India & UN join forces for South–South Cooperation to accelerate SDGs

August 2025 | New Delhi, India

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the United Nations in India have launched a groundbreaking partnership aimed at sharing Indian development innovations with countries of the Global South based on their national priorities.

Under the ‘India-UN Global Capacity-Building Initiative’, the UN will leverage its worldwide reach to help connect Indian best practices and institutions with other countries to help accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The initiative was launched at an event at the MEA’s offices in New Delhi on 1 August in the presence of officials from the Government, the UN in India, diplomats and donors.

The initiative will include a range of actions, from skills training and knowledge exchanges to pilot projects in partner countries, implemented through the new UN India SDG Country Fund as well as the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC).

A competitive call for proposals process will be held regularly to select suitable candidates to take forward for partnerships.

The first batch of partnerships selected are:

• UNDP and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) with content support from National Health Authority (NHA) and National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW)
• Ensuring Equitable Access to Healthcare Services through Digital Health Platforms South-South Cooperation Initiative (in Zambia and Lao PDR)

• WFP and the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), Kundli, Haryana
• Strengthening Nepal's fortified rice supply chain through South-South Triangular Cooperation (in Nepal)

• UNFPA and National Statistical Systems Training Academy (NSSTA), with technical/knowledge support from the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (ORGI)
• Enhancing Census Preparedness in the Caribbean: South-South Cooperation for Strengthening National Statistical Offices (in Barbados; Belize; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Suriname; and Trinidad & Tobago)

• UNESCO and National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD), with knowledge support from National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC)
• Strengthening the Public Private Partnership Model in the South Sudan TVET Eco-system (in South Sudan)

Launching the first batch, India’s Secretary (West), MEA, Shri Tanmaya Lal, said that “in the spirit of SDG-17 and effective international cooperation, this new India-UN initiative for global capacity-building assumes even greater importance. It is aimed at sharing experience and empowering Global South partners in key areas related to the SDGs.”

UN Resident Coordinator Shombi Sharp said that “under the ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, India is expanding on its already long-standing leadership role in driving South-South cooperation for SDG acceleration, leveraging the innovation and partnership power of Indian institutions and the UN system.”

UN Resident Coordinator Office Chief of Staff Radhika Kaul Batra said “the India-UN Capacity-Building Initiative is enriched through a strategic collaboration with the MEA’s globally recognized ITEC programme and will take India’s best practice models and institutional excellence to partner countries.”

The UN India SDG Country Fund was initiated through a foundational contribution generously made by the Gates Foundation.

This month’s launch in New Delhi is the culmination of efforts following the signing of letters of intent in September 2023 to set up the Fund and establish the wider initiative. Those letters of intent were signed by Mr. Sharp and by Hari Menon, Director of the Gates Foundation’s India Country Office, in the presence of India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar at a side event in New York during the annual UN General Assembly high-level period.

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