The U.N. celebration is just one example of the growing calls for a renewal of south-south cooperation, the tradition of developing countries relying less on the industrialized world than themselves for their path to material progress. But are these renewed calls up to the task of charting a new path through the current crisis in international development?

Amid so many other United Nations events this September, headlined by the procession of national leaders addressing the General Assembly, it would be easy to miss the celebration of the U.N. Day for South-South Cooperation on Sept. 12. Slotted inconveniently late on a Friday afternoon—well before most world leaders arrive the following week—the event will mark the 47th anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation Among Developing Countries (mercifully shortened to BAPA).

Amid so many other United Nations events this September, headlined by the procession of national leaders addressing the General Assembly, it would be easy to miss the celebration of the U.N. Day for South-South Cooperation on Sept. 12. Slotted inconveniently late on a Friday afternoon—well before most world leaders arrive the following week—the event will mark the 47th anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation Among Developing Countries (mercifully shortened to BAPA).

The U.N. celebration is just one example of the growing calls for a renewal of south-south cooperation, the tradition of developing countries relying less on the industrialized world than themselves for their path to material progress. But are these renewed calls up to the task of charting a new path through the current crisis in international development?

The situation for traditional development looks bleak. The spectacular destruction of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the largest (and depending on definitions the oldest) bilateral aid organization in the world, captured headlines this year, but other warning signs about bilateral aid abound. Even stalwart agencies in countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have instituted significant cuts in bilateral assistance.

The consulting firm McKinsey and Co. estimates that the new steady state could easily end with aid up to 22 percent below current levels; it calls this a “generational shift” that goes well beyond the cruelty-by-design efforts of the Trump administration.