Portugal promotes triangular co-operation through advocacy and partnerships

Challenge

Portugal sees triangular co-operation as a way to move beyond traditional donor-recipient relations and foster horizontal partnerships for sharing knowledge and experiences. While support for triangular co-operation is growing, it still remains a relatively minor mode of development co-operation compared to traditional bilateral and multilateral co-operation partnerships. Building on Portugal’s self-perception as a bridge builder between Europe, Africa and Latin America, it is promoting the potential of triangular co-operation internationally and in its own co-operation.

Approach

Since 2012 Portugal has been increasing its emphasis on triangular co-operation, especially following the adoption of its Strategic Concept for Development Co-operation 2014-2020. Portugal’s approach combines international advocacy, strategic engagement with multilateral institutions, and partnerships with pivotal countries who share their experience, knowledge and resources.

• Advocating for triangular co-operation at an international level, by ensuring consistent high-level participation and strong political engagement and regularly convening international conferences and events, in partnership with the OECD, the UN, and others.

• Supporting dialogue, sharing experiences and developing joint policy positions among countries at different stages of development. Portuguese ministries engage substantively on numerous policy areas – especially in the Community of Portuguese-speaking countries (CPLP) – but also in the Ibero-American Conference (CIB). In this engagement, partners appreciate Portugal’s efforts to encourage active participation and leadership by other members. Portugal is also promoting closer collaboration between CPLP and CIB.

• Increasing Portugal’s own triangular co-operation by actively engaging potential pivotal partners in Latin America and the Mediterranean, having concluded memoranda of understanding (MoU) with 10 such partners.

Results

• The recognition of triangular co-operation, supported by Portugal’s high-quality international advocacy, for instance at BAPA+40, as well as in OECD and EU fora. By regularly convening partners, Portugal has also helped to create an international community of practice, whose exchanges have deepened the mutual understanding of triangular co-operation and fostered new partnerships.

• Dialogue and learning between partners through Portugal’s active participation in CPLP. Members shared technical advice on their COVID-19 responses and co-ordinated policy positions, for example at the World Water Forum, on climate at COP 26, and on child labour. Under Portugal’s leadership, two co-operation projects on civil engineering and statistics are bringing together the full CPLP membership.

• Projects which demonstrate the added value of triangular co-operation, despite the current limited portfolio. For example, a sustainable coffee production project is combining complementary expertise from partners in Portugal, Brazil and Mozambique, who all also mobilise financial resources, and create synergies with bilateral projects. Portugal has launched an initiative on global citizenship education in the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) – an area in which it has strong expertise. However, by October 2021 several of Portugal’s MoUs had not yet evolved into concrete partnerships and the number of projects does not match Portugal’s ambition.