Reverse Linkage

29 DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION O n the eve of the 40th anniversary of the adapta- tion of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA), the main milestone for technical cooperation among developing countries of the Global South adopted at the United Nations conference in 1978, countries have embarked on an ambitious and transformative sustain- able development agenda. Many lessons have been learned over the past 40 years and concrete results have been achieved especially over the last two decades. Nonetheless, the recent international development agenda, shaped by both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Paris Agreement and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, introduced more determined joint commitment for sustainable development and stressed the important role of South-South Cooperation (SSC) along with Triangular Cooperation in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), with its 57 member states, constitutes the second largest intergovern- mental institution after the United Nations. The countries are dispersed over a large geographical region, in four continents. They constitute a substantial part of the world’s developing countries and, as a group, are well-endowed with high potential in terms of both human and natural resources in various fields and sectors such as energy (mainly oil and gas), agriculture, arable land and a vast, strategic trading region. These countries are also considered among the leading beneficiaries, as well as providers, of SSC and engage in collaboration of a more technical nature compared to the time of the adaptation of BAPA. Since that time, the SSC tools and methods, developed and revised in line with demand- driven approaches, have convinced the OIC countries to adopt the spirit of cooperation among themselves, focusing on mutual learning, exchange of expertise and experience, cross-regional exchange of ideas and approaches, peer-to- peer dialogue and capacity development. Over recent decades, however, the majority of OIC coun- tries have faced certain challenges such as political and economic instability, poor resource mobilisation, inadequate institutional arrangements, and an insufficient legal regula- tory framework. These challenges caused the potential of OIC-level SSC to remain largely untapped. The OIC coun- tries, as a group, have huge potential in terms of both human capital and natural assets, yet this potential has not been properly realised. This reflected in the weak performance of many individual member countries and of the group as a whole, compared to the rest of the world. For example, accounting for 23.4 per cent of global population, OIC countries contributed only 8.4 per cent to the world’s total GDP at 2016 prices. OIC countries exports accounted for only 8.8 per cent of the world total in 2016, the lowest figure observed since 2005. OIC countries were able to attract only 6.6 per cent of the world’s total foreign direct investments in 2016, according to the annual economic report on the OIC Countries, 2017 1 . The challenges of the OIC countries differ from state to state and vary according to the development level. For instance, High Income Countries (HICs) of the OIC, mainly in the Gulf region, face policy challenges related to ensuring integration of SSC with the 2030 Agenda and the incorpo- South-South Cooperation: a pioneering model for sustainable development in OIC Countries Onur Çaglar, Technical Cooperation Specialist, Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), a subsidiary of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation ˇ Image: SESRIC The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states spread over four continents