The outcome document of the second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (A/RES/73/291) encourages all actors to support initiatives for information and data collection, coordination, dissemination and evaluation of South-South cooperation (SSC), upon the request of developing countries. In April 2020, the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators established a Working Group on Measurement of Development Support. The Working Group developed a proposal for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 17.3.1, defining key measurement principles and main components of development support, including SSC. This work thus resulted in an agreed, voluntary framework for the measurement of SSC, developed by countries of the global South, and thus triggering strong country demand for capacity development support.

To date, the lack of information on SDG target 17.3, to mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources, hampers progress in mobilizing resources for achieving the SDGs. This problem was magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this project, UNCTAD, UN Statistics Division and four UN Regional Commissions, jointly with partners in the UN system and beyond, will support eight developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to measure the financial and non-financial modalities of SSC to inform and target policy action with the aim to manage and mobilize resources for efforts to achieve the SDGs, including to enable a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable recovery from the pandemic, which would be demonstrated by the provision of early SSC estimates by at least four beneficiary countries for use by development experts and policymakers. In the longer term, the sharing of resources and tools developed in the project will enable global reporting on SDG indicator 17.3.1.