Partnering with the United Nations for policy transfer: Brazil and China as triangular cooperation providers

In current international policy flows, China and Brazil hold particularly privileged places. They are hubs from where development-related policies – including ideas, instruments and programmes – have been travelling from and circulating through. Both countries have been investing in operationalising their development knowledge and transferring development policy both within their regions and beyond. Different parts of the United Nations (UN) system, in turn, have tried to expand their support for policy transfer, notably in collaboration with large Southern member states. In order to examine the role of policy transfer in triangular cooperation with multilateral bodies, this paper examines how China and Brazil have partnered with UN entities on policy transfer through triangular cooperation. By shedding light on expanding empirical dynamics that have largely remained under the radar of scholarly attention, this paper contributes to debates about the role of multilateral bodies in international development cooperation, on the one hand, and how policies deemed as successful travel within (and potentially beyond) the South, on the other. Both aspects are key for identifying ways to address major crises – from pandemics to climate change – that currently challenge the theory and practice of international cooperation.