Reimagining Development Through South-South Cooperation

We’re all crowded around the small meeting table at the Department of Local Infrastructure in Kathmandu, where Ugandan officials from the Ministry of Works and Transport are volleying questions and answers back and forth with their Nepalese counterparts from the Local Bridge Section, the Federal body responsible for trail bridge building. Topics range from the thickness of steel bars to why certain cement specifications are preferred over others to experiences with maintenance measures. There’s a palpable sense of curiosity from the Ugandan team to understand the foundations of Nepal’s success in trail bridge building.

Most questions are about Nepal’s four-decades-long journey, but the Ugandan officials also share reflections from their own emerging sector. One memorable moment is when the Ugandan delegation asks whether priority is given to the “comfort” of pedestrians when designing bridges. This takes everyone by surprise, since comfort rarely comes up during discussions in Nepal. But as we unpack what comfort means and realize that one aspect has to do with the perceptible swaying motion of the bridges, the conversation gets animated again and flows into human-centered design considerations and how to gain public buy-in from the communities we work alongside.

This exchange encapsulates the power and promise of South-South cooperation — an approach grounded in mutual learning among peers who not only share similar contexts and constraints, but also insights and a commitment to locally adapted, affordable and sustainable solutions.

Why South-South cooperation matters

At a time when official development assistance from traditional donors is shrinking and development financing is under strain, many governments across the Global South are urgently seeking locally adapted, cost-effective solutions. South-South cooperation offers a powerful alternative to the status quo, not by rejecting the North-South paradigm outright, but by rebalancing it.

It offers a way to learn from peers, not through the traditional lens of donors or recipients, but as equal partners who have lived with the same constraints — limited budgets, logistical difficulties, human resource shortages, an underdeveloped private sector and policy gaps.

For example, one of the main concerns of the Ugandan team was skepticism within their own institutions and among their colleagues towards lightweight cable bridges. These are different from the conventionally designed rigid and stiff bridges (e.g., concrete bridges) and are based on technologies that are not taught in conventional engineering curricula.

This is a story that is all too familiar to our team in Nepal. We faced similar resistance from government officials three decades ago when these alternative trail bridge designs were first introduced. Back then, Helvetas Nepal responded with evidence: We built pilot bridges, gathered data, demonstrated impact and durability, and developed trust in our designs as cost-effective solutions for the government to address the thousands of bridge requests pouring in from across the country. Over time, these bridges became national standards, embedded in engineering syllabi, and now serve as global references. Open access to these manuals is another good example of how public goods can be shared in the true spirit of South-South cooperation.

When TRAC4Change, our team of rural access experts, hosts delegates from other countries our purpose is not just to show them bridges. We want them to see and understand the ecosystem surrounding the bridges. This includes the engineers who refined the standards and constructed the bridges, the NGOs that mobilize local resources, community members who maintain them, government champions who helped institutionalize the technology, and the factories where steel parts are manufactured. We share with them the full spectrum of insights on what worked, the trade-offs, and what did not work in all aspects of the process: planning, implementation, manufacturing and maintenance. This is what South-South exchange is all about.

It is also what makes South-South Cooperation transformative. We’re not merely transferring technical know-how, which is the general North-South technology norm. We’re facilitating the intangible yet powerful exchange of experience, empathy and strategies. With the Uganda team, we spoke not just about design load or cable hoisting, but also about finding key advocates in the system, winning political will, working within resource-constrained ministries, building community acceptance, and building a pool of trail bridge professionals for future scaling. These are challenges that transcend geography. And that is what made the conversations authentic — and that will hopefully lead Uganda and other Global South countries to leapfrog and institutionalize what took Nepal decades to achieve. Our experience and South-South cooperation can serve as a shortcut, rather than a blueprint, to their success.

A shift in power and perspective

South-South cooperation is also a symbol of changing global power dynamics. It challenges the historic model of top-down, donor-led development that is well-intentioned, but not always aligned with the needs, realities or aspirations of recipient countries — nor is it sustainable.

South-South cooperation is a horizontal partnership rooted in contextual understanding and shared ownership. This change in mindset offers low- and middle-income countries the opportunity to be more than just recipients of aid; they can become proactive agents of their own development.

Much like localization, South-South cooperation reinforces the value of local ownership and direct capacity building, which are the guiding principles of TRAC4Change’s approach. Based in Kathmandu, our team is composed of seasoned Nepalese professionals who contributed to the construction of over 10,000 trail bridges across the country. With decades of hands-on experience of living and working in logistically challenging, resource-constrained and bureaucratic environments, our team brings engineering rigor and contextual understanding. But we don’t just copy/paste Nepal's bridges. This would not always be technically feasible, and it would also not fully address the needs of the country.

Rather, TRAC4Change tailors its cooperative approach to what countries identify as their needs — whether that’s piloting tractorable bridges for Laos, modifying foundations for porous rock in Indonesia, or designing bridges with higher clearance than the norm for large trucks in Afghanistan. In the process, we learn, too. Local colleagues have shaped our thinking on how to optimize steel part manufacturing, develop new and effective teaching materials, integrate the use of digital technology, and to consider how trail bridges fit with tourism goals.

Our support has extended to 11 countries in East Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, where we have been successful in equipping national and local governments, the private sector, and local communities to plan, design, construct and maintain over 300 trail bridges and to adapt manuals to local contexts. Our current goal is to support the building of 700 additional bridges over the next three years. Through our peer-to-peer and hands-on approach we seek to further strengthen and expand South-South cooperation to continue delivering affordable and climate-resilient solutions to end rural isolation.

As South-South exchanges gain momentum, the future also lies in triangular cooperation, where northern partners take on supportive roles, such as providing funding or specialized expertise, without overshadowing the leadership of Southern actors. If we are to build inclusive, resilient and equitable societies, then the Global South must be at the helm of its own development journey.