2022 Marketplace
Matchmaking For Triangular Co-Operation Projects And Initiatives
As part of the 6th International Meeting on Triangular Co-operation, organised by the OECD and the Government of Portugal in Lisbon on 6 and 7 October 2022, the GPI hosted its third Marketplace.
The GPI Marketplace is a series of matchmaking workshops that provides a space for partners to present triangular co-operation ideas or challenges, identify additional partners, learn from the experiences of others and identify new triangular co-operation opportunities. It aims to promote interaction, acknowledging the event is the first step toward new partnerships and is not binding in any form. The GPI encourages participants to continue the conversation after the event and remains at members’ disposal to facilitate future connections.
In this edition, presenters were clustered in four groups:
1: Innovative triangular co-operation mechanisms
- Javier Gavilanes, ADELANTE Window, ADELANTE 2
- Benjamin Boeltzig, Regional Fund for Triangular Co-operation with Asia, GIZ – Germany
2: Capacity Development
- Daniel Castillo, PIFCSS’s Capacity Development Package, Ibero-American Programme for the Strengthening of South-South Cooperation (PIFCSS)
- Wofsi Yuri de Souza, Capacity Development in Management of South-South and Triangular Cooperation, Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC)
- Anita Amorim, E-course: Agenda 2030, the UN Reform and Decent Work with a South-South approach, International Labour Organization (ILO)
3: Strengthening the triangular co-operation systems
- Juan Fierro, building personal and institutional capacity for SS&TrC, Chilean International Co-operation Agency for Development (AGCID)
- Imad Alzuhairi and Shahd Salah, Resource Mapping Center, Palestinian International Cooperation Agency (PICA)
- Sara Hamouda, Strengthened governance and policy coherence for implementing the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 in Africa, African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Continental Secretariat
- Christof Kersting, co-financing to enhance the sustainable strengthening of TrC system, Regional Fund for Triangular Co-operation with LAC
4: Scaling up development solutions and Ideas through TrC
- Ama Brandford-Arthur, (i) Promoting cage aquaculture in the West African region (ProSCAWA) and (ii) Strengthening national Home-Grown School Feeding Programmes, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
- Courtney Anderson and Libby Swanepoel, increasing Australian support for triangular co- operation for international agriculture for development, University of Sunshine Coast Australia
1: Innovative triangular co-operation mechanisms
Javier Gavilanes, ADELANTE 2 – European Comission
ADELANTE 2 is an international development co-operation programme of the European Commission, managed by the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA), that aims to contribute to fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with more inclusive and sustainable development, through the promotion and use of Triangular Cooperation between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean, harnessing the full potential of the international partnerships inherent to this modality.
The ADELANTE Triangular Cooperation Window EU – Latin America and the Caribbean (ADELANTE Window) is a funding mechanism within the framework of ADELANTE 2 (with an overall indicative amount of 5,000,000 EUR), which aims to mobilise and channel EU resources towards partnerships between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean that correspond to the Triangular Cooperation modality.
ADELANTE 2 and the ADELANTE Window understand Triangular Cooperation as a ‘horizontal and partnership-centred modality, in which the complementary knowledge and experience of the different partners and their resources are harnessed to jointly create solutions that respond to development challenges.
The ADELANTE Window has an expected duration of four years, coordinated through announcements or ‘annual Windows’ from 2021 to 2024. Here you can learn more about ADELANTE Window 2021 and ADELANTE Window 2022. The ADELANTE Window 2023 is scheduled to open during the first quarter of next year.
The main challenge of the ADELANTE Window is to demonstrate the great potential of Triangular Cooperation to contribute effectively to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in middle income countries, under the approach of ‘development in transition.
To achieve this challenge, the ADELANTE Window promotes, from a demand-driven approach, the role of multi-stakeholder and multi-level Triangular Co-operation Partnerships for the execution of Triangular Co-operation Initiatives based on the exchange and triangulation of knowledge: harnessing the knowledge and expertise of the Partnership’s member entities, to generate new knowledge that can be applied to respond effectively to a development challenge.
