How Do Non-DAC Actors Cooperate on Development?

This paper maps the landscape of non-DAC cooperation providers with the view of understanding how they engage in development cooperation. This is done in three parts. First, using qualitative information compiled primarily from country sources, we map the current cooperation priorities of 54 non-DAC providers that were identified as having formal institutions for managing outward development cooperation. Our data provides a snapshot of the volumes, modalities, and sectoral and regional priorities of non-DAC providers, highlighting differences across cooperation providers at different levels of income. Second, we complement our mapping with five short case studies that provide a brief history of how the cooperation programs of five provider countries—Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates—developed over time, with a focus on mapping changes in cooperation priorities and understanding the contexts that inform shifting trends. These cases highlight the influence of political and economic contexts on how countries cooperate—including where cooperation is targeted and how much is provided—as well as the specific international spaces for development dialogue through which they engage. Third, we develop a simple framework for identifying differences in the degree to which providers are willing to partner through shared spaces and activities for development, identifying four broad groups of non-DAC cooperation providers that differ in terms of their openness to multi-partner cooperation for development and capacity to engage. We measure “openness” using a novel composite indicator that captures participation in international forums, reporting development data to shared repositories, participation in triangular cooperation, and contributions to multilateral and regional institutions. Our analysis shows that most non-DAC providers show openness to multi-partner engagement for development, however, whether and how such openness can be transformed into more active cooperation—if not deeper collaboration—for development, including between DAC and non-DAC actors, remains to be seen.