Page 174 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS479 Belkacem A.
“South-South cooperation is a common endeavour of peoples and
countries of the South, born out of shared experiences and sympathies,
based on their common objectives and solidarity, and guided by, inter alia,
the principles of respect for national sovereignty and ownership, free from
any conditionalities.
South-South cooperation should not be seen as official development
assistance. It is a partnership among equals based on solidarity. In that
regard, we acknowledge the need to enhance the development
effectiveness of South-South cooperation by continuing to increase its
mutual accountability and transparency, as well as coordinating its
initiatives with other development projects and programmes on the
ground, in accordance with national development plans and priorities. We
also recognize that the impact of South-South cooperation should be
assessed with a view to improving, as appropriate, its quality in a results-
oriented manner.”
There are mainly three dimensions in South-South Cooperation concepts:
political, economic and technical. Its principles encompass all sectors of
international relations. In this work, we will put emphasis on the very specific
South-South Statistical Cooperation and review Morocco’s experience in
terms of cooperation with African countries.

2. South-South Statistical Cooperation
The recent emergence of several development initiatives and roadmaps,
such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Poverty Reduction
Strategy (PRSs), the International Comparison Program for Africa (ICP-Africa),
the Agenda 2063 for African development, the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs, Agenda 2030), etc., have cast light on the crucial need for
African countries to produce their own, better quality, relevant and timely
statistical information. The availability of more and better quality statistical
data is of course vital for monitoring such programs and for supporting the
implementation of evidence-based public policies and development needs,
while putting a lot of pressure on National Statistical Systems. A consequence
of this unprecedented demand is the intensification of bilateral and
multilateral aids and technical support to Africa in statistics. Indeed, during
several decades, a plethora of initiatives and programs have been put forward
to help and strengthen statistical capacity building in “south” countries in
general and in Africa in particular. The main interventions/involvement
concern: Statistical Systems, National strategy for Development of statistics
(NSDS), Statistical Capacity, surveys and censuses, national accounts, registers
and manifold trainings. These supports are provided by some key players such
as:

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