The idea of forming the Alliance for South-South collaboration owes its origin in the deliberations held in Bellagio, Italy in October 1993, followed by another meeting in the same venue in April 1994, which concluded that “a number of developing countries have been remarkably successful in the design and implementation of national population policies and programmes. This represents a unique pool of practical experiences which can greatly assist other developing countries in their efforts to implement national strategies.” It was realized in the meeting that sharing of these experiences through South-South Cooperation under an intergovernmental framework would immensely benefit the developing countries, which led to further consultations and launching of the Alliance at ICPD in 1994 in Cairo.
The first Board Meeting of the Alliance held in Harare, Zimbabwe in April 1995 with participation of the 10 founding members (Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Thailand, Tunisia and Zimbabwe) made a Declaration of Commitment to the objectives of the Alliance by the Founding Members, adopted set of By-Laws, articulated its fundamental policies, elected an Executive Committee and decided that its Permanent Secretariat would be located in Dhaka, Bangladesh.