To highlight the importance of South-South cooperation and to mark the day in 1978 when the United Nations Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries adopted the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (A/C.2/66/L.48), the General Assembly proclaimed 12 September as the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation.

The 2021 high-level commemoration of the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation, organized ahead of the opening of the seventy-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly, provides an opportunity to discuss Southern solidarity in support of a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable future while effectively responding to the global COVID-19 crisis in order to recover better across the global South. This United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation will also be an opportunity to highlight concrete follow-up to the twentieth session of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, which took place from 1 to 4 June 2021 in New York.

More than a year and a half into the pandemic, it is evident that decades of development progress are threatened and that we are facing an uncertain future shaped by economic and social crises. Global partnership, including through South-South cooperation, is essential to overcome the challenges of the pandemic and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. As we move towards a post-pandemic reality and recovery, South-South cooperation will contribute to breaking the cycle of poverty, instability and development inequalities while promoting the principle of effective ownership of national development strategies.