The North’s Growing Role in South–South Cooperation: keeping the foothold

Over the past 10 years Northern aid agencies have made a concerted effort to participate in South–South cooperation. This article analyses the key modes and motivations behind this growing engagement, looking specifically at three areas: multilateral platforms, triangular cooperation and knowledge production about South–South cooperation. Across all these efforts we perceive a concerted attempt to gain legitimacy by emphasising horizontality in the co-construction of knowledge about development. We argue that, within a context of shrinking Northern aid, this engagement is a way to harness South–South cooperation in order to preserve and expand Northern influence, both within and outside the field of development cooperation. This interpretation suggests the need to further examine the ‘bridging’ initiatives and mutual impact of intersection points between Northern aid and South–South cooperation.