Good weekend reading: South-South Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean, ways ahead following Accra

This 6-page Spanish document aims to analyze the opportunities and challenges of South-South cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean.

South-South Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Ways Ahead from Accra

Below I have copy and pasted the opening of the document. Click the link above to download the PDF to your desktop. It's only 6 pages and not a bad read. Enjoy.

South-South cooperation has gained prominence in global development policies as a result of its inclusion in the Accra Agenda for Action, the September 2008 agreement which reinforces the aid effectiveness principles of the Paris Declaration. This opens up an important forum for encouraging South-South cooperation as a mechanism for horizontal learning and for promoting the development of national capacities. However, strengthening South-South cooperation at the conceptual and operational levels still poses major challenges, as does improving the measurement of its scale and impact.

Looking to the new task team on South-South Cooperation within the Working Group on Aid Effectiveness (WP-EFF), the following pages aim to analyze the opportunities and challenges of South-South cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean. As a region containing countries with numerous similarities in their political and institutional history and patterns of social and economic development, Latin America and the Caribbean constitutes a privileged environment where a number of shared agendas are already evolving. However, the operationalisation of South-South cooperation within the framework of the Accra Agenda for Action and the Paris Declaration also faces a series of specific circumstances1 that future political decisions and analytical work need to address in concrete ways.

The ideas expressed in this document stem from the joint reflections of two researchers from the Colombian organization Enlaza and the European think tank FRIDE, respectively. The analysis has benefit ted particularly from bilateral talks with Latin American and European experts over the past three months, on the one hand, and a workshop held on 6 March 2009 in Bogota, on the other. Both authors wish to express their deep gratitude to all interviewees for sharing their vision on South-South cooperation, which is increasingly important to Latin America and the Caribbean.

María Clara Sanín Betancourt, Nils-Sjard Schulz of FRIDA
-- Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior

About FRIDE
FRIDE is a think tank based in Madrid that aims to provide the best and most innovative thinking on Europe’s role in the international arena. It strives to break new ground in its core research interests of peace and security, human rights, democracy promotion, and development and humanitarian aid, and mould debate in governmental and non-governmental bodies through rigorous analysis, rooted in the values of justice, equality and democracy.

FRIDE seeks to provide fresh and innovative thinking on Europe’s role on the international stage. As a prominent European think tank, FRIDE benefits from political independence, diversity of views and the intellectual background of its international staff.