Benjamin Boeltzig, GIZ – Germany
The Fund for Triangular Cooperation with Asia is commissioned by the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). It aims to build horizontal partnerships via triangular co-operation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. To further systematise TrC models with Asian partners, the Fund will issue a new Call for Proposals (CfP) in 2023 to collect TrC ideas and support the implementation of selected proposals via technical support and/or funding.
The Fund wants to facilitate development solutions that better fit the specific context of the requesting country and will support qualified proposals by channelling local resources via GIZ offices to implement a joint planning and management process. The Call is open to organisations from civil society, the business sector, academia, and the public sector from developing countries. The CfP is an opportunity for small-scale pilot measures of up to 9 months and a German contribution of max. EUR 80 000. The pilot approach has four basic principles:
- Commitment: All partners commit to equitable triangular consultation, decision-making and implementation processes.
- Partnership: All partners contribute, all partners learn, and all partners benefit.
- Shared Responsibilities: All partners share responsibility for managing resources.
- Achievement: All partners are committed to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs.
The Call is open for any sector, and proposals should outline the contribution to at least one SDG. After the successful implementation, pilot projects can be scaled-up to larger projects, with a longer implementation phase and larger financial contribution.
In the Marketplace, the Fund is searching for organisations from the Global South that want to be beneficiary partners in TrC pilots with Asian partners and Germany and for Asian organisations who plan to take the role of pivotal partner to contribute technical expertise and/or funding to the TrC. The proposal should clarify how the Pivotal Partner can bring in experience to solve the problems faced by the beneficiary partner and how Germany may facilitate this through technical support.
2: Capacity Development
Daniel Castillo, Ibero-American Programme for the Strengthening of South-South Cooperation (PIFCSS)
The Ibero-American Program for the Strengthening of South-South Cooperation (PIFCSS) originates in a mandate of the 17th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Santiago de Chile in 2007. Its Action Program was approved at the 18th Summit in San Salvador in November 2008, to “Strengthen and boost Horizontal South-South Cooperation, contributing to the quality and impact of its actions, as well as to broaden the scope of associated good practices”.
The implementation of Line of Action number 1, Education and Training, started in the first semester of 2010, including training activities on international co-operation, especially focused on South-South Cooperation, to contribute to capacity development in Ibero-American countries’ technical co-operation offices. This line of action also focused on implementing remote and face-to-face seminars, courses and workshops, complemented by the structured exchange of experiences in specific areas.
From 2010 to date, more than 60 activities have been carried out to strengthen key South-South and Triangular Co-operation stakeholders’ capacities. More than 1,100 Ibero-American officials have participated in these training courses. In addition, nearly 230 Ibero-American officials have developed their capacities by participating in the four editions of the “Diploma on International Cooperation with an emphasis on SSC” coordinated by PIFCSS together with the Ibero-American countries and different institutions of academia.
In the Marketplace, PIFCSS is willing to share these extensive experiences with partners from other regions.
Wofsi Yuri de Souza, Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC)
In 2014, the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), together with the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), launched the trilateral co-operation project “Capacity Development in Management of South-South and Triangular Cooperation”, aiming at developing the capacity of Southern practitioners engaging in technical co-operation, including South-South and triangular/trilateral co-operation. Since then, several capacity development initiatives have taken place, including online and in-person training and meetings.
In this Marketplace, ABC is willing to share the experience of previous activities of the project and promote the agenda of partnership (in view of SDG 17 accomplishment) to gather new participants and supporters for future editions.
Anita Amorim, International Labour Organization (ILO)
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in September 2015 by the 193 Member States of the United Nations, calls for efforts at all levels to improve the coherence of socio-economic and environmental policies. In this sense, a profound reform of the United Nations development system began in 2018 to strengthen its capacities in order to better support countries in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
The E-course: Agenda 2030, the UN Reform and Decent Work with a South-South approach introduces the 2030 Agenda, explain the reform of the United Nations development system, and highlight how South-South and Triangular Cooperation are part of these initiatives and key means of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition, the course will delve into how Decent Work and its four pillars (promoting employment, assuring rights at work, extending social protection, and promoting social dialogue) become crucial elements to achieve the multiple SDGs.
