South-South Cooperation as a tool to also fight against COVID-19

On September 12, the date when the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation (SSC) is celebrated, the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE), recalls that SSC has been, over the past decades, a useful tool for addressing socioeconomic challenges faced by developing countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. With the present global health crisis caused by COVID-19, this tool has become paramount.

In 2021, the second year of celebration of this date with health restrictions still in place, the role of SSC in mitigating the effects of the pandemic is reiterated. Cooperation actions, whether technical or humanitarian, have proven to be a valuable resource for sharing best practices and new solutions to face the unprecedented challenges we live with today, thanks to a new dynamic of interaction between partners.

The humanitarian cooperation provided by Brazil, for example, has responded, mostly through financial donations for the acquisition of PPE, materials, supplies, medicines, and medical-hospital equipment, to appeals for assistance received from developing countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia, in addition to supporting the work done by United Nations agencies in facing the pandemic of the new coronavirus.

Brazilian South-South cooperation has also contributed to ensuring a more inclusive future for the populations of partner countries. Issues dear to SSC, such as agriculture, education, health, food and nutritional security, public safety, attention to people with special needs, among others, continue to be addressed, adapted to a remote modality, through crucial technical cooperation projects, especially in the context of the pandemic.

Now, the Trilateral South-South Cooperation with International Organizations (TSSC), on the subject of school feeding, has gained even more importance and relevance in the strategic decisions of international nature, carried out through remote tools to support countries to mitigate the impacts of the sad situation linked to the increase of poverty and malnutrition in the world in the wake of the pandemic.

The United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation is a milestone to remind us of the commitment, the energy, the determination, and the dreams that move us, every day, so that Brazil's South-South cooperation continues to be the outstanding, recognized, and useful tool that supports the efforts to overcome current and future challenges faced by several partner nations. The public policies and good practices successfully applied in the country will continue to be offered by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency to interested populations and governments, with a view to jointly and solidarily building specific solutions, on a case-by-case basis, to contribute to the post-COVID recovery and to the sustainable advancement of the economic and social development process of sister countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, leaving no one behind, within the framework of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.