2023 Marketplace
Scaling-up triangular partnerships
As part of the 7th International Meeting on Triangular Co-operation, organised by the OECD and the Government of Portugal in Lisbon on 12 and 13 October 2023, the GPI hosted its fourth Marketplace.
The GPI Marketplace was a space for partners to share experiences, ideas or challenges related to triangular co-operation, gathering feedback from participants, and jointly reflecting on how to better deliver the modality.
In this edition, participants were divided into four thematic groups to have an open exchange of experiences and envisage collaboration to improve the delivery of triangular cooperation.
1: Addressing data gaps
- Presenter: Julia Benn, Head of Statistical Standards and Methods Unit, Development Co-operation Directorate, OECD
- Moderator and rapporteur: Martín Rivero, Coordinator, Area of Social Cohesion and South-South Cooperation (SSC), Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB)
2: Leveraging TrC for climate action
- Presenter: Ama Brandford-Arthur, Senior Partnership Officer, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
- Moderator: Livia Galita, DG INTPA, European Commission
- Rapporteur: Charlotte Foffano, Political Advisor, Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, France
3: Reducing poverty and inequality
- Presenter: Wofsi Yuri Guimarães de Souza, Coordinator-General of Technical Cooperation and Partnerships with Developed Countries, Brazilian Agency for Cooperation (ABC), Brazil
- Moderator: Helge Espe, Senior Adviser, Norwegian Agency for Exchange Cooperation (Norec), Norway
- Rapporteur: Jean-Pierre De Margerie, Deputy Director Programme and Policy – Humanitarian and Development Division, World Food Programme (WFP)
4: Supporting capacity development for partnerships
- Presenter: Rita Walraf, Deputy Head of Division for Policy issues of sectoral and bilateral development cooperation, emerging economies, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany
- Moderator: Jeffrey Heaton, Political Counsellor, Embassy of Canada to Portugal, Canada
- Rapporteur: Javier Gavilanes, Head of International Technical Assistance, ADELANTE 2
Summary of discussions
The discussion highlighted the importance of promoting an inclusive system for triangular co-operation data, such as the Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) Framework. While recognizing the political and technical challenges in using a common system, the group acknowledged the benefits of co-ordinating and building a shared methodology for data collection. Participants also addressed operational challenges, emphasizing the need for better co-ordination between programs and statistical teams to improve a triangular co-operation statistical system. Additionally, there are concerns about the burden that reporting to several systems imposes on stakeholders, the accessibility of software for data collection and the importance of making these systems more user-friendly. The lack of a common definition remains significant for some partners, leading to different interpretations even within the same country.
Participants highlighted the potential of triangular co-operation to catalyse resources and bridge the financial gap to achieve global goals. It can mobilize both the private and public sectors, as demonstrated by Ecuador’s experience with a conservation fund that involved a debt exchange with green private bondholders. This innovative approach could serve as a model for other countries. The group also identified some challenges for leveraging triangular co-operation for climate change, such as the need for better co-ordination of actions at national and regional levels, awareness of project timelines to address local beneficiaries’ immediate needs, and the lack of basic indicators and data for guiding climate change-related actions and monitoring.
Based on the experience of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC/MRE), participants raised the challenge of sustaining the success of development co-operation initiatives amidst national political changes. The key lies in anchoring projects in strong policies and institutionalizing them across various levels of governance. Participants also emphasized mutual learning, highlighting the importance of tailoring solutions to each country’s specific needs and ensuring recipient countries are active participants in the process, rather than passive recipients.
Building capacity is a moving target in an evolving world and development co-operation system. Participants agreed that it is fundamental to invest in capacity development, still working to raise awareness about the modality, and encouraging deep discussions of the bottlenecks to implement the modality. Some partners developed a community of practices of staff working on triangular co-operation. Triangular co-operation as a modality is usually not embedded at the different levels of the development system. To address this conceptual gap for both staff and partners, there is a need to engage in training programs and develop guidelines specific to triangular co-operation. From the participants’ experiences, the framework needs to be tailored from country to country.
