In 1974, the United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution 3251 (XXIX), endorsed "the establishment of a special unit within the United Nations Development Programme to promote technical co-operation among developing countries". With the endorsement of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA) for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries by the General Assembly in 1978 (resolution 33/134), the Special Unit was strengthened in order to fulfil its primary mandate, set forth in BAPA: to promote, coordinate and support South-South and triangular cooperation globally and within the United Nations system. 

The Special Unit for South-South Cooperation:

• mainstreams South-South cooperation across the UN system and throughout the international development community by leveraging its global reach as well as its policy and institutional capacities to assist UN agencies and developing countries in strengthening their South-South cooperation capacities. It works to support countries’ efforts to manage, design and implement South-South cooperation policies and initiatives through the identification, sharing and transfer of successful Southern-generated development solutions. It also advocates for support to South-South initiatives, including through its organization of the UN Day for South-South cooperation;

• engages a wide range of partners, including Member States, UN entities, multilateral bodies and private-sector and civil society organizations in order to provide the most efficient, effective and comprehensive support for South-South cooperation;
  

• innovates by continually seeking, showcasing and transferring forward-thinking Southern development solutions to development partners to meet the critical development challenges of today;

• enables countries of the South – emerging, middle income and least developed – to work together to use their wealth of resources, tangible and intangible, in support of national, regional and global development efforts;

• serves as the secretariat to the High-level Committee (HLC) on South-South Cooperation, a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, which provides policy directives and guidance and reviews worldwide progress in South-South cooperation. In this context, it monitors trends in South South cooperation among UN agencies as well as globally, preparing reports for various intergovernmental bodies, including the report of the Secretary-General on the state of South-South cooperation; and
  

• manages the UN Fund for South-South Cooperation and the Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund for Economic and Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries.
  

To promote, coordinate and support South-South and triangular cooperation, the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation has designed a 3-in-1 service support architecture through which it operationalizes its policy directives and supports the development community. The first pillar of this structure is the Global South-South Development Academy, an online platform through which hundreds of Southern development solutions and experts have been identified, codified and managed. The second pillar, the Global South-South Development Expo, then serves to showcase selected successful development solutions annually at its UN system-wide event, bringing together development practitioners and representatives of the UN system, government, the private sector and civil society. The third pillar, the South-South Global Assets and Technology Exchange, facilitates the transfer of proven Southern development solutions through its physical and Internet-based platform, matching Southern solution seekers and providers for the transfer of technologies, develpment solutions and financing within a secure environment.

The Special Unit is able to achieve its objectives through the building and strengthening of broad-based partnerships among developed and developing countries, the United Nations system, and private-sector and civil society organizations. The Division for Partnership and Resource Mobilization of the Special Unit works to secure resources through arrangements such as public-private partnerships, cost-sharing and parallel financing.

United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation

The Special Unit manages the United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation (formerly the Voluntary Trust Fund for the Promotion of South-South Cooperation), “the main United Nations trust fund for promoting and supporting South-South and triangular initiatives” (General Assembly resolution 60/212). The Fund is included in the UN Pledging Conference for Development Activities as a result of the decision by the General Assembly in December 2002 (resolution 57/263).  

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Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund for South-South Cooperation

The Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund for South-South Cooperation (PGTF) was established by the United Nations in 1983 as the UNDP Trust Fund for Economic and Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (General Assembly resolution 38/201). Managed by the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation on behalf of the Group of 77 (G-77), the Trust Fund provides catalytic financial support for cooperative projects carried out by three or more developing-country members of the G-77. In 1986, the Trust Fund was renamed after the late Venezuelan official, Manuel Pérez-Guerrero.  

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