Reverse Linkage

18 REVERSE LINKAGE Cooperation on a global and United Nations system-wide basis (A/Res/71/244; A/67/39). UNOSSC receives policy direc- tives and guidance from the General Assembly and through its subsidiary body, the High-level Committee on SSC. Since the adoption of BAPA, UNOSSC has served as the secretariat of the High-level Committee and, in this role, it has catalysed, coordinated and supported the use of South-South and Triangular Cooperation methodologies and approaches in development programmes and activities of the organiza- tions of the United Nations system, other intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders. Member States have directed UNOSSC to take innova- tive actions with regard to, among others, forging strategic South-South and triangular partnerships, with a view to scaling up South-South successes (SSC/19/2). UNOSSC’s partnership with the Islamic Development Bank One of the partnerships that UNOSSC has forged is with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). Given the rising demand for SSC and regional solutions, the partnership with IsDB is being reviewed and will be scaled up in the future. UNOSSC’s partnership with IsDB began in the mid- 1980s when the two organizations convened a joint seminar in Jeddah for senior government officials of IsDB’s member countries to orient them to the value and worth of utilising SSC modalities in developmental tasks and to identify organizational arrangements for the effective coordination and promotion of SSC at the national and inter- country levels. In the seminar, government officials identified some distinct comparative advantages of SSC over traditional North-South Cooperation, notably, its cost-effectiveness; avoidance of brain drain; greater relevance of sharing policies and methods that are in use in other develop- ing countries under somewhat familiar socio-economic conditions and cultural environments; the possibilities of continuity of linkages between cooperating institutions of two or more developing countries even after the completion of programmed project activities among them; and contin- ued job security for employees and experts of institutions of the Global South on their return from completion of missions in other countries of the South. Another notable comparative advantage concerned the value of industrial policies of countries of the Global South, which would usually be more labour-intensive and job-creative than the capital-intensive policies of the North. In subsequent years, UNOSSC and IsDB collaborated in assisting IsDB member countries in organizing capacities and needs matching (CNM) events in which attributes such as expertise, training facilities, and consulting services, available in member countries in different socio-economic sectors, were shared with other member countries in the spirit of solidarity and on mutually affordable terms. Some examples of the agreements reached at a CNM event of this nature in one country, Pakistan, are summarised below: • Algeria had experienced the need for experts to assist in conducting an economic and feasibility study for manu- facturing automobile components and spare parts for Image: UNOSSC Global South-South Development Expo 2017