In response to a need to create a space for directors general and practitioners of South-South and triangular cooperation to discuss how to improve South-South and triangular cooperation and to facilitate innovative partnerships among all stakeholders, UNOSSC and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) jointly launched the Directors General Forum during the first Global South-South Development Expo in 2008. Since then, the Directors General Forum has been an integral part of the GSSD Expo.

The annual DG Forum seeks to bring together leaders from cooperation agencies of national governments to provide an opportunity for them to exchange views on South-South and triangular cooperation approaches and methodologies, as well as to serve as match-making platform for further strengthening partnerships. The Forum is a platform for South-South cooperation that offers an opportunity to make proposals for further mainstreaming South-South and triangular cooperation and is open to all interested actors involved in South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation.

The 2018 edition of the DG Forum, celebrating ten-year anniversary since the first one held in 2008 in New York, taking place within the process leading up to the BAPA+40, will give the participants, representing Member states and other actors, an opportunity to exchange views and ideas about issues in relation with the themes of the Conference.

This tenth Directors General Forum will be co-organized by UNOSSC, JICA, and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). The overall theme of this year’s Forum is “Towards the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA+40): The Role of Practitioners in Scaling up the Impact of South-South and Triangular Cooperation for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.

Proposed focus areas for the Directors General Forum include:

  • Opening session
  • Session 1: Institutionalization of South-South cooperation
  • Session 2: Reporting on the impact of South-South and triangular cooperation
  • Session 3: The role of the United Nations in scaling up South-South and triangular cooperation
  • Session 4: South-South cooperation: regional perspectives
  • Session 5: Road to the BAPA+40
  • Closing session

 

DG Forum will be webcasted. UN Web TV Live Schedule: http://www.un.org/webcast/schedule/latest.html

 

For further details, please find the concept note and other sub-pages: