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Triangular Cooperation (TrC) is an innovative cooperation modality, which brings together developing and developed countries to deliver contextualized solutions to development challenges. TrC comes to be seen as an opportunity to create more effective partnerships to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as set out in the 2030 Agenda.
Within the Fund’s work range, TrC is defined as:
Germany, as a Facilitating Partner, works with an Asian emerging economy as a Pivotal Partner. Together, they mobilize knowledge, experience and resources to jointly support a developing country as a Beneficiary Partner to tackle specific development challenges on the ground.
Facilitating Partner
Germany serves as a facilitator to bring Pivotal Partner and Beneficiary Partner from different countries together to create collaboration. Through the technical and/or financial support from Germany, new partners will overcome initial barriers and are able to test the viability of TrC.
Pivotal Partner
The Pivotal Partner has gained the experience during its development course in solving a similar problem, which is now faced by the Beneficiary Partner. Like the Facilitating Partner, the Pivotal Partner should make expertise and/or financial resources available to the Beneficiary Partner in TrC.
Beneficiary Partner
The Beneficiary Partner should explicitly clarify its needs to tackle a development problem and formulate the TrC idea together with the other two partners. During TrC, Beneficiary Partner can provide logistical and thematic inputs. At the end of TrC, the sustainable result should be maintained in the country of the Beneficiary Partner.
Please note this way of dividing the roles is only a starting point. All partners in TrC should be open to learn from each other, think and act as both a provider and receiver of knowledge. With the respective development course of each partner, the roles are dynamic and may change over time, e.g., a Beneficiary Partner may become a Pivotal Partner in the future to provide more technical and/or financial inputs in TrC.
Pivotal Partner and Beneficiary Partner may utilize TrC to develop and consolidate cooperation relationships and networks across regions and continents. The Pivotal Partner will get technical and/or financial support from Germany to assume larger responsibility in the field of development cooperation and global public goods. The Beneficiary Partner may obtain technical expertise and knowledge of project management, planning, steering, coordination and methods of development cooperation from various partners. All three partners will improve their implementation of the 2030 Agenda by fostering peer-exchange and learning processes.Â
Germany has engaged in more than 150 TrC projects and is currently the largest provider of TrC in terms of number of projects, according to the OECD repository of TrC projects. As one of the most engaged actors in TrC worldwide, Germany wants to share its knowledge about this modality and support partners from different countries to strengthen this innovative form of international cooperation.
Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has recently looked through German development cooperation for TrC in the past decades and identified two overarching goals for the future engagement in TrC:
Triangular Cooperation (TrC) is an innovative cooperation modality, which brings together developing and developed countries to deliver contextualized solutions to development challenges. TrC comes to be seen as an opportunity to create more effective partnerships to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as set out in the 2030 Agenda.
Within the Fund’s work range, TrC is defined as:
Germany, as a Facilitating Partner, works with an Asian emerging economy as a Pivotal Partner. Together, they mobilize knowledge, experience and resources to jointly support a developing country as a Beneficiary Partner to tackle specific development challenges on the ground.
Facilitating Partner
Germany serves as a facilitator to bring Pivotal Partner and Beneficiary Partner from different countries together to create collaboration. Through the technical and/or financial support from Germany, new partners will overcome initial barriers and are able to test the viability of TrC.
Pivotal Partner
The Pivotal Partner has gained the experience during its development course in solving a similar problem, which is now faced by the Beneficiary Partner. Like the Facilitating Partner, the Pivotal Partner should make expertise and/or financial resources available to the Beneficiary Partner in TrC.
Beneficiary Partner
The Beneficiary Partner should explicitly clarify its needs to tackle a development problem and formulate the TrC idea together with the other two partners. During TrC, Beneficiary Partner can provide logistical and thematic inputs. At the end of TrC, the sustainable result should be maintained in the country of the Beneficiary Partner.
