International Inter-Ministerial Strategic Dialogue on South-South Cooperation for Population and Development

In our effort to shape global sustainable development agenda for the years beyond 2015, the international community has embarked upon an ambitious and unprecedented process which culminated in agreeing to a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with 169 targets and a tentatively agreed 229 indicators to monitor these goals.

Partnership is one of the six key elements for delivering SDGs. Partnership is to catalyse global solidarity for sustainable development. South to South Partnership (Partnership of developing countries) and collaboration has an enduring legacy for achieving population and development goals from International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) era. The ICPD Programme of Action (PoA), adopted in 1994 by 179 Member States, laid out a far-sighted plan for advancing human well-being that places the human rights of individuals, rather than numerical population targets, at the centre of the global development agenda. ICPD PoA, later on metamorphosed to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and further graduated to SDGs. Though, there are no specific population related goals are assigned among the 17 SDGs, many of the goals do overlap with key determinants of population dynamics.
In this context, this strategic ministerial south to south dialogue on Population and Development is hosted to develop a roadmap and identify the key actions for further promote SSC in population and development.
The “International Ministerial Strategic Dialogue on South-South Cooperation in Population and Development” is proposed to be held on 18 March 2016 in Beijing, China.

The Dialogue will be jointly organized by the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Partners in Population and Development (PPD).  The specific  objectives of this strategic dialog are:

• To develop a roadmap and identify the key actions for further promote SSC in population and development for 2030 SDGs.
• To identify the key areas for collaboration between Government of China (GoC) and the other developing countries, especially  African countries, as well as the role of UNFPA.
• To examine the potential of adapting best practices in the delivery of integrated SRHR service with the technical support of UNFPA across PPD member countries through SSC.
• To strengthen the cooperation between PPD member states and improve the capacity for the integration of population dynamics in development planning.

The deliberations and the outcome  of the Ministerial Strategic Dialogue is expected to be endorsed by PPD Exco meeting  to be held b on 19 March 2016 back to back to  ministerial Strategic Dialogue South-South Cooperation, a euphemism for cooperation between developing countries have  initially implemented sporadically and subsequently through the institutionalized mechanism by  various governments and numerous international stakeholders in different forms and manifestations, have now emerged as  a  versatile and systematic development cooperation paradigm worldwide benefiting millions of men, women, youths, adolescents and children in the Southern countries.

By its own merit, South-South Cooperation acquired significant accomplishment and recognition from international community including the United Nations, eventually reflected prominently in the post 2014 ICPD Agenda and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda as an important catalyst for their accelerated implementation in the next 15 years.

During the last two decades, South-South Cooperation (SSC) programs enabled stabilization of uneven population growth, reduction of fertility, reduction in maternal morbidity and mortality, improvement of contraceptive prevalence and safe motherhoods under broad spectrum of reproductive health and embraced newly emerged issues such as population ageing, migration and urbanization etc. in the developing world, within the framework of Post-ICPD and SDGs.  Notably these accomplishments have been made increasingly with the technologies, expertise and resources drawn from the Southern countries themselves.

In the spirit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world community in September 2015, and the High-Level Roundtable on South-South Cooperation held concurrently at UN in New York and for acceleration of the momentum gathered overtime, the “International Ministerial Dialogue” is being organized to develop a roadmap for its enhanced implementation in the coming 15 years concurrently with SDGs.

The dialogue will focus mainly, among others, on South-South Cooperation in Family Planning, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Population Dynamics in the broader context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A total of  about 80 participants (65 from overseas and 15 from China) are expected to participate in this dialogue. Ministers of health  along with high level delegation from 1)  Ethiopia, 2) Senegal, 3) Ghana,  4) Kenya, 05) Mali, 06) Nigeria, 07) Pakistan, 08) Vietnam, 09) Yemen, 10) Sri Lanka, 11) India, 12) South Africa, 13) Tunisia, 14) Mexico, 15) Benin, 16) Zimbabwe, 17) Bangladesh, 18) Egypt, 19) Gambia, 20) Indonesia, 21) Jordan, 22)  Morocco, 23) Sierra Leone, 24) Liberia, 25)  Thailand, 26) Uganda, 27) Guinea and 28) Brazil are expected to attend this high level event.

For further details please contact
Dr Joe Thomas
Executive Director,
Partners in Population and Development
e-mail: jthomas@ppdsec.org