South-South cooperation (SSC) is a frequently discussed topic and there has been a call to do more on this in the international community and also at IFAD. What kind of SSC has IFAD been supporting and how? For what purpose?  Where there may be opportunities to enhance its support also in the light of the evolving global development architecture?

On 30 October, Independent Office of Evaluation (IOE) held an internal workshop to share emerging findings from the ongoing evaluation synthesis on non-lending activities in the context of South-South cooperation.

The key objectives of this exercise were to:

• review and analyse the experience in relation to IFAD-supported SSC initiatives, mainly those supported through non-lending activities, and identify enabling factors for success, opportunities for scaling-up, constraints and incentives;
• identify key issues and lessons, and make recommendations for enhancing IFAD's approach to support SSC.

The evaluation synthesis is undertaken primarily to promote learning, aiming to enhance general understanding of a particular topic and to highlight strategic issues for consideration by IFAD Management and its governing bodies.