Improving the International Governance of Aid and Strengthening South-South Cooperation

The Government of Indonesia, with the assistance from development partners, is committed to further strengthen Indonesia’s South-South cooperation network, legal foundation, and institutional framework. Indonesia has been providing aids, mostly in technical cooperation, for Southern partners since 1980s. For Indonesia, South-South cooperation is a manifestation of commitment and contribution to other developing countries based on solidarity, equality and mutual opportunity. The spirit of helping each other and knowledge sharing to the betterment of all are what Indonesia’s South-South cooperation is all about.

Currently, the implementation of Indonesia’s South-South cooperation—and Triangular cooperation that complements it—is coordinated by the National Coordination Team (NCT), which made of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of National Development Planning, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of State Secretariat. Previously, the NCT was under the leadership of Ministry of National Development Planning, however, in 2016 it was decided that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would take the helmet of the NCT starting from 2017. South-South cooperation also has been defined as the basis for Indonesia’s foreign policy and the tool of diplomacy.

The NCT itself is a transitional form in administering the South-South cooperation. In 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take full responsibility for Indonesia’s South-South cooperation and put it under senior official level. The Government of Indonesia aims to have a specialized agency for international development, with South-South cooperation as its main focus, in due time.