that have been piloted and scaled up; and have tangible development outcomes, including relevant and scalable efforts in the context of COVID-19 pandemic recovery. Click here for event details