South-South cooperation

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the exchange of resources, technology, knowledge, and skills between developing countries — broadly defined as the countries of the Global South — as a complement or alternative to traditional North-South development assistance flows; South-South cooperation encompasses a wide range of arrangements including technical cooperation in which one developing country shares expertise with another, trade preferences between Southern countries, joint infrastructure investment, and political solidarity in international negotiations; China, Brazil, India, South Korea, and Turkey are among the most significant providers of South-South cooperation, offering infrastructure finance, agricultural training, health support, and other forms of development assistance outside the DAC framework; South-South cooperation is valued for the relevance of Southern development experiences to other developing country contexts, the relative absence of political conditionality compared to Western aid, and the multiplication of development finance sources available to recipient countries; its rapid growth since the 2000s has raised questions about compatibility with aid effectiveness principles and accountability standards developed within the DAC system