Collaborative Platforms and Diversifying Partnerships of South-South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation: Middle Powers’ Struggles for Nation Branding

Various parts of the United Nations (UN) system have been part of the definition and implementation of technical cooperation among developing countries (TCDC), South-South cooperation (SSC) and triangular cooperation (TrC) over the years since the Buenos Aires Plan of Action of 1978 (BAPA). This paper will take the view that there is a perception that South-South and triangular cooperation have not achieved their potential to be transformative because accompanying changes needed for the modalities have not been pursued fully and thus these development modalities seemingly remain largely cosmetic. To respond to this perception, the authors will review what was expected of the United Nations development systems (UNDS) from Bandung to Buenos Aires and what has been achieved since noting the constraints of lack of data and measurement.

Although Türkiye’s history of getting involved in South -South cooperation dates back to 1955 when Bandung Conference was convened, its engagement in terms of international development cooperation started after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the early 1990s. With its development cooperation agency- TİKA became operational since 1992, Türkiye has been in close cooperation with the Global South in the field of development cooperation and gained momentum from 2002 onwards by reaching out its friendly hands to Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. In the last ten years, backed by its unique position of being both a donor and recipient, Türkiye has been very active in sharing its experience with the other Southern donors through implementing projects in the third countries. This paper intends first of all to give readers an overall idea about South-South and Triangular Cooperation, then proceed to elaborate on Turkish experience in this regard within the context of international development cooperation with examples and analysis, and eventually present Türkiye’s persistent endeavors to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals.

South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) is not a new issue in international development cooperation. South-South Cooperation itself has a long history and has contributed to the international development half a century. Indonesia itself actively involved in SSTC since the Asian-African Conference (AAC), in 1955, this conference became the starting point of a political movement of the joint development of third world countries to carry out international cooperation. Strengthening the role of Indonesia in SSTC significantly more noticeable with the inclusion of Indonesia as a G20 member, and the change of economic status Indonesia become "Middle Income Country", the position of Indonesia today not only as a recipient country but also as a provider. This research was to find out how Indonesia's membership in G20 could effect on Indonesia's role in South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) itself. Besides this paper aims to identify obstacles and challenges in implementing SSTC in Indonesia, as well as how the prospect of Indonesia after the Single Agency established within the framework of SSTC. Hopefully, this research can be beneficial to all parties, especially for students.

This chapter discusses the arrival of new aid modalities and instruments that have led to the presence of new participants, including some from the private sector (firms, individuals, and foundations). Of note are the more recent aspects of international development finance: South–South Cooperation (SSC), and corporate social responsibility (CSR), both of which affect the mobilization of resources, aid, and international financing to a certain degree. SSC is becoming the new fashionable subject in discussions around reform of the international development cooperation system, which should be expanded and strengthened through the exchange of experiences, through the creation of funds to cover the incremental costs of cooperation, and through the involvement of developed countries in SSC via triangular cooperation. CSR and socially responsible investment, meanwhile, combine commercial and economic interests with altruistic and social benefit criteria.

Triangular cooperation (TriCo) has existed as a cooperation mechanism for about 40 years. The first implicit reference was made to it in 1978 in the United Nations Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA). Reacting to the increased complexity of international development cooperation, and going beyond the North-South divide, TriCo aims to (i) foster relations between DAC donors and emerging economies, (ii) strengthen southern providers' capacity in international cooperation for development and (iii) promote international development. Since 1978, TriCo has become broader, more dynamic and flexible, has increased the number of projects and stakeholders involved, and incorporated different processes and approaches (e.g. South-South-South cooperation), including larger partnership strategies. It is now perceived of as key to the sharing of costs, responsibilities and solutions in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). TriCo was mentioned 73 times in the outcome document of the Second High-level UN Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA+40), held in Buenos Aires in March 2019. No longer was it a niche topic. It was afforded significance and broadly discussed in an internationally agreed document, thereby becoming a tool for development dialogue at policy level. fOfficial, verified and comparable data on TriCo are often lacking. Yet, many studies and reports shed light on this mechanism. This Briefing Paper is based on more than 30 in-depth interviews with stakeholders, and on analysis of documents and data. It makes three recommendations on ways to advance TriCo as a cooperation mechanism for all donors, and as a support mechanism for the 2030 Agenda: (1) avoid a 'one-size-fits-all' approach; (2) integrate triangular cooperation into existing practices of development cooperation, e.g. as a component of financial and technical projects; and (3) better connect with the debate around multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs), in which stakeholders from at least three different sectors work together through an organised, and long-term engagement.

In 2019, the Second High-Level UN Conference on South-South Cooperation was held, revitalizing South-South and triangular cooperation. It was intended to incorporate the principal advances in the international agenda on the effectiveness of aid, financing, and the 2030 Agenda, which is the framework of this article. From an analytical perspective, the aim is to identify the main challenges posed by the conference for the private sector in its connection with South-South and triangular cooperation in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals, which require multistakeholder approaches in a postpandemic context of international crisis. Three levels of challenges are identified: programmatic, operational, and general.

On 22 May 2019, the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD), in association with the University of South Africa (Unisa) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), co-hosted a dialogue titled “Appraising the Dynamics of South-South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation: Lessons beyond the BAPA+40 Conference”. The event reflected on the international development arena and global development agenda in the context of the United Nations (UN) Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 30 August to 12 September 1978, and the Second High-Level UN Conference on South-South Cooperation (SSC) also held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 20 to 22 March 2019, otherwise known as BAPA+40. The dialogue built on research drawn from the participation of the IGD at BAPA+40 and its engagement in a number of side events in Buenos Aires. The event brought together wide-ranging participants including scholars, academics, diplomats, government representatives, media and civil society.

