The historical evolution of "South-South cooperation" in global agriculture
From 2004 to 2015, as Deputy Minister in Charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, I was responsible for the cooperation and exchange between the Ministry of Agriculture and the three agencies of the United Nations. Over the years, I have often participated in various work and activities organized by them, and have worked with their main leaders on many occasions to study and exchange views on further promoting the strengthening of agricultural cooperation among the member countries of the three FAO agencies. Among them, the most talked about content is the "South-South cooperation" in global agriculture.
Witnessed the signing of the South-South Cooperation Agreement with the President of International Agricultural Development**.
At present, more and more developing countries are concerned about the achievements of China's agriculture in the reform and opening up over the past 40 years and more, and have shown a strong desire to exchange with China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and learn from the model and achievements of China's agricultural development, and also put forward more of their own needs, in order to obtain China's agricultural assistance, so as to promote the development of their own agriculture and rural economy.
Since the reform and opening up of agriculture, China has strengthened assistance to developing countries and agricultural cooperation and exchanges through the mechanism and platform of "South-South Cooperation" in global agriculture. In accordance with the working agreement on agricultural cooperation and exchanges, we have organized and participated in the work on "South-South cooperation" in agriculture between the Ministry of Agriculture of China and the member countries of the three agencies of the United Nations on food and agriculture. In the implementation of the work, I have continuously improved my understanding of the importance of "South-South cooperation" in global agriculture, and have some experience and thinking on the work of "South-South Cooperation" in global agriculture, which I have discussed and shared with my comrades.
The historical background and main content of the formation of "South-South cooperation".
"South-South cooperation" refers to technical cooperation among developing countries advocated by the United Nations development system, led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Since most of the world's developing countries are located in the southern hemisphere, it is called "South-South cooperation". With the development of the situation, technical cooperation has gradually developed into economic cooperation. "South-South cooperation" is an important means for developing countries to cope with changes in the international situation and the challenges of economic globalization, and it is conducive to developing countries giving full play to their natural and human resource advantages, tapping their own production and scientific and technological potentials, learning from each other's strengths, and making common improvements.
The purpose of South-South cooperation is peace and development. Self-reliance for development is the basic principle of "South-South cooperation", and its connotation mainly includes two aspects: first, to encourage mutual assistance and cooperation among developing countries, and to promote the specialized division of labor among developing countries to change their unfavorable position in foreign economic relations and reduce their excessive dependence on the markets of developed countries; Second, it is necessary to coordinate the positions of developing countries on international issues in order to strengthen their negotiating position in handling world affairs.
"South-South cooperation" refers to the cooperation between the vast number of developing countries on the basis of common historical experiences and common tasks after independence. Its essence is to face the unequal economic relations between the north and the south, and to practice unity and self-improvement and common development.
The Bandung Conference held in 1955 established the principle of "consultation" for South-South cooperation, promoted the establishment of an organization of raw material producing and exporting countries, and proposed the implementation of financial and technical cooperation among developing countries, so it is considered the beginning of "South-South cooperation". The Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77, formed in the early 60s of the 20th century, are the two largest international organizations for "South-South cooperation", and a series of programmatic documents adopted by them have set out the fields, contents, methods and guiding principles for "South-South cooperation". In the 70s of the 20th century, the United Nations development system regarded "South-South cooperation" as a new field of international technical cooperation, which was organized and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme, and held the first "South-South Cooperation" conference in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, in 1978, and adopted and published the "Buenos Aires Programme of Action", making "South-South Cooperation" a planned and organized promotion of cooperation among developing countries under the direct leadership of the United Nations. From the 70s to the end of the 80s of the 20th century, major progress was made in the efforts of developing countries to unite and help themselves and to cooperate and strengthen themselves. Regional economic organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Latin American Economic System (SELA), the Southern African Development Association (SADC), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) have been established one after another to seek economic cooperation and enhance their collective self-reliance. The South-South Cooperation Conferences held in New Delhi, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur in India in 1982, 1983 and 1989 were important milestones in South-South Cooperation.
The dramatic changes that took place in the international community in the late eighties of the twentieth century also had a great impact on traditional multilateral development cooperation and, consequently, on the future prospects for technical cooperation. The rapid globalization of markets and production structures, coupled with the growing emphasis on creating a liberalized national system, presents particular challenges and opportunities for developing countries.
The eighth United Nations High-level Conference in 1990 and its "Challenge Year of the South", the Group of 77 Ministerial Meeting held in September and the Bandung Meeting of Heads of Developing Countries held in December 1994, further promoted technical cooperation and emphasized the importance of "South-South cooperation".
In the 90s of the 20th century, there were two major trends in the world economy: first, the world's new technological revolution accelerated the flow of capital and technology in the world, thereby accelerating the internationalization and integration of the economy; Second, under the framework of the world's leading organization, the competition in the world market is becoming increasingly fierce, and the regionalization of the global economy is accelerating. No country, whether developed or developing, is immune to its influence, and no country can be free from the global or regional economy, so cooperation among developing countries in the economic field has become an objective need in the new period.
