Economic development in Africa: South-South cooperation: Africa and the new forms of development partnerships

The Trade and Development Board

1. Appreciates the important role that other developing countries areplaying and their contribution to Africa’s economic development, and notes therapid deepening of economic ties between Africa and other developing countries;
   
   
2. Welcomes the UNCTAD secretariat’s Economic Development in AfricaReport 2010: South-South Cooperation: Africa and the New Forms of DevelopmentPartnership;
   
   
3. Stresses that Africa’s engagement with developing countries should beseen as a complement rather than a substitute for relations with developed countries;
   
   
4. Recalls that South-South cooperation is a cooperation among developingcountries based on solidarity;
   
   
5. Notes the key message of the report — that South-South cooperation hasthe potential to enhance Africa’s capacity to address its development challenges, butnotes that the full realization of the benefits requires gearing cooperation moretowards economic transformation and the development of productive capacities inthe region;
   
   
6. Stresses that the environmental and social impacts of investments inAfrica should be closely followed by all stakeholders;
   
   
7. Encourages African countries to ensure that new loans from developingcountrypartners are used to finance projects that enhance domestic capacity toavoid accumulation of unsustainable debt;
   
   
8. Encourages African countries to better integrate South-South cooperation,including regional and bilateral cooperation through existing development cooperationinitiatives, in their national development strategies and plans, to ensure that it meetstheir development needs and priorities, and calls upon other developing countries tosupport this process;
   
   
9. Encourages the African Union Commission and the regional economiccommunities to play a more active role in coordinating Africa’s relations with otherdeveloping countries, and to focus attention on regional priorities, and to ensure awider spread of the benefits of these partnerships, particularly to the poor and mostvulnerable;
   
   
10. Stresses the need for more and better information on developmentcooperation between Africa and other developing countries;
    
    
11. Invites developed and developing countries to strengthen the dialoguetogether with Africa through enhanced coordination and sharing of experiences andbest practices;
    
    
12. Invites developed and developing countries to strengthen support forregional integration in Africa;
    
    
13. Invites regional and multilateral financial institutions to make resourcesavailable to support South-South cooperation projects. Also invites developed anddeveloping countries and multilateral, regional and bilateral and developmentinstitutions to support South-South cooperation through, inter alia, triangularcooperation, including for capacity development;
    
    
14. Reiterates its call to UNCTAD, within its mandate and availableresources and as agreed in the Accra Accord, to continue its work on offeringtechnical assistance to developing countries in accession to the World TradeOrganization, particularly least developed countries, and to continue capacitybuildingactivities in trade in services;
    
    
15. Stresses the need for developing countries in their relations with Africancountries to address the impact of commodity dependence, as well as the need forindustrialization and diversification. In that regard, encourages UNCTAD tocontinue its technical assistance to build productive capacity, and in particular toassist African countries, including with the process of transforming commoditiesinto final goods;
    
    
16. Notes the relevance of science and technology for development asmentioned within the Accra Accord;
    
    
17. Reiterates its call to UNCTAD, within its mandate and as agreed in theAccra Accord, to continue to undertake insightful and critical analysis on Africa’strade and development issues and to widen the dissemination of its researchfindings, including improving availability of resources, especially human resources,of the Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes, andof the Special Unit on Commodities, within existing budgetary resources.