Co-Chair in Knowledge Forum-III: Preparing for Future - Global South and Triangular Cooperation, organised by RIS at Hotel Taj Palace

Co-Chair Prof Gulshan Sachdeva
Distinguished Panelists
Ladies and Gentlemen

I would like to congratulate the RIS, FIDC, Dakshin, and the MEA for organising this comprehensive conference on triangular cooperation and the global south.

Global South has come of age

The world is fragmenting and requires new thinking on global cooperation. Global South has come of age and has the capacities and capabilities to forge strong cooperation among themselves. Multilateralism failed because the dominant West which has colonised large parts of the world imposed its ideas of development on the developing countries. Today, with the rise of several countries in the Global South itself, the Western dominance is being challenged. It is the time now for the global south to put forward its own ideas of development and cooperation. This conference is a step in this direction.

The world has changed dramatically in the last few decades. The challenges of climate change, digital divide, water, food, and health security, not to mention economic security and conflicts within societies require urgent redressal. Development and cooperation need to be broad-based and inclusive. Global South will also have to contend with the stark reality that in the technology sphere, the West continues to remain dominant. Further, there is a paucity of resources, financial capital and intellectual property in the countries of the Global South.

As the Global South begins to think about building new international organisations and institutions, it will be imperative that they are inclusive, well designed and well-resourced.

A North-South divide is in nobody’s interest. The world is interdependent. The new international institutions that Global South creates must not be in conflict with other institutions. However, they need to be efficient and be able to address the contemporary challenges. The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an example. We must ensure that such institutions, in which developed countries are also present alongwith the countries of the Global South, must be strengthened.

India’s Experience

Several countries in the Global South have made good progress in addressing the issues of poverty allegations, human resource developments, economic development etc. India’s ITEC programme, functional since 1960, has emerged as a vehicle for sharing of knowledge, and building social capital. Other countries also have similar programmes. It is essential that there is sharing of best practices among different countries in Global South. The habit of working together and coming to each other help during the time of difficulties needs to be imbibed. India practised this during Covid through its Vaccine Maitri Programme. India has also provided relief and assistance during natural disasters to many countries. Indian experience in providing humanitarian assistance and relief during disasters can be shared among the countries of the global south. Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is an important initiative in which global south countries can play an important role.

In the end, the success of the new international organisation sought to be built in the Global South will depend upon the political will, vision, institutional design, resource base and implementation.

The temptation to build a grand institution that requires huge resources and organisation should be eschewed. Smaller more focussed cooperative structures and networks with each other might be a better idea. The focus should be on making small but effective contributions on which the larger cooperative structure can be built.

Trilateral Cooperation

The concept of triangular cooperation between a beneficiary partner that seek support in some developmental projects, a pivotal partner in a developing country who has the requisite experience in that field, and a facilitating partner that could be a developed country or international agency come together to execute a project or a programme. According the OECD, 1000 triangular cooperation projects involving 199 countries and territories and 85 international and regional organisations were conceived during 2000 and 2022.

IBSA

One may mention here the case of IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) Dialogue forum which came into existence in 2004. It was a unique experiment in promoting South-South cooperation to help developing countries. Five summits level meetings have been held so far. The IBSA forum has been overshadowed by BRICS in which the same three countries are also present. India, Brazil and South Africa made contributions to fund projects in development cooperation, poverty alleviation, S&T, trade facilitation and several other areas in a number of developing countries Africa and Asia. These projects were usually small and focussed upon the needs of the developing countries. The corpus is maintained and executed by a UN agency. IBSA perhaps could not get the scale and speed needed to promote effective South-South cooperation. One needs to audit and study the successes and failures of IBSA trilateral format. This should serve the goal of designing effective trilateral cooperation arrangements.

Sundarbans

India-Bangladesh-World Bank trilateral cooperation on the preservation of the Sundarban delta shared by the two neighbours is instructive. Some useful work has been done in this area with the support of the World Bank. But again, the progress is slow. We have enough experience around the world to come to some understanding as to why some trilateral cooperation projects succeed while others do not.

This panel discussion will throw light on these issues.

Thank you.