UN Office for South-South Cooperation

The UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) is the United Nations entity mandated to promote, coordinate and support South-South and triangular cooperation across the UN development system. Hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), it reports directly to the UNDP Administrator while serving the wider UN system and answering to its own governance body, the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation (HLC), a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly.

Originally established in 1974 as a Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) within UNDP, it was renamed the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation in 2004 and given its current title — UN Office for South-South Cooperation — by General Assembly resolution 66/219 (2012). Its work is anchored in the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA) adopted in 1978, and was reinvigorated by the BAPA+40 outcome document adopted at the Second High-level UN Conference on South-South Cooperation held in Buenos Aires in March 2019.

UNOSSC's core functions include:

• Advocating for South-South and triangular cooperation as complements to (not substitutes for) North-South cooperation.
• Servicing the HLC and reporting to the General Assembly and ECOSOC on system-wide progress.
• Managing trust funds such as the UN Fund for South-South Cooperation (UNFSSC), the Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund (operated with the G77), and the India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) Fund.
• Running knowledge platforms including the South-South Galaxy and convening the annual Global South-South Development Expo.

The Office is led by a Director (formerly Envoy of the Secretary-General on South-South Cooperation, a title used between 2006 and 2017). It works closely with the Group of 77 and China, regional commissions, and emerging-economy partners, positioning South-South exchange as a key vehicle for delivering the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.