The project, which kicked off last year and is due to last until the end of 2026, is an example of \u201ctrilateral cooperation.\u201d This is where governments, companies or NGOs from the Global North and Global South partner to deliver a development project in another Global South country. For some, that cooperation must be a form of development aid, such as a project to make agriculture more sustainable and so increase food security. For others, it has a broader meaning that could include building a highway to facilitate trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trilateral cooperation is \u201cvery important\u201d to the world\u2019s effort to tackle climate change, says Li Xin, a member of the Chinese expert team working with Kenyan tea farmers. He is a researcher with the Tea Research Institute in Hangzhou, part of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome developing countries urgently need help because they do not have finance or technologies\u201d, he stresses. \u201cWhat we really need is for some major countries to shoulder that responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teaming up for development<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Trilateral cooperation, also known as \u201ctriangular cooperation\u201d, is a concept closely linked with \u201cSouth-South cooperation\u201d. The latter, born out of the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Indonesia, sees developing countries working with each other to help one or both develop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the earliest examples of trilateral cooperation can be traced back to the 1950s, its definition, to a large degree, depends on who you ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some researchers say it refers strictly to development cooperation that sees a \u201cNorthern\u201d provider or multilateral organisation \u2013 or both \u2013 facilitate a South-South exchange. Others argue it has a much wider scope and also covers trade and business investments, such as Chinese companies teaming up with European partners to develop hydropower plants in Africa or roads<\/a> in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the first case, there are clear roles in the cooperation. The \u201cfacilitator\u201d is either from a developed country or an international organisation, such as a United Nations (UN) agency. The \u201cpivotal\u201d is a developing country partner. The \u201cbeneficiary\u201d receives the project. This is according<\/a> to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organisation whose members are largely developed countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese roles can be taken up by anyone, it doesn\u2019t have to be states. It can also be the private sector, civil society, academia, think-tanks, research institutes, and so on,\u201d says Nadine Piefer-S\u00f6yler, a policy analyst at the OECD\u2019s Development Co-operation Directorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201ccore\u201d is that the experience of the pivotal partner is close to what is requested by the beneficiary, Piefer-S\u00f6yler tells Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIdeally, all three partners learn and exchange so that it\u2019s not a unidirectional transfer of knowledge to one country by the two others; it is more like a circular exchange of experiences,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trilateral cooperation has received \u201csignificantly more attention\u201d since 2015 when the UN proposed the Sustainable Development Goals, according<\/a> to Yuan Xiaohui, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kenyan tea project is a demonstration of this. It is part of a wider collaborative effort between the governments of Germany, China and Kenya, as well as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The USD 2.5 million<\/a> initiative, partially funded by Germany, aims to enhance the resilience of Kenya\u2019s tea industry, which contributes to roughly a quarter<\/a> of the country\u2019s export earnings but is increasingly threatened by extreme weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China largely plays its role<\/a> through the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme, an initiative established in 2009 and supported by the Chinese government through a trust fund. China has donated USD 130 million<\/a> to the fund so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese tea researcher Li and his colleagues are helping Kenyan farmers build \u201ccarbon-neutral\u201d tea plantations, using techniques tried and tested in a pilot project in Lishui, in China\u2019s Zhejiang province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea was requested by the Kenyan side after several years of discussions, Li said. The main goal for his team is to design technical strategies that enable sustainable operations at Kenyan tea farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China prefers working with international organisations, such as the UN agencies, according to a paper<\/a> written by Zhang Chao, a researcher at the Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Such organisations are deemed to have \u201cgreater neutrality\u201d and \u201cless political sensitivity\u201d, the paper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But China has also worked directly with developed nations in the past. One example is a 2013-2017 agricultural technology transfer programme<\/a> between the UK and Chinese governments in Africa and Southeast Asia \u2013 a forerunner of trilateral cooperation between the two countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The UK Department for International Development provided GBP 10 million (about USD 16 million in 2013) to the programme, while China\u2019s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs gave \u201cin-kind support<\/a>\u201d by sending experts or other resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Malawi, the project focused on the