A cross-regional dialogue brought together policymakers, development practitioners, and startup ecosystem stakeholders from across the Global South to examine how South-South and triangular cooperation can accelerate the growth of inclusive and resilient startup ecosystems. The discussion focused on shared challenges, policy innovation, and strategic partnerships that can unlock entrepreneurship-led growth, particularly for youth and underserved communities, by leveraging peer learning and cross-regional collaboration.
The global startup economy, valued at an estimated $7.6 trillion, has emerged as a major engine of innovation, job creation, and economic transformation, rivaling the economic scale of many high-income countries. Tech-enabled and scalable startups are reshaping industries and expanding economic opportunity, prompting governments to increasingly position startup ecosystem development as a core pillar of competitiveness, digital transformation, and sustainable development.
Despite this momentum, recent global assessments highlight declining ecosystem value and widening regional disparities, especially affecting the Global South. These trends underscore the growing need for coordinated investment, cross-regional knowledge exchange, and policy alignment to strengthen startup ecosystems and ensure that innovation-led growth is more evenly distributed across regions.
Southern-led solutions anchored in South-South and triangular cooperation were emphasized as critical enablers of ecosystem development. Speakers highlighted how regional and cross-regional partnerships can support digital transformation, scale innovation, and build context-specific ecosystems through shared learning, strategic investment, and institutional collaboration. There was a strong call to move beyond narrow macroeconomic indicators and place entrepreneurship ecosystems at the center of development strategies due to their role in driving social change, inclusion, and long-term resilience.
Panelists shared insights from diverse regional initiatives and institutions supporting startups, alongside perspectives from innovators and ecosystem enablers operating across different markets. These experiences illustrated how South-South and triangular cooperation can strengthen access to finance, improve policy coherence, support skills development, and expand cross-border market opportunities, while also addressing structural barriers faced by startups in emerging and underserved economies.
The dialogue highlighted major initiatives advancing innovation, including programs supporting women- and youth-led startups, regional efforts to expand digital and AI literacy, and platforms promoting policy harmonization and market integration. Participants stressed the importance of impact-oriented financing, standardized measurement frameworks, and intentional collaboration to better align ecosystem actors and scale sustainable outcomes across regions.
Discussions also addressed persistent imbalances within the Global South, including the challenge of locally generated ideas creating value primarily outside their countries of origin. Speakers emphasized that deeper South-South cooperation is essential to retain value, strengthen domestic ecosystems, and reduce dependency on external markets and capital.
The dialogue concluded with a shared recognition that systematic South-South and triangular cooperation can play a transformative role in building resilient startup ecosystems. Participants highlighted the importance of sustained peer learning, coordinated platforms for knowledge exchange, and partnership brokering to accelerate technology adoption, capacity building, and inclusive entrepreneurship, particularly in underserved markets across Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Arab States, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
