Southern Voice is a network of 59 think tanks from the Global South. Working together since 2012, they inform the global dialogue on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The network’s aim is to address the knowledge asymmetry and participation deficit that still pervades decision making in the development field. It does this by producing, promoting, and disseminating evidence-based policy analysis by researchers from Global South countries.

Southern Voice members are from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. They produce quality local data and research to enhance the debate on the SDGs and increase the 2030 Agenda’s impact on the South.

Priorities as a partner of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data

In general, Southern Voice commits to:

  1. Provide a platform for the Southern think tanks in implementing and exchanging novel ideas on SDG issues that are grounded on the realities of the developing world.
  2. Strengthen the participation of Southern researchers in the SDG issues by improving their analytical contributions and strategic engagements.
  3. Addressing capacity gaps and data deficits as regards the implementation of the SDGs, new issues beyond data issues related to national-level implications of the SDGs
  4. Emergence of Southern Voice’s website as a major source of information on SDG implementation in the South

In addition, Southern Voice commits to contribute its unique perspectives, initially in three working groups of the Global Data Partnership, viz. Working Group #1: Country Level Data Roadmaps/Action Plans, Working Group #2: Global Data Collaboratives; and Working Group #5: Advancing Principles and Protocols.

Besides its contributions in these working groups, Southern Voice will share key findings of the studies undertaken by the network in the recent past at various platforms of the Global Data Partnership. These will strengthen the communication and outreach activities of the Southern Voice network.