A Decade of Global Collaboration: ISSCAD at PKU Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Beijing, (ANTARA/PRNewswire) - When enrolling as a PhD student in the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD) at Peking University (PKU), Ismail Zabeeh had already served as a state minister in the Maldives. He decided to return to studies to learn from the experiences of several countries that have undergone rapid growth.
Zabeeh is not alone in taking this path. Eric Dodoo-Amoo, who leads the China Desk at Ghana’s Ministry of Finance, is a 2022 ISSCAD graduate. On 29 April 2026, both attended the ISSCAD 10th anniversary commemoration at the Yingjie Overseas Exchange Centre, PKU, alongside students and alumni from various countries in a forum discussing sustainable development in the Global South.
Founded in 2016, ISSCAD stems from an idea that is still rare in international development education programmes: developing countries possess unique knowledge and experiences that are worth studying systematically.
“The main innovation of ISSCAD lies in its approach to elevating the development experiences of China and other developing countries as learning materials,” said Justin Yifu Lin, Honorary Dean of ISSCAD and former Chief Economist of the World Bank.
The forum brought together government leaders, academics, and diplomats. PKU Council Chairman He Guangcai, along with senior officials from the China International Development Cooperation Agency, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Education, reaffirmed their commitment to making ISSCAD a platform for talent cultivation, policy research, and international exchange.
According to Arkebe Oqubay, former senior minister of Ethiopia and an expert on African industrial policy, the coming decade is a crucial period for deepening South-South cooperation. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to China, Abigail Shoniwa, noted that policymakers in her country have utilised insights gained from the ISSCAD programme.
The ISSCAD decade commemoration was also marked by a lighting ceremony and a flag parade involving students and alumni from more than 80 countries, symbolising the unity and shared aspirations of the Global South.
Over the past 10 years, ISSCAD has educated senior officials, diplomats, and academics from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific through PhD and master’s programmes that integrate academic research with policy practices in China.
Entering its second decade, Lin expressed hopes that ISSCAD will develop into a globally recognised centre for academic innovation and knowledge exchange among developing countries.