A Historical Perspective on South-South Co-operation: A View from the UN

The «emerging economies» of the Global South – which include BRICS, some Latino-American, African and South-Eastern countries – have become new international donors or have enhanced their aid policies over the last two dec- ades, shaping a new architecture of international development cooperation. Such change not only refers to the massive increase in the flow of aid and investments, but also to the contribution itself in term of the principles and mind-sets that these countries have adopted. They intend to set themselves quite far from the traditional model shaped by the industrialized countries, generally seen as perpetuating dependence and inequalities. They rather propose an ap- proach based on solidarity, mutual interest and self-reliance, which has been characterizing their view of international development cooperation since the 1960s. Thus, these «new donors» have challenged attempts to coordinate de- velopment policies among donor countries that the DAC has been proposing since the early 1990s, preferring the set of principles established by the United Nations (UN). The UN, despite the priority attention dedicated to North-South confrontation, has indeed given room to the horizontal dimension of cooperation, with the first institutionalization proposed in the 1970s. This paper deals with the or- igins and evolution of cooperation among developing countries (later South- South cooperation) from the perspective offered by the UN, between the 1970s and the 1990s. It will trace the more relevant phases of the debate, thus high- lighting the UN contribution to convey and promote principles and strategies for development in the Global South. Moreover, it will research the elements of continuity or discontinuity between the current debate and that of the origins.