The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), UNCTAD, in partnership with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation and the Department of Statistics in Jordan are organizing a National Workshop on Quantifying South-South Cooperation, from 16-17 November 2025, in Amman, Jordan.

The voluntary Conceptual Framework (CF) for the measurement of South-South cooperation (SSC), was developed by countries of the global South and adopted by the UN Statistical Commission and the General Assembly in 2022. It came as a response to the request of the second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation to all development actors to support initiatives for information and data collection, coordination, dissemination and evaluation of SSC. It was also “requested that further work on this, including on global reporting and capacity building, be enabled by the co-custodianship of UNCTAD and be led by countries from the global South, building on country-led mechanisms”.

Consequently, a United Nations Development Account Project on measuring SSC was set up to meet these requirements and a Manual for the Framework to measure SSC developed by pioneering countries, with UNCTAD support. Led by UNCTAD, UN Statistics Division and four UN Regional Commissions, jointly with partners in the UN system, the project supports eight pilot countries (among which Jordan) in Africa, Asia and Latin America to measure the financial and non-financial modalities of SSC to inform and target policy action with the aim to manage and mobilize resources for efforts to achieve the SDGs.

This workshop aims to deepen participants’ knowledge of SSC concepts and methodologies, deliver practical training on the SSC Data Collection tool, and promote stronger collaboration among national institutions for data sharing and reporting, particularly under SDG indicator 17.3.1.

By bringing together representatives from government ministries, UN agencies, and technical experts, the event features interactive discussions, hands-on activities, and peer learning, culminating in the development of a national roadmap for SSC data integration and the creation of a Jordanian SSC Community of Practice.