Pay dirt! human health depends on soil health

Promoting “4 Per Thousand” and “Adapting African Agriculture” by south-south cooperation: Conservation agriculture and sustainable intensification

The “China–US Plus” model of development cooperation refers to the triangular pattern between China, the largest South–South Cooperation partner, the United States, the largest traditional donor, and recipient nations in the developing world. Since the beginning of the 21st century, China and the United States have strengthened policy coordination on international development, and carried out several pilot projects including the “China–US Plus Afghanistan” triangular cooperation on human resources, “China–US Plus Timor-Leste” triangular cooperation on agriculture and the “China–US Plus Africa” triangular cooperation on public health which have already yielded early harvests. However since 2018, the “China–US Plus” cooperation has encountered challenges from both the setbacks in the field of international development and the United States’ increasingly tougher policies toward China. At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has severely undermined global development achievements, it is of great significance for China and the United States to resume and strengthen triangular development cooperation. By urging Washington to restart the bilateral dialogue on development cooperation, encouraging Chinese and US civil society organizations to initiate non-traditional “China–US Plus” cooperation and strengthening coordination and connection with aid recipients, Beijing can play a constructive role to put the “China–US Plus” cooperation back on track as early as possible.

This chapter reviews the origins of South-South Cooperation (SSC) and briefly explains why Chinese, Indian, and Korean SSC partnerships represent a risky opportunity for African development when compared to TICAD. It then examines the importance of Japan’s International Cooperation Agency SSC (JICA) and Triangular Cooperation (TrC) projects in TICAD, focusing on two major projects in Mozambique: the ProSavana agriculture model and the Nacala Economic Development Corridor. It concludes that like Southern partnerships’ SSCs, JICA also has its own failures.

This special issue discusses, in-depth, the embedded conundrum of South-South and triangular cooperation (SSTC) whose frontiers are shifted from collaboration to contention within the United Nations (UN) development system and beyond. This introductory article provides the conceptual framework—the contentioncollaboration spectrum—that guides all the contributors and serves as the collective starting point for this project. The moving frontiers of SSTC reflect the shifting historic relationships between the global South and North as well as Southern partner countries. The framework enables the six articles of this special issue to investigate the paradoxical structure of contrasting dynamics of SSTC, which has always been exposed to historical transformations at multi-levels of analysis: global governance, regional engagements, middle power perspectives, and the UN development system and beyond.

This chapter discusses the experience of South Korea as a recipient country by reorganising existing research in the framework of bilateral and multilateral aid. The chapter also reflects on the dynamics of the South–South Cooperation (SSC) and the Triangular Cooperation (TrC), which have been widely discussed in recent international development cooperation policy and practice, when analysing South Korea’s experience as a donor country. The chapter explores how South Korea has become a donor country and the lessons that it has learned from its experience so far. In conclusion, the chapter provides recommendations for the future development of South Korea’s development assistance, especially in the context of inter-Korea development cooperation.

The United Nations refers to South-South cooperation as a broad framework of collaboration between developing countries in the Global South. It can take place on a bilateral, regional, or interregional basis. Its main purpose is to share knowledge, skills, resources and successful initiatives to meet development goals through concerted partnerships. Triangular cooperation implies the presence of traditional donor countries and organizations which facilitate South-South initiatives. Both forms of cooperation carry distinct benefits and differ from the more traditional North-South partnerships. This presentation will describe how, under the umbrella and support of ICMART, regional and interregional ART registries in the developing South, specifically the Latin American registry (REDLARA) and the African registry (ANARA), are contributing to the development, sustainability and cohesion in ART monitoring among the many countries they represent. With an innovative and standardized ART registry as a backbone, 35 countries in these two continents are now organized in regional reproductive networks increasing their recognition, visibility and impact, We shall demonstrate that this south-south and triangular cooperation, built upon a spirit of community and regional belonging is a strong facilitator of ART monitoring and transfer of technology to the developing South, and its ongoing expansion and reach. In Latin America, where REDLARA was established 30 years ago, local and expedited channels of communication have furthermore underpinned the training of embryologists, clinicians and other health care professionals through regional networks of professionals and certified training centers. This has resulted in enhanced ART self-reliance including the capability to implement new ART technologies and also monitor their availability, utilization, effectiveness and safety. Similar initiatives, strongly supported by REDLARA and ICMART, are starting to be implemented among African institutions via ANARA. Lastly, we shall demonstrate that our regional as well as global ART registries, together with other international organizations, have contributed to the dissemination of knowledge and serve as monitors and external quality controls now for 35 countries and almost 300 institutions in Latin America and Africa. Furthermore, given that both continents are progressively implementing the same cycle-based reporting system, new knowledge will be gained by examining regional and country similarities and differences.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development identifies triangular co-operation as a promising modality to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Triangular co-operation is thought mainly to happen in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This working paper shows that triangular co-operation is a modality that is also used in other regions and therefore dispels the myth that there is little triangular co-operation in the Middle East and North Africa. Arab countries and institutions engage in triangular co-operation, be it as pivotal, facilitating or beneficiary partner. Yet, their activities, approaches and solutions to tackle development challenges have not been sufficiently captured in research on the topic. Arab triangular co-operation activities are of relatively longer duration and have bigger budgets than general triangular co-operation trends; activities often follow clear guidelines and are integrated into broader development co-operation strategies – even if Arab providers do not always characterise their activities as ‘triangular’. To conclude, this working paper identifies the added value of triangular co-operation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and shows how triangular co-operation can promote further collaboration between the Arab providers and the members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), thus helping them to be more effective in supporting partner countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.