In the Marketplace, ILO will share details of the course and invites all institutions to use this platform for strengthening their capacity on South-South and Triangular Co-operation.
3: Strengthening the triangular co-operation systems
Juan Fierro, Chilean International Co-operation Agency for Development (AGCID)
During the Marketplace in 2019, Chile, Palestine and the Islamic Development Bank identified the opportunity for a new partnership. AGCID could share knowledge and experience with the Palestinian International Cooperation Agency (PICA), aiming to strengthen PICA’s human and organisational capacity to effectively implement South-South and Triangular Co-operation. After the event in 2019, partners had several follow-up meetings to identify the main challenges and negotiate the project. From 2020 to 2021, partners engaged in a thorough capacity needs assessment of the gaps. Experts from Chile and IsDB, in collaboration with their peers from Palestine, proposed solutions/activities to address these gaps. The project is still ongoing but has already provided evidence of its potential and impact.
Chile is willing to build on this experience, scale up this initiative, and share its expertise with new partners.
Ambassador Imad Alzuhairi and Shahd Salah, Palestinian International Cooperation Agency (PICA)
The Palestinian International Cooperation Agency (PICA), with the support of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and other technical agencies from the global South developed the project “Resource Mapping Center”. It aims at establishing an official guide for the State of Palestine to share and exchange Palestinian expertise with countries of the South. The centre enhances Palestine’s capacities and abilities to collaborate on an international scale. This project will identify distinguished experts and resource centres that can carry out innovative interventions that respond to real development constraints in aid of South-South and Triangular Co-operation initiatives. It will also develop a report on the profiles of the experts and resource centres to act as a comprehensive database accessible to local and international partners.
It serves as a guidebook that includes information on the pioneering Palestinian development experience in agriculture, education, higher education, health, information technology, local administration / local governance and social development. It also includes comprehensive information on knowledge resource centres and development solutions chosen to be a primary reference for the Islamic Development Bank, the countries of the global South, PICA and relevant Palestinian international institutions.
This project identifies the resource centres in Palestine by first identifying resource centre themes or priority areas through an overview of the country’s economic development, selecting via desk review the institutions and agencies that can perform the resource centre function within those priority areas. It then shortlists the resource centres based on a survey and scoring of the responses. The output of that process is this report, which lists and details these important resources.
In this Marketplace, PICA is willing to share this experience and support new partners in similar endeavours.
Sara Hamouda, African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Continental Secretariat
The slow progress toward the SDGs is a persistent challenge across Africa. High rates of poverty, unemployment and lack of gender equality and institutional capacities represent myriad drivers for unsustainable development. The APRM and OECD developed the capacity-building initiative “Strengthened governance and policy coherence for implementing the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 in Africa”. It fosters the continued and coherent implementation of African countries’ commitments to sustainable development at national, regional and international levels, and aims at identifying policy coherence settings adapted to the African context, which support effective, accountable and inclusive institutions for accelerating progress on the 2030 Agenda and the African Union’s (AU) Agenda 2063. These ensure more resilient, inclusive, equitable and sustainable pathways. Areas of focus include administration of an online SDGs skills assessment, policy coherence guidance for development co-operation, gender mainstreaming in public administration reforms, digital governance and youth policies.
We look for partners, especially consortiums of executive schools/ development institutes across Europe, to share good practices, solutions to project thematic areas, as well as financing.
Christof Kersting, German Regional Fund for Triangular Co-operation with Latin America and the Caribbean
Lack of resources and targeted joint action towards the strengthening and implementing of triangular cooperation systems is an ongoing challenge in advancing TrC as one modality of development cooperation.
In 2022, Germany (GIZ), the European Union (INTPA, Adelante II) together with Colombia (APC) and Brazil (ABC) – based on our experienced implementation for various partners – have joined forces to create additional opportunities for the implementation of TrC projects through two new co-financing mechanisms.
