Two countries. Two soils. One framework.
A cooperation programme couples two ecosystems that do not share a rulebook. OSE reads both on the same measured framework — enforcement regime, urban modules, complementarities — so ministers, agencies and field teams on both sides refer to one picture, before, during and after the programme.
Why every bilateral programme hits the same wall.
Two data systems, two truths
Each country measures its ecosystem its own way. Comparison ends in arguments rather than decisions.
Same apparatus, different soil
The programme transplants instruments that worked at home. Whether they work abroad depends on the partner's enforcement regime — not on the instruments.
No accountability layer
Once launched, there is no neutral, longitudinal yardstick to say whether the programme catalysed anything.
The COTEE reading, on both sides.
- 1
Read the soil before funding the seed
Measure rule enforcement and the credibility of quality signals (revocable accreditation) before adding programmes. Support is inert as a main effect and powerful as a complement of the institutional regime.
- 2
Find the modules
The module is urban: 68.4% of the variance in ecosystem composition sits within countries. Work at the level of the city basin, not the national envelope.
- 3
Couple, do not stack
Fund pathways, not portals. Where rules are enforced, the visibility of interfaces (one-stop shops, portals) turns negative (−0.46); write sunset clauses into every one-stop shop.
- 4
Institutionalise what grew
Measure longitudinally, then turn the modules that produced outcomes into durable institutions — accreditation that can be revoked, reporting that outlives the mandate.
Plus the cross-lenses: Aligned Gender Index and women-focused support density, and — for the African side — the AEEI position on Stam’s 10 elements.
Three results a corridor should start from.
Morocco, one side of a corridor, in one paragraph.
Enforcement −0.20, built support 31%, base endowment 63%, 21% of actors created by the state or donors, 8 city modules; expected creation 1.5 → 4 per 1,000 working-age adults if rules were enforced. The programme's first question is the soil.
Ecosystem advantage is a governance achievement, not an endowment.
63 countries sit above the line their endowment predicts. Cooperation that improves governance architecture — not just funding — can move a partner ecosystem, and the move is measurable.
Complementarities tell you what to couple across the corridor.
Testing and prototyping co-occur ×20.7, sales and market access ×11.5, team and mentoring ×9. Where one side has the first and the other the second, the programme has its content.
Sources: COTEE replication on the OSE database (WGI 2023, World Bank outcomes); Guéneau et al. (2026), Journal of Business Venturing Insights; Aligned Gender Index (World Bank Gender Statistics); AEEI (africa.ecosystem.build). Measures are computed live in OSE Expert.
Corridors we work on.
Other corridors on request — the observatory covers 150+ countries on the same framework.
France ↔ Morocco
Long-standing economic ties and diaspora flows. Shared diagnostics for French agencies and Moroccan ministries.
EU ↔ Africa
One comparable framework across the 54 African countries — the reference for AU–EU joint programmes.
Qatar ↔ France & MENA
Capability mapping with HEC Paris in Doha and MCIT Qatar for the diversification agenda and education partnerships.
Gulf ↔ Africa
Gulf sovereign funds and DFIs investing into African ecosystems — the network reading shows where capital compounds.
Maghreb ↔ West Africa
South–South cooperation: Moroccan and West African actors increasingly partnering across the corridor.
Mediterranean cooperation
UfM, 5+5, AECID and AICS programmes aimed at the Maghreb and MENA — a single benchmark across participants.
What a bilateral engagement produces.
Joint country diagnostic
One report covering both countries on the same framework: enforcement regime, profile, urban modules, layer gaps, complementarities. FR/EN.
Live shared dashboard
Multi-seat access on OSE Expert scoped to both countries — ministry A and ministry B read the same data.
Complementarity matching
Where one ecosystem's strength (a layer, a boost, a community) fills the other's gap — the material of a programme that adds instead of duplicating.
Quarterly briefings
Four pages for the bilateral steering committee: key measures, what changed, what to watch.
Steering committee participation
On request, OSE sits on the programme's steering committee as an independent technical observer.
For embassies and attachés specifically, see OSE for embassies; for the mandate formats, see Advisory.
Scoping a bilateral programme?
We co-design the joint diagnostic with you and your counterpart ministry or DFI. The scoping call is free.