Scope:

South-South Cooperation (SSC) is the sharing of experience and skills between two or more developing countries. It involves building new and reinforcing existing "bridges" of contact and communication among themselves, for a continuous process of mutual collaboration. It is an instrument or a mechanism of fostering cooperation among developing countries in almost all fields or sectors. It is a conscious, systematic and politically motivated process developed to create a framework of multiple links among developing countries and a historical imperative brought about by the challenges of the new millennium.

Framework and SSC Activities:

SSC activities or projects, like all other international cooperation, are carried out within the framework of agreements which can be characterized in three different ways although in practice these distinctions are not clearly observed:

Programmes can be looked upon as umbrella arrangements which may be time certain or of indefinite duration. A programme would normally constitute an understanding between parties to co-operate towards a common endeavour or endeavours aimed at mutual development of a set of general objectives. Within this broad framework a number of activities or projects would be envisaged to achieve specific goals

Projects are well defined, time certain, budgeted cooperation arrangements which require organizational framework, specific contracts and often a delivery system quite apart from the normal channels of communication and inter-action. The contracts would specify the goals, personnel requirements, equipment and managerial responsibility and a system of accountability within the parameters of the objectives to be achieved

Activities are discrete sets of actions, often part of an overall programme or project, to achieve stated goals such as the exchange of information, experts or technical knowledge. This may involve continuous or intermittent projects over a period of time subject to periodic review.