The Regional Fund, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has supported triangular cooperation in a long-term approach since 2011. Identifying innovative forms of financial cooperation, especially in times of crises and changing international context, is key for building lasting partnerships and networks that can support TrC systems on the national, regional, as well as the global level.
TrC is proven to be a modality that has important leveraging effects when it comes to resources – however, what other factors come into play for achieving systemic changes?
In the GPI marketplace, the German Regional Fund for TrC with Partners in LAC is going to share how the agreement of common criteria, formats and governance structures between the co-financing stakeholders can enhance the sustainable strengthening of TrC systems for all parties involved and would like to interest new partners in jointly establishing new financing mechanisms and scale-up the experiences with the EU, Brazil and Colombia.
4: Scaling up development solutions and Ideas through TrC
Ama Brandford-Arthur, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
The Promoting cage aquaculture in the West African region (ProSCAWA) is a project funded by the China-IFAD SSTC Facility and implemented in Ghana and Nigeria. It has leveraged the capacities of different stakeholders – a research institution (WorldFish); the private sector, and the local community to establish project sites for cage aquaculture in lagoons in the two countries. Since its inception in 2020, 36 cages have been assembled, and over 2.8 tons of tilapia fish have been nurtured and harvested. For this first cycle alone, the project has generated more than USD 10,00 in revenue for the local farmers and created employment opportunities for at least 250 people in the fish value chain; including women and youth in the local communities. With the increased protein intake, diets, especially for children, have improved, with a resultant fall in malnutrition levels.
Demands for replication and scaling up have been identified in neighbouring countries such as Benin and Liberia. To this end, IFAD is looking for partners to not only scale up the initiative in the West African region, but to expand it, adding new components such as locally-sourced bamboo cages to reduce costs of entry; and solar dryers to address post-harvest losses and ensure environmental sustainability. In this Marketplace, IFAD would be looking for partners to support the preparation of a costed proposal; and implementation of the scaled-up project in the indicated countries.
Ama Brandford-Arthur, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
The UN Rome-based Agencies (RBAs) – FAO, IFAD and WFP – with their shared mandate of ensuring food security for all people, joined forces to support one of the most impactful evidence-based interventions to positively transform global food systems: national Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programmes. The RBAs will facilitate South-South and Triangular Co-operation to strengthen the capacities of Kenya, Rwanda, the Philippines, Sao Tome e Principe and Senegal to design and implement nutrition-sensitive food value chains for their national HGSF programmes. Additional partners such as regional entities, International Financial Institutions and triangular partners are needed to help take this initiative off the ground. Resources will be critical to leverage knowledge and experience from the Global South in support of school feeding – the largest safety net in the world, according to the World Bank.
In this Marketplace, the RBAs would be looking to engage partners in financing options, perhaps together with other countries and agencies.
Courtney Anderson and Libby Swanepoel, University of Sunshine Coast Australia
International agriculture for development (A4D) practice and research is a powerful tool to improve food security and nutrition, provide livelihood opportunities, and address environmental challenges. Australia invests significantly in this space to achieve development outcomes and maintain political and diplomatic relationships. However, in Australia, these initiatives are typically delivered as bilateral North-South partnerships. With shifts occurring in the global development co-operation space, there is an opportunity to rethink how Australia delivers international A4D. Can triangular co-operation provide a better way of working together? Is it a model we should increase uptake of in Australia?
The research project “Understanding international agriculture for development collaborations and the partnership journey” aims to answer these questions. This research seeks to better understand this model in practice and what makes it successful. By increasing our understanding of what works, we may be able to inform development co-operation policy in Australia and provide real and practical insights for how we can work better together in more meaningful and inclusive ways for a better future for all.
The Marketplace is an opportunity for the research team to engage with (& learn from) those working in this space who may like to share their experiences and to connect with potential collaborators and individuals who may want to be involved in the upcoming research activities. We also welcome any feedback and advice on the research design from delegates. We can also share the work we’ve done with our Pacific partners that are triangular arrangements, plus share ideas for future projects and potential collaborators.
