by H.E. Ana Isabel Xavier and Ms. Dima Al-Khatib
As the world searches for more inclusive and effective ways to tackle shared challenges, Portugal and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) are making a compelling case for triangular cooperation. Together, they are calling on partners – from governments and development agencies to the private sector and civil society – to pool knowledge, resources, and innovation to drive sustainable development. Their message is simple yet powerful: in an era defined by complexity and interdependence, progress depends on partnerships built on trust, solidarity, and shared responsibility.
Triangular cooperation in action
In the mountains around Gorongosa National Park, coffee plants are helping to reverse deforestation and restore natural biodiversity, while also increasing income and food security for Gorongosa’s rural communities. Farmers, agriculture specialists, and researchers from three Portuguese-speaking countries meet regularly — not just to cultivate beans, but to cultivate trust and knowledge. The initiative is called Tricafé — a partnership between Mozambique, Brazil and Portugal. Rooted in the principles of mutual benefit, solidarity, and shared responsibility — the key tenets of South-South cooperation — Tricafé is a concrete example of how a new kind of international cooperation is taking root, shedding light on the vital role of trust in building meaningful and lasting partnerships.
As those involved like to say, “it is through unity that the project moves forward” (ABC: 2023). That unity has brought tangible results: over the past eight years, Tricafé has improved the lives of more than 1,000 farming families, directly or indirectly involved in the coffee value chain. In its second phase since 2024, the project has expanded its geographical focus to include Chimanimani National Park, part of the Transfrontier Conservation Area with Zimbabwe.
Under this initiative, Instituto Superior de Agronomia — a Portuguese University — through the Portuguese Cooperation Agency, Camões, I.P., provides financing, training, and links to European markets. Brazilian experts share their knowledge and best practices about tropical coffee production and cooperative management, while Mozambican farmers lead efforts to adapt sustainable agroforestry methods to their soil and climate. Together, they have trained hundreds of farmers, published research studies and practical guides, and enabled Gorongosa-grown coffee to reach regional and international markets, including Europe (Celebrating ‘A Nossa Gorongosa’).
In this partnership, each partner learns, invests, and shares technical and financial responsibility. That circular dynamic of shared knowledge, mutual respect and benefit and collective purpose is at the heart of triangular cooperation.
Rethinking cooperation in a changing world
For much of the past eight decades, international cooperation followed a familiar pattern: countries in the Global North provided aid to those in the Global South. While globalisation, a hallmark of this era, brought undeniable progress, it has also deepened power imbalances and widened inequalities — both within and between countries.
The world has changed, particularly since COVID-19. Many nations once labeled as “recipients” or “beneficiaries” have grown stronger, with governance built on stable institutions. At the same time, global challenges — from climate change to inequality, migration, and the rise of AI — demand solutions that are responsive, collaborative and grounded in the realities of each context.
This is where triangular cooperation comes in.
By bringing together two developing countries and a third partner — often another government and/or an international organisation — to co-design and implement initiatives, this modality bridges the gaps and fosters more peaceful and prosperous societies. Triangular cooperation is not a substitute for North-South or South-South cooperation; instead, it complements them, often enhancing their impact. It promotes multilateralism and it is built on multi-actor and multi-level partnerships, that are rooted in exchange and guided by solidarity. (SSC/19/3)
Anchored in the Portuguese Cooperation Strategy 2030 (ECP 2030), Portugal is reinforcing its commitment to triangular cooperation both at an institutional and operational level. This is translated through partnerships with like-minded countries from the Global South and the Global North, and through a growing engagement with the multilateral system, most notably with the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), which plays a pivotal role in advancing South-South and triangular cooperation as pathways to a more balanced cooperation among nations and faster progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Both Portugal and UNOSSC believe that, in the current context of pluri-crises and in rapid transformation, the present and the future depend on building trust, which triangular cooperation embodies at its best.
Translating policy commitments into practice
Portugal is investing in triangular cooperation in tangible ways.
Through the Portuguese Cooperation Agency Camões, I.P., the country has created the Portugal-Latin America-Africa Triangular Cooperation Fund, managed by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB). This mechanism supports initiatives where partners from these regions co-design and implement projects that respond to real, local needs.
Portugal also proudly supports the Triangular Cooperation Window under the United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation (UNFSSC). Through it, we are advancing a Blue Economy pilot project with Angola, Chile, and Jamaica — linking science, policy, and academia/research communities, and building resilience across regions.
These efforts position Portugal as a facilitator of interregional cooperation — strengthening ties between Latin America and Africa, drawing lessons from these partnerships, and helping to build the institutional foundations for a more collaborative and resilient world.
Why it matters and the road ahead
Development cooperation is at a pivotal moment.
In an increasingly complex cooperation landscape — what some describe as a “post-ODA world” — triangular cooperation has never been more relevant. It offers a practical and effective way forward, albeit not always quick or without its own challenges. By combining resources, technical expertise, and innovative approaches from multiple partners, this modality helps ensure that efforts from all partners involved achieve greater reach and impact.
Triangular cooperation also strengthens ownership: when countries collaboratively design and implement initiatives, they are more likely to sustain them.
In an era marked by fragmentation, triangular cooperation shows us that cooperation is not only about finance, but about trust, solidarity, and shared responsibility.
It is precisely within this spirit that Portugal and UNOSSC are working closely with other multilateral organizations, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and that Portugal is co-organizing, with the latter, the 9th International Meeting on Triangular Co-operation in Lisbon, 29-30 October.
?? Read more about the 9th International Meeting on Triangular Co-operation
?? Article – Camões, I.P.
?? Article – O Observador
Ana Isabel Xavier is Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Portugal.
Dima Al-Khatib is Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.
