IAEA Showcases South-South Cooperation Successes at Bangkok Conference

Held on 12 September, UN South-South Day, the IAEA side event, ‘Harnessing the Power of the Atom to Support COVID-19 Recovery and Address Global Challenges,’ benefitted from high level participation, with interventions by Xiaojun Grace Wang, the Deputy Director for Programme and Operations at UNOSSC, and Adnan Aliani, Director of Strategy and Programme Management at ESCAP, as well as representatives from Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and expert interlocutors from Viet Nam, Thailand and Fiji.

Shaukat Abdulrazak, Jane Gerardo-Abaya and Luis Longoria Gandara, Directors of the IAEA Technical Cooperation Divisions for Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean, respectively, also participated to share examples of effective South-South cooperation in each region.

“Development and the peaceful application of nuclear technology to benefit the livelihoods of people has been one of the most valuable achievements of humankind. Yet, the awareness, understanding, knowledge and capacity to actually leverage this benefit – leaving no countries, no people behind – is still very level among developing countries: that's where South-South and triangular cooperation can really be leveraged to help expand this benefit,” explained Deputy Director Wang during the side event.  

Vichai Puripunyavanich, a nuclear scientist at the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT), shared his perspective as a panellist at the IAEA side event, showcasing the benefits of nuclear science and technology for food security in Thailand. “There are three main radiation applications for agriculture at the Institute – plant breeding, fruit fly control through the Sterile Insect Technique and food irradiation,” said Puripunyavanich. “We collaborate with the IAEA and other countries through training courses and fellowships or symposiums and regional training courses, such as the latest one in Indonesia on mutation breeding.”

During the side event, Adnan Aliani of ESCAP stressed the importance of South-South cooperation for energy planning: “It is critical that support must be extended to countries in nuclear science and technology through South-South cooperation. As countries increasingly look to low-carbon options, increased South-South and triangular cooperation is needed to advance technology and applications, while also ensuring the highest level of operational safety standards in the deployment of nuclear technologies.”

UN South-South Day also provided the occasion for the launch of the UNOSSC Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development Vol. 4, which includes five examples of IAEA good practices in the areas of food safety, cancer care, capacity building, industry and water management in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Open for three days, the IAEA’s exhibition booth at the GSSD Expo — staffed by experts from the Agency’s Department of Technical Cooperation and stocked with publications presenting the IAEA’s work in South-South cooperation — attracted the attention of many conference-goers, including the 300 young representatives participating in the YOUTH4SOUTH special event.

The IAEA actively participated in the regional Asia-Pacific Directors-General Forum and in the Global Directors Forum, which took place on 13 and 14 September, respectively. At the latter, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation Hua Liu stressed the crucial role that teamwork plays in South-South cooperation at the IAEA: “The IAEA works in close partnership with Member States, United Nations agencies, research organizations and civil society to maximize the contribution of nuclear science and technology to the achievement of development priorities, and thus, achieving development goals.”

As Director General Grossi remarked at the opening of the Expo, “some challenges simply can’t be solved alone.” In keeping with this ethos, IAEA staff participating in the GSSD Expo identified and leveraged opportunities presented by the event to engage with the private sector, foundations and national development agencies, with the aim of continuing to enhance the support provided by the IAEA to its Member States via well anchored South-South mechanisms.