Project Value and Focus Areas

Policy Guidance

Report of the Secretary-General: Role of South-South cooperation and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Challenges and opportunities（A/73/383) pointed out that the number of actors in South-South and triangular cooperation have expanded, including subnational entities such as municipal and provincial governments, as important stakeholder in development cooperation that can be instrumental in scaling up the implementation of the 2030 Agenda through South-South and triangular cooperation efforts.

The United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution (A/RES/72/237) on South-South cooperation, also welcomed the New Urban Agenda adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), and urged the United Nations to continue to support South-South cooperation projects that contribute to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

The outcome document of the second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation （BAPA+40）(A/73/291) highlighted the importance to promote South-South cooperation at sub-national level. It firstly encouraged Member States and all relevant stakeholders, as appropriate, to establish or strengthen, coordinated mechanisms at sub-national level to leverage the expertise and other resources of multi-stakeholder partnerships to support South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation initiatives towards the attainment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It also encourages developing countries to enhance the capacity of sub-national coordination mechanisms, and to further explore new sources and instruments of innovative financing for funding at subnational level.

South-South Cities Clusters

South-South Cities Clusters are digital platforms under South-South Galaxy that bring cities together to interact and exchange with UN specialized agencies, experts and partners, in order to facilitate city-to-city horizontal cooperation and exchange.

In response to cities’ thematic interests, seven South-South Cities Clusters were created to promote the exchange of knowledge, research and experiences on: 1) COVID-19 Response, Recovery & Public Health; 2) Sustainable Tourism, Heritage Protection & Creative Economy; 3) Sustainable Agriculture Value Chain development; 4) E-Commerce, Digitization & Smart Cities; 5) Disaster Risk Reduction, Mitigation and Resilient Cities; 6) Sustainable Transport & Air Quality; and 7) Waste Management, Green Cities & Renewable Energy. Learn More

Cities Project 2020 Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about important changes and exposed several points of fragility in the to the international system. It has also showed the importance of South-South solidarity when responding to common challenges. Throughout 2020, the Cities Project has worked to continue promoting city-to-city collaboration in the Global South. It has organized over 40 webinars, launched several publications and knowledge products, and mobilized donations of masks and other PPE from Southern partners, to a number of cities of the global South. These and other accomplishments have been compiled in the Cities Project 2020 Highlights, which you can access here.