Technical Cooperation (Assistance) Digital Bridge to Ukraine -- Program

According to OECD and European Commission [1] technical cooperation (TC) and technical assistance (TA) has recorded many satisfactory experiences, providing valuable support to the design and implementation of development policies of partner countries, and notably, to the implementation of projects, however, the TC and TA have often been criticised as being supply-driven, expensive, poorly planned and integrated, and failing to promote country ownership.

In the effort to eliminate existing weaknesses of technical cooperation and technical assistance, IBC Bridge Canada has developed and implemented both an innovative mobile technology-empowered digital model for international technical cooperation development and the information technology platform – IBC Digital Bridge Platform that implements the model and brings technical cooperation development to the next evolutionary level...

The purpose of using the model and the platform for technical cooperation development is:

• moving away from supply-driven and costly on-site approaches, and instead,
• reinforcing innovative need-driven technology empowered mobile and systematic approach that create trust and mutual understanding among the technical assistance process participants, and makes technical cooperation (assistance):
  • need-driven: technical cooperation takes place in response to country-beneficiary’s priorities;
  • owned by beneficiary: with high level of involvement on part of the country-beneficiary, since the initiative comes from them;
  • conducive to pooling technical assistance funds: sponsors pool their funds for selected technical cooperation initiative(s) to improve coordination and encourage country leadership;
  • clear about roles and results expected: technical cooperation beneficiaries and sponsors work together starting submission of Technical Cooperation Initiative to sponsor;
  • supportive to building mutual trust based on information exchange and face-to-face interaction using the platform and shared understanding of what is the foundation of most successful Technical Cooperation pooling exercises (including trust among sponsors, not just between sponsors and countries-beneficiaries);
  • contextually better analyzed: in-depth analysis of national contexts and underlying capacity constraints can be identified early and mitigated on project initiation phase;
  • cost-effective: most consulting meetings and part of trainings are being suggested for delivery online to save on per-diem, travel and printing of materials; 
  • technology empowered to achieve greater coordination: platform built-in workflow and private messaging system foster  coordination among sponsors and beneficiaries to better integrate technical cooperation process with relevant national development strategies; 
  • supportive to small, incremental, and context-sensitive initiatives that stand a better chance of success than comprehensive ones.