Geography and cooperation: crossing pathways The paper suggests three paths for analyzing the links between geography and development cooperation. The first two refer to proper geographical topics: local development (with the connected issues of multiscalarity and re-scaling of territorial processes) and proximity (in fact, plural would better match the reality, given different kinds of proximity in action). The third is rather a concern for a kind of territorial competence which is requested for working in a given territory whose development is at stake. Finally, these concepts are briefly tested and verified within the domain of a specific case study, related to development cooperation with the Kel Tamasheq in northern Mali. Keywords: Geography, development cooperation.