Please note this way of dividing the roles is only a starting point. All partners in TrC should be open to learn from each other, think and act as both a provider and receiver of knowledge. With the respective development course of each partner, the roles are dynamic and may change over time, e.g., a Beneficiary Partner may become a Pivotal Partner in the future to provide more technical and/or financial inputs in TrC.
Pivotal Partner and Beneficiary Partner may utilize TrC to develop and consolidate cooperation relationships and networks across regions and continents. The Pivotal Partner will get technical and/or financial support from Germany to assume larger responsibility in the field of development cooperation and global public goods. The Beneficiary Partner may obtain technical expertise and knowledge of project management, planning, steering, coordination and methods of development cooperation from various partners. All three partners will improve their implementation of the 2030 Agenda by fostering peer-exchange and learning processes.Â
Germany has engaged in more than 150 TrC projects and is currently the largest provider of TrC in terms of number of projects, according to the OECD repository of TrC projects. As one of the most engaged actors in TrC worldwide, Germany wants to share its knowledge about this modality and support partners from different countries to strengthen this innovative form of international cooperation.
Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has recently looked through German development cooperation for TrC in the past decades and identified two overarching goals for the future engagement in TrC:
The Fund seeks to receive proposals for TrC pilot measures, which are jointly prepared by a prospective Pivotal Partner from certain Asian countries (currently open to China and India) and a Beneficiary Partner from developing countries. The Fund welcomes proposals from multiple stakeholders including civil society, private sector, academia, public sector and international organisations.
To ensure the qualification of participating organisations and a fair evaluation, the Fund may conduct commercial or legal eligibility checks of individual organisations for some proposals.
A TrC pilot is a test run of the modality of TrC and is usually completed in a short period of time. A TrC project usually has a larger volume in terms of funding, resource and time. The Call for Proposal is seeking TrC pilot proposals with a up to 9-month implementation period. The proposal should explicitly describe how the TrC pilot could be scaled up into a TrC project, if possible.
Please check Call for Proposal and submit your completed proposal documents to tricofundasia@giz.de.
The Fund runs Call for Proposal for certain Asian countries regularly. Announcement of the specific country calls will be released on the Fund’s website. Please check Call for Proposal for more information.
Every Call for Proposal has a submission period of six weeks.
If your organisation would like to assume the role of Pivotal Partner, then
If your organisation would like to assume the role of Beneficiary Partner, then
Proposals can be presented either by a Pivotal Partner or a Beneficiary Partner. However, it is required that both Pivotal Partner and Beneficiary Partner endorse the proposal and express their wills to collaborate for the proposed TrC pilot. This can be expressed by quoting or forwarding a documentation of communication between the two partners.
The Fund has no capacity to support the matchmaking for individual partners. Each proposal should have already a clear goal and role setting, which encourages all partners to take responsibility for the outcomes and the development impact. The Fund won’t accept a placeholder for either Pivotal partner or Beneficiary partner in a proposal.
However, after the evaluation, the Fund will support qualified proposals by channeling local resources via GIZ offices to implement a joint planning and management process.
Yes. Accompanying the respective country calls, the Fund will offer a broad range of capacity development measures. These will include a training on proposal writing. Concrete dates and registration opportunities will be announced on the Fund’s website.
Upon receiving a proposal, the Fund will immediately issue an acknowledgement of receipt. Each proposal will be evaluated based on the Fund’s criteria approved by the Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and German availability of technical capacity and funding.
With the consent of BMZ, a decision on whether to pursue the project idea in principle is usually made within 4 weeks of the submission deadline. You will then directly receive the result from the Fund.
The Fund will facilitate the endorsement on the German side. Pivotal and Beneficiary Partners will be responsible for the communication with their respective government stakeholders.
Any sector may be addressed; however, proposals need to pursue objectives within the framework of the 2030 Agenda. Proposals should outline the contribution to at least one SDG.
The proposal should clarify, in which ways the Pivotal Partner can bring in experience to solve the problems faced by the Beneficiary Partner and how Germany may facilitate this through technical support.
Yes, it is possible to submit more than one proposal per organisation for one Call for Proposal.
The working language of the Fund is English.