Based on this need, in May 1995, the Ninth Session of the United Nations General Assembly on South-South Cooperation discussed and adopted the New Guidelines for South-South Cooperation, which emphasized that the field of "South-South cooperation" should be expanded from technical cooperation to comprehensive economic and technological cooperation, especially to strengthen cooperation and assistance in development investment, products, modern management, macroeconomic regulation and control, pollution reduction, poverty eradication, debt settlement, etc., and to this end, the United Nations Trust ** was added to this purpose in order to provide "South-South cooperation" Provide more financial support. The transformation of the work area of the United Nations in "South-South Cooperation" has made a major breakthrough in the connotation and extension of cooperation: first, the content has shifted from technical cooperation to economic cooperation; Second, in terms of form, it has shifted from technical training and technical inspection to investment and technological development, including the establishment of branches abroad and the establishment of a modern enterprise system and its management mechanism. The New Guidelines for South-South Cooperation are a program of action for advancing South-South cooperation in the 21st century.
South-South cooperation has the following main objectives: first, to promote the strengthening of individual or collective self-reliance in developing countries through the exchange of experiences, the sharing of technological resources and the development of complementary capacities; second, to increase international cooperation and efforts that contribute to the promotion of such cooperation, and to improve its quality; (3) to strengthen the existing technological capabilities of developing countries, including in traditional sectors, to improve their capacity to make full use of the resources given to them and to create the capacity to transfer these technologies to other developing countries; fourth, to improve the capacity of developing countries to absorb technology and adapt it to their specific needs; Fifth, it provides assistance to the least developed countries or countries surrounded by land, or developing island countries and countries that are seriously affected; Sixth, it is necessary to enhance the trust of developing countries in each other's technological capabilities when cooperating with each other, and to promote the convergence of interests and interests of both sides.
South-South cooperation is available in a variety of ways and in many fields. The main forms include technology export, labor contracting, equipment export, cooperative production, and joint ventures. The areas of cooperation cover industry, agriculture, services, society, population, ecology and other aspects, with particular emphasis on human health, environment and ecology, women's participation, employment increase, poverty eradication, etc. Therefore, South-South cooperation activities are a major initiative to promote world civilization and human progress, and their activities have played an important role in promoting the technological progress and socio-economic development of the developing countries of the world.
Technical cooperation-based South-South cooperation activities can generally be divided into two categories: catalytic activities are those that aim to enhance the participation of developing countries or prepare the basis for the implementation of specific activities; Implementing activities are developmental activities related to the purposeful and voluntary exchange and sharing of technology, experience and capacities between two or more countries.
The main task of "South-South cooperation" in global agriculture
South-South cooperation covers a wide range of areas, including agriculture, health, health, energy, economic cooperation, human resources, and science and technology.
"South-South cooperation" in agriculture refers specifically to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (hereinafter referred to as "FAO") in 1996 under the framework of the Special Programme for World Food Security, which is a major initiative of FAO in 1994 to help low-income food-deficit countries address hunger and malnutrition, and is FAO's signature action to achieve the goal of halving the number of hungry people in the world by 2015. Its purpose is to encourage and advocate closer technical and economic cooperation among developing countries, and "South-South cooperation" in agriculture is cooperation in the nature of agricultural technical assistance among developing countries under its framework.
The SPFS targets low-income, food-deficit countries primarily and aims to increase productivity and food production through national and regional food security programmes, reduce inter-annual production fluctuations, and improve national food security on an environmentally sustainable basis. It consists of three components: the National Food Security Program, the Regional Food Security Program and South-South Cooperation. In the National Food Security Programme, which aims to lift more local populations out of hunger, FAO works with recipient countries to find solutions to food security problems, while helping recipient countries find donors willing to provide them with funding. Regional food security programmes are mainly carried out within local economic communities to further strengthen regional cooperation among neighbouring developing countries and the development of agricultural economies, and to expand the scope of national food security programmes. "South-South cooperation" is the strengthening of agricultural cooperation among developing countries, especially the exchange of agricultural technologies, with the aim of addressing food security issues.
The Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) is a nationally owned programme implemented by national experts and technically supervised by FAO. However, where appropriate, it could also enhance cooperation in agricultural technology among developing countries by drawing on the experience and expertise of other developing countries in agriculture under the South-South Cooperation programme.
The mode of operation of "South-South cooperation" in agriculture is mainly through the establishment of cooperative relations between developing countries with large differences in the level of agricultural development, and the developing countries with a higher level of agricultural development send experts and technicians to poor countries to provide technical assistance to them and directly guide local farmers in agricultural production; In addition, the promotion of typical cases should be strengthened, so as to improve the level of agriculture in poor countries and alleviate food security problems.
After more than 20 years of efforts, FAO's South-South Cooperation in Agriculture under the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) has achieved a lot of success, and many successful cases have emerged, and the implementation of South-South Cooperation in Agriculture will help more countries solve food security problems.
*: China Rural Network.
Editor: Huo Ran.
Supervisor: **Wen, Xu Feng.
Submission email: wgsntg@126com