By MediaGlobal News Service
25 August 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: South-South grown solutions will be the focus of December’s South-South Development Expo, an annual event the United Nations Development Programme’s Special Unit for South-South Cooperation plans to launch this year. Like other such events, representatives of public and private development initiatives in developing countries will share hard won knowledge with countries facing similar development constraints. But unlike other forums, this one will be about more than talking, said Yiping Zhou, the unit’s director. “If you want to discuss problems, don’t come here. But if you have a solution-it’s your show. If you have a serious appetite for learning, you come,” Zhou told MediaGlobal, describing the Expo as a development initiative with an entrepreneurial spirit. “It’s about what we have done, and what could be your solution if you are serious,” he said, explaining that rather than giving a country team a few minutes to present the highlights of a successful program, they would be given time to discuss the policies, legislation, budget initiatives and private sector involvement behind it. “The whole idea of the Expo is to give countries the whole stage to explain what happened in the past 20 years,” Zhou said, noting that participants would come away with a greater appreciation for the connections between different policy sectors-for example how achieving greater gender balance in a national assembly might be key to legislating greater public health funding. The Expo will be held December 17-19. The UNDP Administrator, current and former heads of state and several Nobel laureates are among those expected to attend.
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