Personal data will be handled in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP). Data will be deleted in the specified timeframes.
The Fund seeks to receive proposals for TrC pilot measures, which are jointly prepared by a prospective Pivotal Partner from certain Asian countries (currently open to China and India) and a Beneficiary Partner from developing countries. The Fund welcomes proposals from multiple stakeholders including civil society, private sector, academia, public sector and international organisations.
To ensure the qualification of participating organisations and a fair evaluation, the Fund may conduct commercial or legal eligibility checks of individual organisations for some proposals.
A TrC pilot is a test run of the modality of TrC and is usually completed in a short period of time. A TrC project usually has a larger volume in terms of funding, resource and time. The Call for Proposal is seeking TrC pilot proposals with a up to 9-month implementation period. The proposal should explicitly describe how the TrC pilot could be scaled up into a TrC project, if possible.
Please check Call for Proposal and submit your completed proposal documents to tricofundasia@giz.de.
The Fund runs Call for Proposal for certain Asian countries regularly. Announcement of the specific country calls will be released on the Fund’s website. Please check Call for Proposal for more information.
Every Call for Proposal has a submission period of six weeks.
If your organisation would like to assume the role of Pivotal Partner, then
If your organisation would like to assume the role of Beneficiary Partner, then
Proposals can be presented either by a Pivotal Partner or a Beneficiary Partner. However, it is required that both Pivotal Partner and Beneficiary Partner endorse the proposal and express their wills to collaborate for the proposed TrC pilot. This can be expressed by quoting or forwarding a documentation of communication between the two partners.
The Fund has no capacity to support the matchmaking for individual partners. Each proposal should have already a clear goal and role setting, which encourages all partners to take responsibility for the outcomes and the development impact. The Fund won’t accept a placeholder for either Pivotal partner or Beneficiary partner in a proposal.
However, after the evaluation, the Fund will support qualified proposals by channeling local resources via GIZ offices to implement a joint planning and management process.
Yes. Accompanying the respective country calls, the Fund will offer a broad range of capacity development measures. These will include a training on proposal writing. Concrete dates and registration opportunities will be announced on the Fund’s website.
Upon receiving a proposal, the Fund will immediately issue an acknowledgement of receipt. Each proposal will be evaluated based on the Fund’s criteria approved by the Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and German availability of technical capacity and funding.
With the consent of BMZ, a decision on whether to pursue the project idea in principle is usually made within 4 weeks of the submission deadline. You will then directly receive the result from the Fund.
The Fund will facilitate the endorsement on the German side. Pivotal and Beneficiary Partners will be responsible for the communication with their respective government stakeholders.
Any sector may be addressed; however, proposals need to pursue objectives within the framework of the 2030 Agenda. Proposals should outline the contribution to at least one SDG.
The proposal should clarify, in which ways the Pivotal Partner can bring in experience to solve the problems faced by the Beneficiary Partner and how Germany may facilitate this through technical support.
Yes, it is possible to submit more than one proposal per organisation for one Call for Proposal.
The working language of the Fund is English.
Personal data will be handled in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP). Data will be deleted in the specified timeframes.
In a TrC pilot, both Facilitating Partner and Pivotal Partner need to contribute technical and/or financial inputs to support the implementation. Each partner needs to allocate and ensure funding by itself to cover respective contributions. This means that there won’t be funding flow from the Facilitating Partner to the Pivotal Partner, and vice versa.Â
The proposal must specify the planned contribution of both the Facilitating Partner and the Pivotal Partner. It should be accompanied by a transparent and well-structured budget estimation. The overall principle is value for money. Furthermore, the pilot should be completed within nine months, we ask you to kindly consider this condition when planning the budget.
While equivalent contribution from the Facilitating Partner and the Pivotal Partner is not strictly required for TrC pilots, those proposals that can reach parity of contributions from these two partners are preferentially evaluated.
For prospective Pivotal Partner, if in-kind contribution is included in your input to the TrC pilot, calculation of such contribution needs to be outlined clearly and presented in monetary format, reflecting local standards.
