Kathmandu, Mar. 21: Minister for Foreign Affairs
Pradeep Kumar Gyawali has said that the South-South Cooperation should have a
clear focus on poverty eradication.
“Sustainable Development Goal 1 is the biggest
battle we have and perhaps the most cross-cutting, and therefore a sine qua non for making the world a
better place to live in,” he said while delivering his speech at the Second
High-Level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation in Buenos Aires
of Argentina on Thursday.
He highlighted that some members in the south were
lagging behind despite having similar development ambitions, and stressed on
additional understanding, partnership and cooperation for them.
Minister Gyawali also said that gender equality,
inclusiveness, concrete steps to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change
and social justice should be the guide posts of development perspective.
Women youths
should be assured for better opportunities and more investment must be guaranteed
in education and technological innovations, he said.
“Our development
experience tells that all forms of cooperation should respect national ownership
and leadership, and focus on the country’s needs and priorities. And global
peace and stability is the prerequisite, because cost of conflicts mainly goes on
the shoulder of Global South,” said Gyawali.
He said that the South-South Cooperation was more relevant now than ever
before.
According to him, the
development landscape has changed significantly. The South has developed an
enormous potential for economic transformation, and the progress some members
of the South have achieved over the decades has not only widened the scope of
the cooperation, but has brought us closer towards realising the purpose of ‘collective
self-reliance’.
He called for further diversifying
and strengthening the south-south cooperation: in scale, in scope, in quality
and in its effectiveness.
Talking about Nepal, the
Foreign Affairs Minister said that 41 per cent women representations in the
federal, provincial and local elected bodies, introduction of Comprehensive Social
Security Programme, Nationwide Health Insurance Programme and Prime Minister
Employment Programme, among others, were the instruments to achieve prosperity
and happiness.
“We have internalised the SDGs
in our national policies and planning. We wish to graduate from LDC stage at the
earliest and to become a middle-income country by 2030. There is need of
enhanced level of investment to accelerate the economic growth which demands
scaled up international cooperation,” he said.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 22 March 2019. 
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