Ibero-America celebrates a decade of a unique information system: SIDICSS

This Ibero-American system is a global benchmark for the registration and systematization of information on South-South and Triangular Cooperation.

This September marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of a unique Ibero-American online information system which compiles data on South-South and Triangular Cooperation: SIDICSS, as it is known by its Spanish acronym. This platform is the result of a process to methodologically conceptualize Ibero-American South-South Cooperation (SSC), and it showcases the region’s capacity to design instruments to fit its own contexts and needs.

Back in 2014, a working group in which Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay participated –supported by SEGIB and PIFCSS¬–, was formed to conceive this instrument. Following joint efforts that combined technological developments and methodological knowledge on South-South and Triangular Cooperation, SIDICSS was launched in September 2015.

Specifically, this system is an online data platform created to register, measure, and analyze all South-South and Triangular Cooperation initiatives carried out by the Ibero-American region; i.e., details on actions, projects, and programs that countries have implemented at some point between 2006 and 2023. In addition, SIDICSS is the only global system that allows users to register this data on an annual basis, regardless of whether they are cooperation providers or recipients (it is even possible to upload initiatives in which they have the role “both”).

The possibility to register from all three roles enables cross-checking: this means that all the countries that take part in an initiative are able to review and validate its information. This ensures data quality and legitimacy, and confers a unique value on the system itself, which has been recognized by various regional and international stakeholders.

Indeed, over the last few years, the Ibero-American experience in the design and conceptualization of this valuable tool has been presented to different institutions that are promoting global efforts to measure and monitor the contribution of SSC to development (initiatives such as TOSSD and that led by UNCTAD). SIDICSS has become a model information system in this framework, and it is considered a benchmark instrument in terms of reliable data and metrics.

SIDICSS is also a learning space and a platform for knowledge generation. Through the years, Ibero-American countries’ technical teams have been improving their skills in using the platform and ensuring higher data quality, making SIDICSS an example of horizontal collaboration.

SEGIB also relies on the information available in SIDICSS to carry out the different qualitative and quantitative analyses for the preparation of the Report on South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Ibero-America. Additionally, the contents of the Ibero-American South-South and Triangular Cooperation Data Platform, in which users can generate more personalized analyses, are also based on SIDICSS records.

In line with the changing context of international cooperation, SIDICSS is constantly evolving to effectively respond to Ibero-American SSC’s new needs and requirements, as this modality increases and diversifies. For example, in 2025, the system has been updated to enable the registration of scholarships (human capital training) as separate initiatives, making it possible to quantify their scope and specific contribution within the region’s South-South and Triangular Cooperation.

Lastly, Ibero-America is beginning to incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools into SIDICSS. These developments will be extremely useful in facilitating and streamlining data consolidation, and they will also improve the operation of this system’s various features, particularly of those related to searching and analyzing the information on South-South and Triangular Cooperation.

September 2025

***
Source: SEGIB based on Agencies and Directorates-General for Cooperation.