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In aid-recipient countries, partnerships between government, donors, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are now a central feature of many development projects and programs, but partnership arrangements in practice are rarely subjected to detailed scrutiny. A distinct discourse of partnership has been "produced" by the present configuration of foreign donors, NGOs, and government in the aquaculture sector in Bangladesh, which sometimes adds value by improving effectiveness and sometimes does not, merely reinforcing various agency interests. Drawing on data emerging from a process documentation of this project, a new model of active as opposed to dependent partnership is emerging. This model emphasizes the processes, experiences, and perceptions of partnership as well as the planned project outputs. It envisages a role for NGOs that goes beyond service delivery and informs and challenges existing public sector policy and practice.

Current research on transnational knowledge transfer has a strong bias toward (often conditionality-based) advice originating in the core OECD world and focuses nearly exclusively on the link from a source to a target of knowledge transfer. This contribution provides a broader and more nuanced picture by looking at the reverse logic of non-OECD countries proactively searching abroad for policy advice and assessing this advice based on their own requirements. Based on the role of conditionality and on the attitude of the recipient country toward cooperation with foreign sources of advice, five demand-side strategies in transnational policy-related knowledge transfer are distinguished, each of which is analyzed utilizing the example of health reform. The results highlight systematic differences in the attitude toward and employment of foreign advice.