Keynote address by Foreign Secretary at Conference of Southern Providers- South-South Cooperation: Issues and Emerging Challenges, 15 April 2013
- It is a pleasure to be here with you at this important conference on development cooperation. There has been an intensive dialogue in recent years, involving governments, NGOs and academia of both developed and developing countries, on the conceptualization, delivery mechanisms and evaluation of various forms of development assistance. Much of this dialogue has concentrated on bridging the divide between North-South and South-South engagements. Surprisingly, there is not quite as much vibrancy in exchanges of perspectives between developing countries – the countries of the South – on the impact of their development cooperation strategies and institutions and on their approach to the ongoing debate on the global development agenda. I welcome this opportunity to share with you our perspective on some of these issues. We look forward to hearing from you over the next two days.