South-South Cooperation for Democratic Development: CSO Key Messages and Policy Recommendations

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South-South Cooperation for Democratic
DevelopmentCSO Key Messages and Policy
Recommendations
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Key Messages

• The  human rights and democratic framework of
  SSC should be strengthened so that the acclaimed
  advantage of Southern donors in terms of their
  avowed respect for national sovereignty  and
  policy of non-interference is not abused.  
• Democratic ownership must be the core
  principle of SSC
• South -South peoples solidarity should be at
  the heart of SSC. It must be based on principles
  of solidarity, mutual benefit, and peoples
  empowerment

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• SSC should be encouraged and promoted at
  various levels, with adequate and structured
  support from developed countries and the UN.
• SSC must be supportive of and foster
  conditions for self-reliant and sustainable
  development. Promote SSDC as a strategy by which
  all peoples and countries of the South pursue
  economic independence and self-reliance based on
  shared interests, common objectives and
  solidarity

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• SSDC must support creating an enabling
  environment for CSOs 
• Newly emerging donors in the context of SSC are
  welcome, but it remains critically important to
  guard against the threat of creating or
  reinforcing existing dependencies, especially in
  the case of countries that are regional powers
  and which might develop SSC programs to carve
  their own zones of influence. To prevent this, it
  must be framed by a broad agenda drawn from
  South-South political alliances that are based on
   alternative models of Southern sustainable
  development, taking a more holistic vision and
  encompassing all forms of cooperation and
  financing for development including aid, trade,
  debt relief, foreign investment, domestic
  resource mobilization etc. Promote horizontal SSC

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Policy Recommendations

• 1. Align to national development and poverty
  reduction strategies, designed in a broad and
  inclusive manner.
• 2. Governments and multilateral institutions must
  facilitate multi-stakeholder processes including
  planning, monitoring and evaluation of
  development programs/projectsand engagement at
  all levels.
• 3. Recipient governments, including their people,
  must have the freedom to apply their own
  country systems and standards to SSC projects as
  appropriate to their priorities and needs.

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• 4. No policy conditionality.
• 5. Technical Assistance should be demand-driven.
• 6. Adhere to and implement the highest standards
  of openness and transparency. Indicators for
  evaluating the social and environmental risks and
  actual impacts of SSC should be developed

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• 7. SSC government must establish a new debt
  architecture that is inclusive, participatory and
  democratically accountable to the peoples it aims
  to serve.
• 8. Establish a more equitable, transparent and
  inclusive aid governance system encompassing DAC
  donors, emerging donor countries, developing
  country governments and CSOs.

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• 9. Debt cancellation from southern creditors
  found to be odious or illegitimate, which is in
  line with a global CSO call to cancel all such
  debt.
• 10. SSC best practices should be studied and
  promoted, not just among developing countries,
  but also among developed countries and
  multilateral institutions.