​During 14 – 15 March 2023, Mrs. Arunee Hiam, Deputy Director-General, on behalf of the Director-General of Thailand International Agency (TICA), attended the 2023 Development Cooperation Forum (DCF), which was organised by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States of America.

The DCF is the international platform for UN Member States and stakeholders from the private sector and civil society to collectively shape the direction of international development cooperation. This year’s theme of the DCF focuses on the human dimension of development to address current global challenges such as climate change adaptation and social protection.

​Upon the invitation by the President of the Economic and Social Commission of the United Nations, the Deputy Director-General joined the Interactive Panel on Building Momentum for Effective Social Protection. The list of distinguished panelists included the Executive President of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, the Special Representative to the United Nations and Director of the International Labour Organisation Office for the United Nations, the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Moldova, the Minister for Women, Family and Child Protection of Senegal, the Executive Director of the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation (AUCI), the Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations and Vice President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations, and the Assistant Secretary of National Economic Development Authority of Philippines.

The Deputy Director-General of TICA presented Thailand’s policy that puts human at the centre of development. Especially in today’s world, where mankind faces challenges such as global pandemic, climate change, and manmade conflicts, Thailand designed development policies in 4 security areas namely, (1) food security, (2) job security, (3) health security, and (4) environmental and energy security, based on the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) to realise sustainable development.

The Deputy Director-General also gave concrete and successful examples of social protection under development cooperation based on Thailand’s own SEP approach – including Universal Health Coverage (UHC) capacity building project with Kenya, cooperation with Thailand’s neighboring countries to combat cross-border Particulate Matter (P.M. 2.5) problem, and workers’ skills development along the borders of Thailand and her neighboring countries. The Deputy Director-General also invited all development partners to work with TICA through South-South, North-South-South, and South-South-South development cooperation modalities.