The India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation (IBSA Fund) launched its 2020 Annual Report in the context of the commemoration of the 2021 United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation.
This Report presents the 2020 accomplishments of the dynamic interregional mechanism advancing South-South cooperation and summarizes achievements from earlier years.
Since its inception, the IBSA Fund has been supported a total of 35 development projects in 31 countries allocating $39.43 million in fighting against poverty and alleviating hunger in the Global South.
In the joint foreword to the report, the Permanent Representatives of India, Brazil and South Africa to the United Nations have affirmed their “firm resolve to enhance the voice and representation of emerging economies and developing countries in the international arena to ensure equal opportunity of development with sustainable and inclusive growth.
They have expressed their commitment to “promote South-South cooperation through the IBSA Fund in the final decade towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This cooperation is marked by interdependence, with an emphasis on people-centric policies and reforms. We also look forward, in 2021, to jointly following up the implementation of the decisions of 20th High-Level Committee on South-South cooperation, and the BAPA+40 outcome.”
In his foreword to the report, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted the important role of South-South cooperation in advancing the 2030 Agenda. “The COVID-19 pandemic has created new obstacles to that work, and South-South cooperation will continue to play an essential role during recovery as we strive to address the inequalities and fragilities that the crisis has exacerbated and exposed. The IBSA Fund provides valuable opportunities for countries of the Global South to scale up development success by learning from each other and implementing solutions,” he said.
During 2020, IBSA Fund projects continued to support partner countries, including initiatives for COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. Some examples include:
An IBSA Fund-supported project in Kiribati to enhance inclusive sustainable economic development, set up and operationalized the island virgin coconut oil (VCO) processing centre on Butaritari Island, benefiting farmers through adding commercially viable value-adding opportunities to coconuts.
An IBSA Fund-supported project in Sierra Leone piloted digital loans as an emergency COVID-19 product reaching 15,000 customers and providing digital financial services to underserved communities.
A project in Eswatini, currently preparing for implementation, is addressing the water, health and poverty nexus through WASH initiatives for COVID-19 and climate change responses.
Supporting projects in Southern countries around the world, IBSA Fund has established itself as a successful model of South-South cooperation: India, Brazil and South Africa, three great democracies of the South coming together with a mechanism that delivers impactful sustainable development results.
The Governments of the partner countries have had a key role taking leadership and ownership to the projects, and UN Agencies and partner organizations have skillfully supported the government of the partner countries in successfully managing the projects through South-South cooperation.
“UNOSSC, as fund manager, is proud of these remarkable results that have been achieved. The IBSA Fund is an initiative that UNOSSC will continue to support as a model of South-South partnership towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.” Mr. Adel Abdellatif, UNOSSC Director, a.i.
This Fund benefits from much public recognition, legitimacy and praise for its practical and impactful South-South approach. It has achieved remarkable results.
The IBSA Fund is an innovative South-South partnership. As the practical arm of the IBSA Dialogue Forum and a flagship initiative of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), it has demonstrated strong development results by putting South-South into Action towards the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda.
The India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation (IBSA Fund) is a pioneering initiative to implement South-South cooperation for the benefit of other Southern countries in partnership with the United Nations system. Its purpose is to identify replicable and scalable projects that can be disseminated to interested developing countries as examples of best practices in the fight against poverty and hunger. The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation is the Fund Manager for this initiative.