production of tilapia, a type of freshwater fish. Chinese experts trained 100 local farmers<\/a> using a series of techniques, from how to construct ponds to how to improve feeding regimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChina had done an amazing job transforming its agriculture and developing technologies that were appropriate for smallholder farmers,\u201d James Keeley, who headed the programme\u2019s management office, tells Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The UK didn\u2019t have that, but it wanted to partner with Africa to develop those value chains, Keeley said. \u201cSo, it was much better to work with China to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some argue that trade, investments and construction contracts should be defined as \u201ctrilateral cooperation\u201d, as long as those projects comprise players from three or more countries. Others see this as a \u201cgrey area\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThird-party market cooperation<\/a>\u201d under China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), for example, is a form of trilateral cooperation, says Jiang Yang, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. This refers to economic cooperation between businesses from China and another country in a third market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another researcher, who requested anonymity, agrees with Jiang\u2019s view, pointing to a newly built highway<\/a> in Georgia as an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The road is part of the E60 European Transit Road linking Europe and Asia. Its construction is funded by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank, but the contracts went to five Chinese state-owned companies, according to news site Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The European Investment Bank describes the E60 as an extension<\/a> to a piece of key transport infrastructure launched by the EU to improve the bloc\u2019s connectivity: the Trans-European Transport Network. Chinese state-owned newspaper, People\u2019s Daily<\/a>, meanwhile, described the Georgian section of E60 as part of Beijing-Tbilisi cooperation under the BRI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite involving parties from the EU, China and Georgia, several experts tell Dialogue Earth the highway does not count as \u201ctrilateral cooperation\u201d. They consider the Chinese companies involved in it as \u201csubcontractors\u201d to an economic investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The diverging understanding of trilateral cooperation is caused by the fact that China \u2013 a major player in South-South Cooperation \u2013 defines development cooperation differently to developed countries, Jiang says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTraditional Western definitions for development cooperation are relatively narrow. They largely mean foreign aid,\u201d Jiang explains. \u201cBut many examples of China\u2019s development cooperation are investments by companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n China\u2019s cabinet, the State Council, described<\/a> the BRI as \u201can important platform\u201d for China\u2019s international development cooperation in a 2021 white paper. It said the country \u201chas developed aid-providing models with Chinese characteristics through long-term practice\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These models include not only voluntary services and humanitarian aid, but also the provision of \u201caid construction of whole projects\u201d, materials and technical transfer, among others, the State Council said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to China\u2019s Ministry of Commerce, \u201caid construction of whole projects\u201d means<\/a> Chinese partners conduct or supervise the construction, installation and production of equipment or infrastructure projects, financed by China\u2019s foreign aid. China completed 423 such projects between 2013 and 2018, the white paper states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPoverty trends have become worse after Covid; global governance is an issue where we have to work together; the green transition is a big challenge,\u201d says Mariella Di Ciommo, an associate director at the think-tank European Centre for Development Policy Management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She thinks it is necessary for Europe to be \u201cvery creative\u201d about how it collaborates with its partners on such issues, and calls for experimentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChina and the West have their respective advantages,\u201d Jiang says. \u201cChina is more experienced in providing technological support and establishing mutually beneficial business relationships; while the West has a tradition in carrying out poverty-alleviation, social and environmental projects. The two sides can complement each other,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In particular, China has a huge role to play in supporting the world\u2019s energy transition due to its technological and price advantages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2024, China launched the \u201cAfrica Solar Belt\u201d programme, supported by the World Resources Institute<\/a>. Beijing aims to provide GBP 10.7 million (USD 13.9 million) in public funds to supply 50,000 African households with solar home systems between 2024 and 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, shifting geopolitics have brought challenges to the horizon. Wealthy countries have been slashing their foreign aid budgets \u2013 often to prioritise their own interest, such as national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTea and tilapia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div>Beyond aid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Future prospects<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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