South-South cooperation A/RES/72/237 Recommitting to ensuring that no country or person is left behind and to focusing our effort where the challenges are greatest, including by ensuring the inclusion and participation of those who are furthest behind, 1. Takes note of the decisions adopted by the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation at its nineteenth session, held from 16 to 19 May 2016; 5 2. Also takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the state of SouthSouth cooperation 6 and his report entitled “Comprehensive proposal on concrete ways to enhance the role and impact of the United Nations Office for South -South Cooperation as well as the key measures taken to improve the coordinatio n and coherence of United Nations support to South-South cooperation”, 7 as well as the report of the Joint Inspection Unit on South-South and triangular cooperation in the United Nations system, of 2011, and the Secretary-General’s response; 8 3. Reiterates its request to the Joint Inspection Unit to present, by the end of the seventy-second session of the General Assembly, a progress report on its recommendations to the United Nations development system on implementing measures to further strengthen the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation; 4. Recognizes the importance and unique history and particularities of SouthSouth cooperation, reaffirms its view of South-South cooperation as a manifestation of solidarity among peoples and countries of the South that contributes to their national well-being, national and collective self-reliance and the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals, 9 which build upon the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and seek to address their unfinished business, and also reaffirms that South-South cooperation and its agenda must be set by countries of the South and should continue to be guided by the principles of respect for national sovereignty, national ownership and independence, equality, non-conditionality, non-interference in domestic affairs and mutual benefit; 5. Stresses that South-South cooperation is not a substitute for, but rather a complement to, North-South cooperation; 6. Welcomes the increased contributions of South-South cooperation to poverty eradication and sustainable development, encourages developing countries to voluntarily step up their efforts to strengthen South-South cooperation and to further improve its development effectiveness, in accordance with the provisio ns of the Nairobi outcome document of the High-level United Nations Conference on SouthSouth Cooperation, 10 and welcomes commitments to strengthen triangular cooperation as a means of bringing relevant experience and expertise to bear in development cooperation; 7. Reaffirms that South-South cooperation is a common endeavour of peoples and countries of the South, born out of shared experiences and sympathies, based on their common objectives and solidarity and guided by, inter alia, the principles of respect for national sovereignty and ownership, free from any conditionalities, that South-South cooperation should not be seen as official development assistance and that it is a partnership among equals based on solidarity, acknowledges in this regard the need to enhance the development effectiveness of South-South cooperation by __________________ 5 6 7 8 9 10 17-23315 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-first Session, Supplement No. 39 (A/71/39), chap. I. A/71/208. SSC/19/2. A/66/717 and A/66/717/Add.1. See resolution 70/1. Resolution 64/222, annex. 3/7