Trilateral Development Cooperation How to make it more

Trilateral Development Cooperation: How to make it more Effective? Global Partnership for Development Conference New Delhi 13 August 2008 Roger Nellist Ag Head, Growth and Investment Group Department for International Development, London

Trilateral Development Cooperation (Example: CUTS 7 Up Competition Policy Projects) “projects which are jointly planned, financed and carried out by an established donor country which is a member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (e. g. UK/DFID) and a partner country (e. g. 27 countries in Africa + Asia) together with a cooperating country which, although itself a recipient of development cooperation, has either started providing aid or has accumulated expertise (e. g. India and CUTS)” Page 2

Some other TDC-type arrangements supported by UK/DFID • Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF) • Co. ST and Me. TA transparency initiatives • Financial Sector Deepening Trust - Tanzania • (proposed) South-South Exchange Facility • UK-China-DRC co-operation on mitigating env/social impacts of Chinese road investments Page 3

Medicines Transparency Alliance (Me. TA) and Construction Sector Transparency (Co. ST) initiative* UK – DFID led the development and implementation of Me. TA and Co. ST 7 countries are running Me. TA pilots and 6 countries are running Co. ST pilots Local secretariats and multi-stakeholder groups in each pilot country – including research/academic institutes, NGOs, business and government – will access support from the International Me. TA Secretariat, WB and WHO. * Me. TA and Co. ST both build on the success of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. They promote transparency over key data related to the medicines and construction sectors, through multi-stakeholder ‘accountability’ processes so as to tackle inefficiency, corruption and promote effective development Page 4

TDC experience with CUTS’ 7 Up Competition Policy Research & Advocacy Projects • 4 projects, 27 countries (Africa + Asia), multi- • • • year, multi-purpose, multi-phase, multi-donor, multi-$million Programmed but flexible approach to delivery (all parties) Building on lesson-learning, and replicating successful model Attitude: appreciate differences, resolve, determination to deliver Long-term commitment to the agenda Networks, stakeholder buy-in, sustainability Delivers strong results (info, awareness, policy, CB, establishes useful linkages…. ) Page 5

Some delivery lessons learned from four CUTS 7 Up Projects • Holistic project design (inc: common Start, phased project Conferences, Evaluation) • Benefits/challenges of donor co-partnership (larger envelope, perspectives, relative V-A; conflicting emphases? , funding, reporting) • Importance and competence of country partners (research, advocacy, resources, networks) • Remuneration • Scope/consistency published project reports • Synthesise/disseminate main messages (inc Recommendations) • International Advisory Panel Page 6

Overall Reflections on Effective TDC (1) • Need to promote the ‘TDC model’ better, inc show-casing good examples (like CUTS) • Trilateral may be more difficult than bilateral, but can result in greater understanding, buy-in, and ownership? • Develop workable approach, not necessarily ‘ 1 st best’ (Issue: what is minimum ‘good enough’ standard? ) • Common interest, focused agenda Page 7

Overall Reflections on Effective TDC (2) • Standing of co-operating partner (Co. P) is crucial • Co. P’s independent linkages with international community is important • Co. P’s working relationship with donors is crucial, as with ‘local’ national partner • Co. P’s ‘local’ presence helps Page 8