United Nations, March 13 – The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Fund has emerged as a strong vehicle for South-South cooperation, promoting women's empowerment through development, according to leaders from the three nations.
The Fund is "a far-sighted joint initiative of the governments of India, Brazil, and South Africa, which has proven its utility by supporting over 50 development assistance projects in nearly 40 countries since its establishment in 2004," Savitri Thakur, India's Minister of State for Women and Child Development, said on Thursday.
"To translate this into action, we have supported many projects related to women's development," she said at an event commemorating the success stories of Women-Led Development and South-South Cooperation.
"South-South cooperation holds profound value for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls," said Sindisiwe Chikunga, South Africa's Minister for Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities.
She said, "At a time when multilateralism is under pressure and development finance is increasingly conditional and contested, the role of the IBSA Fund becomes important."
"In fact," she said, "the IBSA Fund represents an opportunity for the voices of emerging and developing economies to have equal weight and be accountable to the people they serve."
She said that IBSA's significance for the Global South is that it "is proof of a development paradigm that centers Southern agency, rejects dependency, and demonstrates that countries that have themselves navigated post-colonial reconstruction must drive sustainable development."
India's Permanent Representative, P Harish, said, "Empowering women to contribute effectively to our productive economies is a force multiplier."
"In a world where traditional aid architectures are under strain, where development assistance is increasingly fragmented, and where trust between the Global North and South is increasingly frayed, the IBSA Fund offers a trustworthy model that demonstrates the effectiveness of South-South solidarity," he said.
What sets it apart is that "the Fund operates on a demand-driven basis, meaning partner countries themselves identify their needs, reflecting the core principle of South-South cooperation," he said.
Brazil's Vice Minister for Women, Thalia Barbosa Rodrigues Neves, said, "There will be no truly sustainable or democratic development without the full participation of women."
"When women have access to income, education, land, credit, technology, and social protection, and participate in decision-making, the entire society moves forward," she said.
She cited examples of IBSA Fund support for Ugandan women in agriculture to expand their food production, Fijian women to learn technologies that improve the health of their families, and female Liberian legislators to strengthen their role in governance.
"These experiences, supported by the IBSA Fund, demonstrate that development led by women, in addition to being a powerful social agenda, is also a concrete strategy for sustainable development," she said.