Ibero- American Program for the Strengthening of South South Cooperation and Report on South South Cooperation in Ibero-America

PartnersArgentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay, Ibero-American Secretariat (SEGIB)

Ibero- American Program for the Strengthening of South South Cooperation and Report on South South Cooperation in Ibero-America

BackgroundIncreasing South-South Cooperation (SSC) has demanded from Ibero-American countries better institutional capacitates at the country level to ensure results as well as regional political dialogue to agree on SSC characteristics.

Ibero- American Secretariat (SEGIB) has facilitated dialogue among its country members in order to jointly generate mechanisms for access to information on South South and Triangular Cooperation in the Region, political discussion about this cooperation and national capacities to manage it.

Objectives InnovationEncourage political dialogue between Ibero-American countries on South South and Triangular Cooperation.

Build more and better institutional capacities in order to manage Cooperation among member countries.

Annually report on projects and actions taken in Bilateral South-South, Triangular and Regional Cooperation carried out between Ibero-American countries.

Joint design of mechanisms to annually report and publish information about their South-south and Triangular Cooperation projects.

The Program has focused its work on its member’s demand concerning developing staff capacities, contributing to the consolidation of member’s cooperation information systems. Currently, 19 countries are formal members of the Program.

The report enhances SSC and TrC visibility and transparency and encourages countries to consolidate their information systems.

Ibero- American Program for the Strengthening of South South Cooperation and Report on South South Cooperation in Ibero-America

Results ApplicabilityReport: + Five annual reports on South-South Cooperation in Ibero-America since 2007.+ All 22 Ibero-American Countries reporting their SSC activities and projects according to commonly agreed definitions.

Program (preliminary results of its two years of implementation) + An agreed action plan, combining political, theoretical and technical aspects+ Trust-building relationships among Member States’ technical and political staff+ Baseline of countries’ information systems and work plan for their improvement + Better trained staff on South South and Triangular Cooperation + Shared criteria and methodology for cases systematization

The Program and the Report are forerunner experiences on South Regional spaces for political and technical agreements on South-south and Triangular Cooperation. They can be taken as examples in other regions as Asia and Africa.

Ibero- American Program for the Strengthening of South South Cooperation and Report on South South Cooperation in Ibero-America