Assessing the incorporation of knowledge-sharing in the management of south-south cooperation projects

Abstract

Knowledge sharing has, throughout the past few decades, is widely recognized as an essential means through which Global South countries foster South-South Cooperation - SSC. This research explores the conceptual and contextual issues to the notion of knowledge sharing within bilateral projects implemented by Colombia with Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Curaçao and Cote D’Ivoire. How is knowledge-sharing included in the legal framework? How is it institutionalized by international cooperation agencies and bureaus? and how is it managed throughout the project cycle? In this sense, a comprehensive literature review reveals that knowledge-sharing incorporation into south-south cooperation has not been attained in Global South’s project management at its various stages (planning, implementation, and M&E). Therefore, a completely qualitative case study methodology was used to get relevant data from technical assistance providers and requesters at the coordination and technical levels about their understanding of knowledge-sharing applied to SSC projects. Given the primary data generated during the fieldwork (virtually conducted due to COVID-19 restrictions), this study concludes that despite there is no conceptual standardization of knowledge-sharing in the global south countries analyzed, it is implicit throughout all stages of the project management. In this scenario, it was found that the international cooperation agencies and bureaus are key actors whose function lies beyond the bilateral coordination, but given its position and performance, they are responsible for enabling the conditions that limit or expand the benefits of knowledge-sharing within a SSC project. This study recommends that there be a paradigmatic shift about the role of international cooperation agencies and bureaus beyond project coordination towards ensuring knowledge- based environments that contributes to a better incorporation of knowledge-sharing in SSC.