Country platforms are emerging as an important institutional approach through which governments seek to align climate, nature and development priorities, coordinate public and private investment, and unlock action at scale. Yet much of the evidence, guidance and analysis on this emerging concept reflect external priorities and models, rather than the lived realities of the countries seeking to develop platforms. Without stronger Southern research capacity and South-South learning, country platforms risk reproducing past failures: limited national ownership, weak fiscal integration and project pipelines that privilege what is easiest to finance rather than what is most transformative.

The Southern Country Platform Research Network responds directly to this gap. Its core premise is simple but powerful: country platforms will only succeed if they are shaped by Southern evidence, Southern institutions and Southern priorities — supported, not supplanted, by global partners.

The Southern Country Platform Research Network is a long-term knowledge and capability infrastructure, supporting practitioners to design and implement country platforms that are nationally owned, finance-ready and socially inclusive. It operates through a demand-driven, co-production model built around three mutually reinforcing pillars.

Southern Country Platform Research Network Map

Engaging practitioners to define the research agenda

Building a Southern research network with global reach

Co-producing knowledge that travels

1) Engaging practitioners to define the research agenda

The starting point is the needs of country practitioners. Ministries of finance and planning, sector ministries, national development banks and country-platform coordinating units are consulted through structured demand assessments to identify bottlenecks and priority questions.

2) Building a Southern research network with global reach

The network brings together a distributed community of Global South research institutions, working collaboratively to generate and share evidence on country platforms. These institutions lead country case studies and thematic analyses, collaborate across regions and jointly test emerging findings. Global partners contribute methodological support, peer review and international convening, while Southern institutions lead the research agenda, country engagement and authorship.

3) Co-producing knowledge that travels

Research outputs are demand-driven and co-produced across the network, including:

  • Case studies on country platform design and implementation
  • Thematic papers on fiscal integration, debt distress, private finance mobilization, governance, and just transitions
  • Practitioner-oriented policy briefs and guidance notes
  • Learning exchanges linking researchers and practitioners

Outputs will be made openly available through the Country Platforms Hub Knowledge Platform and other partner channels.

Research Partners

Coordinating Partners

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