Triangular Cooperation
What is it?
The GPI is a global initiative fostering the dynamic, innovative, and contemporary definition of triangular co-operation.
Triangular co-operation supports the goals and implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The modality is on the rise globally with an increase in the number of projects and budgets allocated to it. In the current development landscape, triangular co-operation is expanding its scope to include multi-stakeholder relationships between governments, international organisations, civil society, and the private sector. It provides comparative advantages by complementing North-South and South-South co-operation.
The GPI was created in 2016 to provide a platform for the exchange of experiences, challenges, and tools to work more effectively in triangular co-operation. Click here to learn more about the history of the GPI.
How Does it Work?
The GPI has a contemporary understanding of triangular co-operation, as a modality of its own that requires at least three roles being represented, with each potentially having more than one actor.
- The pivotal partner often has proven experience and shares its resources, knowledge and expertise through triangular co-operation. It can sometimes provide a bridge between South-South and North-South.
- The facilitating partner helps to connect countries and organisations to form a triangular partnership and gives financial and/or technical support to the collaboration.
- The beneficiary partner seeks support to tackle specific development challenge in line with their national development priorities and needs. It is responsible for ensuring that results are sustainable.
The Role of the GPI
The objective of the GPI is to bring together different development stakeholders to better situate triangular cooperation in the current development landscape, especially with the growing importance of South-South and triangular cooperation. Following the adoption of the BAPA+40 Outcome Document, where the GPI received an explicit mandate to implement the conclusions, the GPI continues to serve as a global platform for exchange and joint learning on triangular co-operation and aims to promote its Voluntary Guidelines for Effective Triangular Co-operation. Click here to read the GPI Concept Note.
our network
The core group includes the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Canada, Chile, the Ibero American Programme for the Strengthening of South-South Co-operation (PIFCSS), Islamic Development Bank, Japan, Mexico, Norway, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Since 2016, about 50 additional countries, international organisations, civil society organisations, representatives from the private sector, and research institutions have joined the GPI and contributed to its activities.
Our Work
The advocacy workstream promotes the work of the GPI, specifically the Voluntary Guidelines for Effective Triangular Co-operation and the GPI understanding of triangular co-operation that better reflects the contemporary landscape of development and the multi-stakeholder nature of this modality.
The operational workstream compiles existing operational guidelines and creates a space to share lessons in a consistent and consolidated manner. The operational workstream promotes the GPI Marketplace, and also picks up on some of the challenges identified by the analytical workstream and provides support to practitioners when designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating triangular co-operation projects.
The analytical workstream collects and analyses cases and identifies different models of triangular co-operation to extract lessons. This work helps to clarify the value-added of triangular co-operation, the comparative advantages of various partners involved and challenges encountered when implementing projects. Check the GPI Analytical publications:
Triangular Co-operation in the Era of the 2030 Agenda - Sharing Evidence and Stories from the Field (2019)
Leveraging triangular partnerships to respond to COVID-19 and build back better from the pandemic (2021)
