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The Indo-Pacific is confronting a polycrisis, with developing countries facing post-pandemic recovery challenges, geopolitical tensions, rising debt, climate disasters, and food insecurity. These pressures have caused significant setbacks on the SDGs, with only 17 per cent of targets on track in 2024. At the same time, traditional aid from the Global North is declining, widening the development finance gap to USD 3.9–4.2 trillion annually and creating an urgent need for alternative approaches.
In this context, the Sustainable Finance in the Indo-Pacific (SUFIP) Development Network (DN) organised a webinar on September 12, 2025 to mark the UN Day of South-South Cooperation (SSC). The panel explored strategies for accelerating sustainable development in the region in different thematic areas of health, climate and energy. The session was moderated by Swati Prabhu, Fellow, Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and Programme Lead, SUFIP DN, and featured Axel Berger, Deputy Director, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS); José Joel Peña Llanes, Associate Professor, Faculty of Higher Studies (FES) Acatlán of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM); Bineswaree Bolaky, Economic Affairs Officer, UN Economic Commission for Africa (UN ECA) Sub-regional office for Southern Africa; and Mandakini Surie, Consultant, International Development.
Swati Prabhu set the tone for the discussion by framing the complex development finance landscape of the Indo-Pacific, where overlapping crises amplify one another. She highlighted how structural vulnerabilities such as high debt, fragmented trade networks, climate hazards, and food and energy insecurity have stalled national development plans and caused backsliding on multiple SDGs, emphasizing the need for integrated and resilient approaches to financing. As moderator, she positioned South-South Cooperation as a central theme for the conversation, noting its potential to enable countries to share knowledge, technology, and resources on equitable terms while complementing traditional development finance. She emphasized that regional coordination, robust evaluation, and shared platforms would be central to improving efficiency, reducing duplication, and strengthening Southern partners’ credibility.
Building on Prabhu’s framing of the Indo-Pacific’s complex development landscape, Axel Berger emphasised that traditional aid alone is no longer enough to address the region’s intersecting crises, particularly as budgets for critical sectors like health and climate have been reduced. He positioned South-South Cooperation as a complementary mechanism that enables countries in the Global South not only to receive support but also to contribute resources, expertise, and technology to each other, citing China as a prominent example. Berger highlighted the importance of regional cooperation and mutual learning, pointing to initiatives such as Africa’s Continental Free Trade Area, which integrate markets, pool resources, and strengthen intra-South trade. He also stressed the role of national and regional development banks in mobilising domestic resources, supporting infrastructure and local development projects, and enhancing countries’ capacity to implement nationally driven strategies. In this context, SSC emerges as a tool to strengthen economic resilience, foster knowledge exchange, and leverage regional institutions, complementing rather than replacing traditional development finance.
Following the discussion on SSC and regional cooperation, José Joel Peña Llanes offered a Latin American perspective, emphasising the urgent need to address converging crises such as climate change, debt, digital divides, and food insecurity. He framed South-South and triangular cooperation as practical mechanisms to channel resources efficiently and strengthen sustainable finance. Peña Llanes highlighted key challenges including institutional fragmentation, limited fiscal space, and slow procurement, while pointing to opportunities in predictable finance, blended instruments, and dedicated UN financing windows. He outlined innovative approaches to scale cooperation, such as designing regional project pipelines, aggregating demand through pooled procurement, and leveraging local currency finance to attract private and diaspora capital. He also stressed that triangular cooperation can enhance credibility, set robust standards, and accelerate technology transfer when risks such as debt exposure and supplier concentration are carefully managed.
Bineswaree Bolaky built on the discussion of SSC’s practical and regional potential by highlighting its critical role for small island developing states and other vulnerable countries. She emphasised that SSC should complement, not replace, North-South cooperation, and that countries need to lead their own development strategies through integrated national financing frameworks. Bolaky pointed to challenges such as limited capacities, dependence on Northern markets, and the lack of formal SSC monitoring mechanisms. She underscored that regional integration can help small island states overcome scale limitations, access larger markets, and mobilise finance and technical resources more effectively, translating SSC into tangible, locally driven development outcomes.
Mandakini Surie highlighted India’s long-standing role in SSC, rooted in post-colonial experience and guided by principles of mutual benefit and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, or “the world is one family.” She described India’s human-centric, demand-driven, and largely unconditional development assistance, including grants, credit lines, technical aid, scholarships, and capacity-building. Surie emphasised India’s regional and global engagement across South Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific. She highlighted the use of diaspora ties, soft power, and multilateral platforms such as BRICS, G20, the International Solar Alliance, and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. She also noted the importance of monitoring, data-driven delivery, and innovation, citing India Stack and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as examples of SSC surpassing traditional North-South models.
The discussion highlighted that effective SSC in the Indo-Pacific begins with countries taking the lead in shaping their own development agendas while using South-South mechanisms to complement, rather than replace, traditional Northern aid. Achieving impact requires regional integration, which can overcome scale limitations, expand market access, and mobilise finance and technical capacity more effectively. By combining knowledge and technology sharing with predictable and blended financing, countries can accelerate sustainable development in ways that are locally relevant and innovative. Strong partnerships and coordinated planning help ensure that resources are deployed efficiently and equitably, while leveraging regional trade agreements, local development banks, and multilateral platforms allows pilot initiatives to evolve into scalable programs that strengthen resilience, foster demand-driven solutions, and address both immediate and long-term development challenges.
The event report is prepared by Sharon Sarah Thawaney, Executive Assistant to the Vice-President, ORF Kolkata and Development Studies.
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