12 September 2026 – United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation
South-South cooperation is built on a simple premise: countries and institutions across the Global South have knowledge, experience and solutions to share with one another.
On 12 September, the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation provides an opportunity to recognize this contribution and to reaffirm the value of cooperation based on solidarity, mutual learning and shared development priorities. The 2026 observance, under the theme “Solidarity Rising: Global Alliance for Inclusive and Innovative Development”, highlights the growing importance of connecting countries’ priorities with expertise, partnerships and practical solutions.
For the International Labour Organization, South-South and triangular cooperation is an important means of advancing decent work and social justice. It creates space for governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, institutions and other partners to exchange knowledge, learn from experience and develop approaches that respond to common challenges in the world of work.
The approach is not about transferring one model from one country to another. It is about learning together, adapting solutions to national and regional contexts, and building cooperation around priorities identified by the countries themselves. This makes South-South cooperation particularly relevant in a world where countries are facing interconnected challenges – from changing labour markets and skills needs to social protection gaps, climate change, technological transformation and persistent inequalities.
Through its South-South and triangular cooperation work, the ILO facilitates these exchanges across regions and areas of the world of work. During 2024–2025, ILO-supported SSTC initiatives involved more than 80 countries across five regions, bringing together partners to share knowledge and good practices on issues including skills development, social protection, care policies, climate-resilient employment, just transition, labour statistics and productivity.
These experiences demonstrate that cooperation does not have to begin with a ready-made answer. It can begin with a question: How has another country addressed a similar challenge? What can be learned from its experience? What can be adapted to a different context? And what can be improved through collaboration?
This is where South-South cooperation becomes more than an exchange of knowledge. It becomes a mechanism for building capacities, strengthening institutions and creating lasting partnerships.
The ILO’s tripartite structure gives this cooperation a particular dimension. Governments, employers and workers bring different perspectives and expertise to exchanges on policies and practices affecting the world of work. Peer learning can therefore contribute not only to technical capacity, but also to dialogue, consensus building and more inclusive policy processes.
Triangular cooperation can further expand these opportunities by bringing additional partners, expertise and resources into South-South-led initiatives. In this model, international organizations and development partners can help connect countries, facilitate knowledge exchange and provide technical or financial support, while keeping the cooperation grounded in the priorities and ownership of participating countries.
Recent ILO partnerships illustrate this potential. Cooperation with China, for example, has supported exchanges on skills development and social protection among countries in Asia and beyond, while other ILO initiatives have connected countries across Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and other regions around shared priorities.
The experience of South-South cooperation also reminds us that innovation does not have a single geography. Solutions and expertise emerge in different contexts, including from countries that are often seen primarily as recipients of development cooperation. Creating opportunities for those experiences to be shared, tested and adapted can help broaden the knowledge base available to the international development community.
As the international community works to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, South-South and triangular cooperation can help turn this diversity of experience into collective action. The launch of the Global Alliance for South-South and Triangular Cooperation in 2026 offers another opportunity to strengthen connections between countries seeking solutions and partners able to contribute expertise, experience and support.
For the ILO, the message of South-South Cooperation Day is therefore not only about solidarity. It is about solidarity translated into action: countries learning from one another, institutions building partnerships, social partners contributing their expertise, and practical solutions being adapted to advance decent work and social justice.
On this International Day, the ILO reaffirms its commitment to supporting cooperation that is country-owned, mutually beneficial and rooted in knowledge exchange – and to working with its constituents and partners to ensure that the experience and innovation of the Global South continue to shape the future of the world of work.
ILO General Director Gilbert F. Houngbo joins us in celebration this important day!