Third Africa High-Level Forum on South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development (HLFSSTrC)
Theme: Forging Good Governance and Economic Resilience to foster Africa’s Integration and Agenda 2063
7-9 May 2025
International Convention Centre
Free Town- Sierra Leone
Concept Note
Background and Rationale
Sustainable development in Africa and the Global South is contingent upon South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTrC). The global and regional context of South-South and triangular cooperation has been continually evolving and expanding over the past five decades, with the emergence of several emerging development partners, such as China, Japan, Brazil, and Middle Eastern countries including Turkey, the United Arab Emirate, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and others.
This has been linked to the geopolitical transformation of the global south, which has resulted in the establishment of various financial institutions and economic groupings, including the BRICS, African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank,New Development Bank, and Arab funding institutions including Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa . These financial institutions, in conjunction with Brentwood's institutions, have made substantial contributions to the economic expansion and social advancement of the global south. Additionally, they reiterated the fundamental principles of solidarity and non-alignment, which have been the foundation of South-South Cooperation since its inception in the 1950s.
Following the United Nations' endorsement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, the significance of triangular and South-South cooperation in the context of socio-economic development has increased. This method for leveraging human and financial capacities in the global south was emphasised in various decisions and outcome documents including the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (1978), the Doha Declaration (2005), and the Nairobi outcome document (2009). The Second High-level UN Conference on South-South Cooperation BAPA+40 outcome document underscored the critical nature of improved national planning, resource mobilisation, and experience sharing to achieve the UN SDGs and Africa’s vision for integration- Agenda 2063, through South-South and Triangular Cooperation programs (UNOSSC, 2019).
African countries have made substantial strides in the promotion of Triangular and South-South cooperation within the framework of Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063, which are also referred to as "the Africa We Want." In the past two decades, several African countries, such as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Rwanda, Tunisia, and South Africa, have established national-led mechanisms to advance SSC.
In 2023, the Republic of Uganda, as the Chair of the Non-Alignment Movement and a critical participant in the United Nations High-Level Committee on South-South Cooperation (HLFSSC), spearheaded continental initiatives to increase the availability of financial and human resources for the purpose of facilitating the transfer of technology, the sharing of knowledge, the development of technical capacities, and the co-implementation of socio-economic projects throughout the African continent.
The United Nations System-wide Strategy on SSTrC for Sustainable Development (2020-2024) emphasised the need to improve the systematic and coherent approaches of the United Nations' policies, programmatic, and partnership support to SSTrC among the Member States, with a particular emphasis on African countries.
In the same vein, Agenda 2063, Africa's blueprint for economic and political integration, sought to optimise resource mobilisation to achieve the agenda's flagship programs and aspirations, which include Moonshot 1 (economic prosperity), Moonshot 3 (good governance), Moonshot 4 (peace), and Moonshot 6 (women and youth empowerment). Additionally, Agenda 2063 aimed to fortify Africa's position in the global order.
The African Peer Review Mechanism as a leading peer-review body of the African Union is a unique tool in the global south context for governance promotion. In collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), USAID, Saudi Development Fund, GIZ and other partners, the ARM successfully conveyed The Africa High-Level Forum on South-South and Triangular Cooperation (HLFSSTrC) since 2021 to offer an institutional platform for promoting SSTrC in Africa.
The High-Level Forum on SSTrC brings together policy makers, Ministers and senior experts along with youth and NGOs representatives to raise awareness and understanding on the state of SSTrC in Africa. Challenges, lessons learned and comparative advantage of SSTrC in African countries and impactful initiatives are shared. It equally strives for strengthening APRM partnerships with countries from the global south.
Figure 1 Moonshots of Agenda 2063
The Forum aims to constantly assess the implementation of BAPA+40 outcome document and institutional arrangements for SSTrC in Africa. Further, it provides a consistent and inclusive platform to share good practices and experiences in strengthening African countries’ institutional capacities and national ecosystems, through a range of case studies.
Hence, it addresses different thematic dimensions and issues including industrialisation, economic resilience. food security, and the role of non-state actors in promoting SSC. The role of Africa’s partners from Asia, Middle East and Latine America and their current development initiatives to promote the continent is equally underpinned.
The Second Africa High-Level Forum on South-South and Triangular Cooperation was organised in Kampala Uganda from 15-17 January 2023 under the auspices of the President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta, and in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and UNDP. The forum’s declaration reiterated the necessity of strengthen national eco-systems for SSTrC in Africa, fostering industrialisation, technology and science to fortify Africa’s development track as well as encourage APRM in enriching inclusive and participatory governance, transformational leadership, transparency and accountability in boosting South-South and Triangular Cooperation program. (see key elements of the APRM forum declaration-p.5)
The Pact for the Future which was endorsed in the Summit of the Future on the margin of the 79 Session of UN General Assembly from 22-23 September 2024 , countries confirmed That “strengthen North-South cooperation, South-South and triangular cooperation, while taking into account different national circumstances, to build capacity for and improve access to science, technology and innovation, and to increase resources for the implementation of technical and scientific initiative” (Pact of the Future, p22).
The Pact also “Encourage North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation, including among universities, research institutes and the private sector to accelerate digital knowledge development and access to research capacity (SDG 17); promote North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation to support the development of representative high-quality data sets, affordable compute resources, local solutions that reflect linguistic and cultural diversity and entrepreneurial ecosystems in developing countries (SDGs 4- Education , 9- infrastructure, industrialization and innovation 10 - reducing inequalities in income and 17- Partnerships”.
