More knowledge hubs for South-South cooperation needed

Delegates of a high-level meeting in Indonesia are to be asked to adopt an outcome document outlining ways to improve the transfer of knowledge and expertise among emerging and developing countries.

“Towards Country-led Knowledge Hubs” is a high-level meeting hosted by Indonesia, the World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and U.N. Development Program. It runs July 10-12 and brings together more than 200 officials to discuss knowledge hubs — organizations dedicated to exchanging development models and experiences among South-South cooperation partners.

The meeting builds on an increasing desire among developing and emerging countries to share their experiences, according to World Bank Managing Director Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who pointed out that development solutions now “come from anywhere — North, South, East and West — and increasingly from other developing countries.”

“We must build knowledge platforms that harness these ideas and solutions that are more relevant, more affordable from those that have developed recently, process them to see what can be transportable to others, and make them available in a global solution exchange,” Ajay Chhibber, head of UNDP in Asia and the Pacific, added.

The meeting’s outcome document, to be dubbed Bali Communique, aims to encourage countries, international organizations and civil society groups to explore setting up knowledge hubs. Among existing hubs the meeting’s hosts have identified as possible models are the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corp. and Singapore Cooperation Enterprise.

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