United Nation and India join forces for South-South Cooperation to accelerate the SDGs.

The United Nations will leverage its worldwide reach to connect Indian best practices with other countries to help them achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the United Nations in India have launched a path breaking partnership aimed at sharing Indian development innovations with countries of the Global South based on their national priorities.

Under the ‘UN-India Global Capacity-Building Initiative’, the UN will leverage its worldwide reach to help connect Indian best practices and institutions with other countries to help accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Initiatives include a range of actions, from skills training and knowledge-exchanges to pilot projects in partner countries, implemented through the new UN India SDG Country Fund as well as the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC).

Launching the first batch of partnerships on 1 August at an event hosted by MEA in New Delhi, India’s Secretary (West), MEA, Shri Tanmaya Lal, said that “in the spirit of SDG-17 and effective international cooperation, this new India-UN initiative for global capacity-building assumes even greater importance. It is aimed at sharing experience and empowering Global South partners in key areas related to the SDGs”.

UN Resident Coordinator Shombi Sharp said that “under the ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, India is expanding on its already long-standing leadership role in driving South-South cooperation for SDG acceleration, leveraging the innovation and partnership power of Indian institutions and the UN system”.

UN Resident Coordinator Office Chief of Staff Radhika Kaul Batra said “the India-UN Capacity-Building Initiative is enriched through a strategic collaboration with the MEA’s globally recognized ITEC programme and will take India’s best practice models and institutional excellence to partner countries”.

The UN India SDG Country Fund was initiated through a foundational contribution generously made by the Gates Foundation. The launch in New Delhi is the culmination of efforts following the signing of letters of intent in September 2023 to set up the Fund and establish the wider initiative.

Those letters of intent were signed by Mr. Sharp and by Hari Menon, Director of the Gates Foundation’s India Country Office, in the presence of India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar at a side event in New York during the annual UN General Assembly high-level period.  

Team Maverick