IDOS at the OECD international meeting on triangular cooperation in Lisbon

On 6 and 7 October 2022, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – together with the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs – invited stakeholders from around the world to their 6th international meeting on triangular cooperation in Lisbon. Following a virtual statement by Svenja Schulze, Germany’s Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Dr Sebastian Haug of IDOS joined the opening panel together with representatives from the African Union, the OECD and different member states to discuss the current state of triangular cooperation. Centring on the support for collaboration between developing countries, triangular cooperation schemes bring together Southern and Northern partners in joint attempts to deliver both development and partnership results and thus aim at bridging traditional divides in the international development landscape.

Based on insights stemming from the IDOS project on the United Nations development system within the Inter- and Transnational Cooperation research programme, Haug’s presentation focused on the diversity of existing approaches and the need to increase the reporting on triangular cooperation in order to build the evidence base required to evaluate the relevance of individual triangular cooperation initiatives. The results of the Lisbon meeting are set to inform ongoing coordination processes at the OECD and other international bodies.