The Third Africa High Level South-South and Triangular Cooperation Forum for Sustainable Development
Acknowledging the above, the 2023 APRM Heads of States Forum took with a lot of appreciation the APRM efforts to enhance SSTrC in Africa and noted the Republic of Sierra Leone request to host the third Africa High-Level Forum on South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Free Town Sierra Leone. The Republic of Sierra Leone generously confirmed the official host of the Forum to take place in Free Town from 7-9 May 2025.
Objectives and thematic areas
The Third edition of Africa High-Level Forum on SSTrC will be taking place in a critical period of global and continental transformation. The forum aims to address the following issues:
- Significance of SSTrC in promoting the second-ten-year implementation plan of Agenda 2063 within the current global and continental transformation (G20, BRICs.etc)
- Assessing the current transformation of the global financial architecture and its impact of Africa’s progress including the establishment of Credit Rating agencies, blended finance and public-private partnerships.
- Implementation of BAPA+40 outcome document in Africa Building national-eco system for SSTrC at national levels and contribution to APRM/AU mandate in good governance promotion.
- Fortifying Partnerships with countries of global south to address governance challenges including food security, education, industrialisation and health.
- Providing a continental platform for youth and young females to share domestic initiatives on SDGs and Agenda 2063 implementation.
Thematic Areas of the Forum
- SSTRC for Sustainable and Resilient Societies in Africa: Geopolitical transformation and new global financial order
- BRICs+ impact on Africa’s potential as an influential global player
- Building eco-system for countries in the global south (ISDB+ member countries)
- Economic resilience for the STYIP:
- Role of MDBs (NDB, AFDB, IsDB, Saudi Dev Fund)
- Role of UN Agencies (WFP, UNDP, UN ECA, UN Habitat)
- Non-state actors, youth and African in Diaspora engagement in promoting inclusive and participatory governance in the global South and Africa
Agenda 2063 YOUTH Exhibition
The forum offers a continental platform for African youth to share local initiatives in pursuit of Agenda 2063 and SDGs.
Strategic Partners
- AU Commission
- AUDA-NEPAD
- African Development Bank
- Islamic Development Bank
- World Food Program HQ in Rome & AU office in Addis)
- Saudi Fund for Development
- Organisation of Southern Cooperation (OSC)
- UNDP-Addis Ababa Centre
- ABC-Brazil
- JICA
- India
- GIZ office to the African Union
- Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation (AMCI)
- Tunisian Agency for Technical Cooperation (ATCT)
- Rwanda Cooperation Initiative (RCI)
- Regional Economic Communities (RECs)
Contact Details:
Ms. Sara Hamouda, Coordinator of the Forum, African Peer Review Mechanism, South Africa, sara.hamouda@aprm-au.org
Mr. Adamou Mayaki, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) AMayaki@isdb.org.
Recommendations of the Second Africa High-Level Forum on South-South and Triangular Cooperation (Kampala), 15-17 January 2023.
- AU Member States to utilize SSTrC to address the financial gaps for Agenda 2063, Illicit Financial Flows (IFF), skills mismatch with the market needs, gender discrimination and lobby for debt cancelation as a strategy to revitalize African economies post Covid-19 recovery.
- the need for further Advocacy to convince the different leaders in developing countries that South-to-South Cooperation should be a two-way flow so that all actors benefit from it;
- the significance of the diaspora community in galvanizing necessary resources, especially human capital, is very essential to bolster the effectiveness of our collective efforts to achieve sustainable growth and development across the continent.
- The need to invest in building resilience and preparedness for shocks in the Global South through improving governance policies; Access to information is necessity to enhance countries trust in governments and hence stabilizing the continent.
- Africa needs more than ever before to become auto-independent and auto-sufficient, especially regarding food security, basic needs for human survival, and the diversification of our energy resources considering the situation in the eastern Europe.
- need for partnerships with diverse partners and countries to position Africa strategically in the world
- Triangular and south-south cooperation are both efficient modalities to assist Africa in pursing agenda 2063 as a pivot to strategically tackle the challenges at hand and the envisaged ones.
- the need for building national eco-system of South-South cooperation in the Global South to ensure that countries are endorsing political ownership and leading development planning, financing and aligning Development Partners’ strategies with national priorities.
- ENCOURAGES APRM and the Islamic Development Bank to strengthen partnership for the implementation of SSC Eco-system in Africa in addition to co-organizing the forum on annual basis and provide further capacity building program on SSTrC policies alongside sharing experiences amongst African countries to achieve Agenda 2063.
- the urgent need for AU Member States working with the Private Sector, Civil Society, Development Partners to define a strategy for cooperation among SSTrC States; develop a Special Trade Agreement for the SSTrC Framework; maintain and work towards peace and security among countries especially the Great Lakes Region, in Africa; develop finance modalities for SSTrC; establish institutional frameworks for SSTrC in different Continent.
- the role of Africa Continental Free Trade Area in scaling up capacities of African economies and urging African countries to finalize protocols and frameworks necessary to accelerate its ratification
- The need for advancing technology and e-governance amongst countries of Global South to attain access to education, training and skills building in Africa.
- The need to change the African narrative about technology through supporting thinktanks and southern tanks to galvanize digitalization and access to information; and encourages Africans in diaspora and Africa- oriented centers to collaborate to support this narrative transformation.
- the Global South countries to undertake reforms in their education systems to take care of values, mindset change, patriotism, and competencies to develop Science, Technology and Innovation, which will enable us to domesticate the industries for value addition.
- African countries to support the APRM core and expanded mandates through universal accession to APRM by 2023 to improve the state of governance on the continent as well as the implementation of imperative principles and policies pertinent to such a goal such as transparency, accountability and transformational leadership across the continent.
