Dubai, UAE, November 3, 2016:  The 8th Annual DG Forum, which brings together Director-Generals from cooperation agencies of national governments of the South and the North that are already working on South-South and triangular cooperation or are ready to start such cooperation in the near future, took place as part of the GSSD Expo 2016. 

The DG Forum is intended to facilitate learning exchanges on policy, strategy, institutional, financial and tools for South-South and triangular cooperation as well as management capacity. The Forum also offers a partnership building opportunity for scaling up South-South and triangular cooperation initiatives. 

In response to a dire need to create a space for Director-Generals and practitioners of South-South and triangular cooperation to discuss how to improve South-South and triangular cooperation and to facilitate innovative partnership among all stakeholders, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) jointly launched the DG Forum during the first GSSD Expo in 2008. Since then, the DG Forum has been an integral part of the GSSD Expo. 

Strengthening Policy and Management for the Implementation of South-South and Triangular Cooperation towards Attainment of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was the theme of the Forum. 

The 8th  DG Forum had three segments: 

(a) Experiences on policy making and institutional setting for South-South Cooperation towards 2030 Agenda. This included national practices covering South-South and triangular cooperation in national development plans, national strategies/visions and national 2030 agenda implementation strategies. The need for improvements in both qualitative and quantitative measures was also discussed.

(b) Strengthening capacity development in management of South-South and triangular cooperation. This included consultative processes for capacity building and scaling up South-South solutions.

(c) Tools for strengthening South-South and triangular cooperation (both technical and financial tools). Examples of these included practices by national and regional institutions in developing guidelines and manuals for South-South cooperation. The financial tools include funds (especially those created by regional cooperation organisations) and any supporting funds from the North for triangular cooperation. 

For the first time the DG Forum was thrown open to all interested practitioners of South-South and triangular cooperation in a plenary setting. Several concrete agreement including Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) or letter of exchanges were signed by interested DGs and partners during the DG Forum.