How has south-south cooperation, together with triangular cooperation, contributed to sustainable capacity development? How can this relation be more effective?

These are some of the questions addressed during the Cairo Workshop on Capacity Development (28-29 March 2011), hosted and organized by the Government of Egypt with the support of the OECD and JICA. A workshop that brought together more than sixty senior practitioners and policymakers, with a balanced representation from the South and the North, to discuss the “what and how” of moving from capacity development (CD) concepts to their implementation.

 It could be stated that capacity development and south-south cooperation in the form of horizontal partnerships are twin processes, with great opportunities to reinforce and nourish each other. The on-going analytical work of the TT-SSC shows that there is a great space to make the best of the complementary strengths of developing countries, although their analysis and systematization is still limited.

During the past 3 years, the Task Team on South-South Cooperation has engaged in a broad process of generating evidence and good practices in South-South and triangular Cooperation as a tool for capacity development and horizontal partnerships. This work consists of 27 case studies -conducted in alliance with 17 academic institutions from developing countries-, and more than 110 case stories drafted by practitioners from which the Task Team will outline a set of good practices and policy recommendations to be presented (1) to policy makers gathered at the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and (2) to the G20 leaders in the context of the G20 Knowledge Sharing Pillar. Along this process, we have had the opportunity to exchange ideas, share lessons learned and collaborate with a broad community of governments and organizations working on such a challenging subject.

There are some of the preliminary findings of this intense analytical work, that so far offer important insights on how South-South and triangular cooperation contribute to capacity development:

Development solutions, including capacity development, which have been generated and validated in one developing country, can be highly relevant and adaptable to other countries. The early evidence indicates that mutual learning around solutions and models can be especially effective in pressing development challenges such as climate change, poverty reduction and regional global goods. It is key to understand that the most effective form of South-South cooperation entails a process of mutual enrichment, where lessons and solutions are flowing in both directions (sharing and learning).

Overall, South-South and triangular knowledge exchange enrich the menu of options of partnering for capacity development, bringing in a fresh perspective, which might enrich and guide the current discussions on North-South technical assistance toward better adaptability, higher efficiency and more sustainability. In several regions, countries from the South have become important sources of development cooperation while some traditional donor withdraw and/or significantly reduce their ODA contributions.

South-South and triangular cooperation tends to be efficient due to its high degree of adaptability in many levels (cultural, language, level of development, institutional context, etc.), which is especially useful to promote regional and sub-regional development agendas.

Strong impact of South-South and triangular cooperation on capacity development seems to relate directly to the possibility to involve actual change-makers and “champions”. Many SS exchanges generate strong incentives motivating and inspiring institutional changes, especially in fragile and difficult environments, where institutions still depend very much on the leadership of individuals with the adequate skill and located in the right place.

South-South knowledge exchange is often inspired and intends, implicitly or explicitly, to build horizontal partnerships based on equity, trust, mutual benefit and long-term relations. Apart from the peer-to-peer culture, the aspect of long-term relations is key to ensure ownership and to foster the sustainability and quality of results and impact generated in terms of capacity development.

Looking at the challenges, the main shortcomings relate to the yet limited capacity to analyse results and measure impact, to contrast and validate these findings. The momentum for peer-to-peer learning is very strong, but requires more systemic investments in its modalities and mechanisms.  In sum, a key challenge for South-South cooperation can be identified in the difficulty to set up sound and efficient in-country and cross-country systems for transparency, managing for development results and accountability.

The Cairo Workshop closed with a lively consensus document where all participants committed to “invest more in learning and knowledge networks, focusing on mutual learning through partnerships with middle-income countries, learning from evaluation, and South-South”. The TT-SSC will continue to contribute to this endeavor by generating, sharing and disseminating knowledge while also developing capacity in the countries and organizations involved along the process.

Read the official workshop report