New Delhi: India and the United Nations launched a joint capacity-building initiative for the Global South on Sunday. The “India-UN Capacity Building Initiative” aims at sharing India’s development experiences, best practices and expertise with partner countries in the Global South through capacity building and training programmes.
The initiative was announced at an event “India-UN for the Global South-Delivering for Development” in New York on September 23 in the presence of External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar. The event saw the participation of Dennis Francis, the President of the 78th General Assembly.
Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, the Prime Minister of Samoa, Tandi Dorji, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bhutan, Vince Henderson, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, International Business, Trade and Energy, Dominica, Hugh Hilton Todd, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Guyana.
Maneesh Gobin, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mauritius, Alva Romanus Baptiste, the Minister for External Affairs, International Trade, Civil Aviation and Diaspora Affairs, St Lucia, Ahmed Khaleel, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Maldives, Achim Steiner, the administrator, UNDP, Shombi Sharp, the UN Resident Commissioner for India.
The “India-UN Capacity Building Initiative” builds upon the extensive cooperation in development and capacity building that India already has bilaterally with the partner countries. The India-UN initiative also complements the India-UN partnership in the form of the “India-UN Development Partnership Fund,” which has developed a portfolio of 75 development projects in 61 countries in the last six years.
As part of this initiative, the UN India team and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will partner to leverage India’s Technical and Economic Cooperation platform to share India’s development experiences and best practices across the world. A Joint Declaration of Intent was exchanged today between the UN Resident Coordinator in India and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to this effect.
This initiative will also operationalise development-relevant deliverables of India’s G20 Presidency, including the G20 Action Plan for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs, technological transformation, and building Digital Public Infrastructure, among others. The initiative will be a significant contribution to global efforts towards accelerating momentum for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), by strengthening South-South Cooperation and reflects India’s continuing efforts to strengthen its development partnership with the Global South.
It will certainly carry forward the successful G20 Presidency of India, which saw the inclusion of the voice of the Global South into the G20 agenda and the entry of the African Union into the grouping.