For qualified proposal, the Fund will further concretize the German contribution and reconvene all partners to reach a final joint budget before the implementation.
Detailed financial management needs to be discussed and agreed upon by all partners at the beginning of a TrC pilot. As the TrC pilot will be designed on the premise that each partner covers own contribution, hence the Fund has no responsibility for handling monetary resources on behalf of the Pivotal Partner, vice versa.
The Beneficiary Partner does not necessarily need to contribute for any direct cost and shall not charge for any of their service or facility. They should offer their existing expertise and infrastructure for the successful implementation of a TrC pilot.
In a TrC pilot, both Facilitating Partner and Pivotal Partner need to contribute technical and/or financial inputs to support the implementation. Each partner needs to allocate and ensure funding by itself to cover respective contributions. This means that there won’t be funding flow from the Facilitating Partner to the Pivotal Partner, and vice versa.Â
The proposal must specify the planned contribution of both the Facilitating Partner and the Pivotal Partner. It should be accompanied by a transparent and well-structured budget estimation. The overall principle is value for money. Furthermore, the pilot should be completed within nine months, we ask you to kindly consider this condition when planning the budget.
While equivalent contribution from the Facilitating Partner and the Pivotal Partner is not strictly required for TrC pilots, those proposals that can reach parity of contributions from these two partners are preferentially evaluated.
For prospective Pivotal Partner, if in-kind contribution is included in your input to the TrC pilot, calculation of such contribution needs to be outlined clearly and presented in monetary format, reflecting local standards.
For qualified proposal, the Fund will further concretize the German contribution and reconvene all partners to reach a final joint budget before the implementation.
Detailed financial management needs to be discussed and agreed upon by all partners at the beginning of a TrC pilot. As the TrC pilot will be designed on the premise that each partner covers own contribution, hence the Fund has no responsibility for handling monetary resources on behalf of the Pivotal Partner, vice versa.
The Beneficiary Partner does not necessarily need to contribute for any direct cost and shall not charge for any of their service or facility. They should offer their existing expertise and infrastructure for the successful implementation of a TrC pilot.
In the case of force majeure (e.g., pandemic, travel ban and civil war), all partners involved should reconvene as soon as possible to discuss the impacts for the project and potential mitigation strategies. The final decision needs to be agreed upon by the Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and other political representatives that involved in this TrC pilot from countries of Pivotal Partner and Beneficiary Partner.
The formalities will be decided upon on a case-by-case review. MoUs to support the implementation of the pilots are encouraged, although not obligatory.
Scalability of TrC is highly valued by German development cooperation. If you plan to upgrade a TrC pilot to a TrC project, you should explicitly lay out detailed work plan in the proposal.
Well-performed pilots may receive continued support to be upgraded to larger TrC projects – whereby equivalency of contributions from the Facilitating Partner and the Pivotal Partner will be strictly required
Yes. Progress reports and final reports will need to be submitted according to agreed formats and deadlines. Reporting is a joint effort of all partners and aligns with the monitoring and evaluation requirements of the Fund.
In the case of force majeure (e.g., pandemic, travel ban and civil war), all partners involved should reconvene as soon as possible to discuss the impacts for the project and potential mitigation strategies. The final decision needs to be agreed upon by the Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and other political representatives that involved in this TrC pilot from countries of Pivotal Partner and Beneficiary Partner.
The formalities will be decided upon on a case-by-case review. MoUs to support the implementation of the pilots are encouraged, although not obligatory.
Scalability of TrC is highly valued by German development cooperation. If you plan to upgrade a TrC pilot to a TrC project, you should explicitly lay out detailed work plan in the proposal.
Well-performed pilots may receive continued support to be upgraded to larger TrC projects – whereby equivalency of contributions from the Facilitating Partner and the Pivotal Partner will be strictly required
Yes. Progress reports and final reports will need to be submitted according to agreed formats and deadlines. Reporting is a joint effort of all partners and aligns with the monitoring and evaluation requirements of the Fund.