Supporting the transition from ‘beneficiary’ to ‘pivotal’ role in South-South Triangular Cooperation: A case study of an agricultural-research-for-development project

Michael A. Rimmer; Silva Larson; Asda Laining; Haryanti; Somony Thay; Courtney Anderson; Janelle Allison

doi:10.1016/j.wdp.2026.100795

Back

Supporting the transition from ‘beneficiary’ to ‘pivotal’ role in South-South Triangular Cooperation: A case study of an agricultural-research-for-development project

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Supporting the transition from ‘beneficiary’ to ‘pivotal’ role in South-South Triangular Cooperation: A case study of an agricultural-research-for-development project

Michael A. Rimmer, Silva Larson, Asda Laining, Haryanti, Somony Thay, Courtney Anderson and Janelle Allison

World Development Perspectives, Vol.42, pp.1-9

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2026.100795

Files and links (2)

pdf

Supporting the transition from ‘beneficiary’ to ‘pivotal’ role in South-South593.47 kBDownload View

Published Version Open Access CC BY V4.0

url

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2026.100795View

Published Version Open CC BY V4.0

Abstract

Agricultural research-for-development (AR4D)

Aquaculture

Innovation cooperation

South-south triangular cooperation

SSTC

South-South Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) is increasingly gaining traction as an international development approach, providing an intermediate modality between North-South and South-South Cooperation approaches. Successful implementation of SSTC-based approaches requires former beneficiary partners to transition to the role of pivotal partners. Based on our own experience with an agricultural-research-for-development (AR4D) project involving Cambodia, Indonesia and Australia as the beneficiary, pivotal and facilitating partners respectively, we evaluated the needs to support the role of change of a former beneficiary partner (in this case, Indonesia) to take on the pivotal role in an SSTC modality. Our findings indicate that successful transition from the beneficiary to pivotal partner role requires substantial temporal and financial investment by both the pivotal and facilitating partners, and we list specific recommendations in relation to design, actor and context conditions. We conclude that, in addition to changes to project design and implementation, establishing institutional frameworks and systems to smoothly share knowledge and experience is an important next step in successfully adopting and scaling out SSTC approaches to AR4D projects, and that agencies involved in such projects should explicitly adapt their existing development and implementation approaches to incorporate these recommendations.

Details

Title: Supporting the transition from ‘beneficiary’ to ‘pivotal’ role in South-South Triangular Cooperation: A case study of an agricultural-research-for-development project
Authors: Michael A. Rimmer (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Silva Larson - University of the Sunshine Coast
Asda Laining - National Research and Innovation Agency
Haryanti - National Research and Innovation Agency
Somony Thay - Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Cambodia)
Courtney Anderson - University of the Sunshine Coast
Janelle Allison - University of Tasmania
Publication details: World Development Perspectives, Vol.42, pp.1-9
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1016/j.wdp.2026.100795
ISSN: 2452-2929
Data Availability: The data that has been used is confidential.
Grants: Accelerating the development of finfish mariculture in Cambodia through south-south research cooperation with Indonesia, FIS/2016/130, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (Australia, Canberra) - ACIAR
The value of using a South-South Triangular Cooperation approach in mariculture for Cambodia and Indonesia, FIS/2024/105, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (Australia, Canberra) - ACIAR
Evaluating processes and outcomes in south-south research collaboration – finfish mariculture development in Cambodia through cooperation with Indonesia, FIS/2018/115, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (Australia, Canberra) - ACIAR
Organisation Unit: School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991252399602621
Output Type: Journal article

Metrics

1 Record Views