Fair partnerships are mutually beneficial

We are still far from complete fairness in research partnerships between the global North and South. The North also dictates research on inclusive global development. Peter Taylor and Irene Agyepong, pioneers in this field, aim to break old patterns.

Text: Marc van Dijk

'Some researchers look like paratroopers," said Ghanaian physician and researcher Irene Agyepong. "They are invading a developing country and are hunting for data. Once they have their desired data, they are gone, just as soon as they arrived. That is downright sad: they exploit a weakness. Scientists in Sub-Saharan Africa should say, "No, that's not how we work. If you come to us with a question, we wish to be full research partners that aim at an equal collaboration. And our collaboration should be mutually beneficial.'

Eqaluity between researchers from the global North and South should speak for itself in 2020, but the so-called "collaboration" often follows old patterns. The North pays and determines, and has insufficient eye and ear for the quality and insights of local researchers in poorer countries, let alone for the situation in which they have to do their research.

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Irene Agyepong

Nevertheless, this is changing rapidly, according to a report by Rethinking Research Collaborative, a collective of various research institutes. The authors write, 'Collaboration is increasingly being encouraged within the international development research industry, with initiatives such as the UK Government's Global Challenges Research Fund and the Newton Fund promoting the idea of fair and equal partnership.'

Within NWO there has been the Merian Fund, inspired by Newton Fund, for the past two years. The COHRED Research Fairness Iniative (which is also supported by NWO-WOTRO Science for Global Development) and TRUST's Global Code of Conduct are ambitious, innovative initiatives that stimulate this development and perpetuate it internationally. The English research leader Peter Tayor (1960), authority in this field, is therefore optimistic. He also refers to a guide to research collaboration developed in Canada.

Hoe beter en hoe gelijkwaardiger het partnerschap, hoe waardevoller de onderzoeksresultaten waarschijnlijk zullen zijn

Peter Taylor

For Taylor, preventing 'scientific parachutist behaviour' has been central to everything he does for years. He is research director of the British Institute of Development Studies (IDS), and was previously Director of Strategic Development at the International Development Research Center (IDRC) in Canada. There he led a programme for inclusive economies and was deputy director of the Think Tank Initiative, a ten-year programme that supports more than forty organisations in South Africa, Asia and Latin America that research development policies.

'The better and more equal the partnership, the more valuable the research results are likely to be,' said Taylor. 'The reverse also applies: unfortunately I know examples of collaborations that were not well put together, so that the results were also disappointing.'

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Taylor collaborates with the Ghanaian doctor and researcher Irene Agyepong (1960), who is currently working with a grant from IDRC. Agyepong is a Public Health Physician at Dodowa Health Research Center, which is part of the Development Directorate of the Ghanaian Health Service. Agyepong started her career as a doctor, but gradually went on to focus more on research, and is now a spider in the web of numerous research programmes - for example, into the question of how childbirth can become medically safer. She constantly works with partners from the North, such as the Dutch UMC (Utrecht Medical Center). Due to the circumstances, as a researcher she is half an activist, she says herself. With every research in which she participates, she tries to ensure that some Ghanaian PhD students are trained.

How unfair is the playing field for the global North and South in science?

Agyepong: 'Very unfair. In 2015, we conducted a survey of the amount of scientific publications in the field of health and policy in West Africa. It then turned out that in some particularly vulnerable West African countries, ninety percent of the publications came from the North. In the stronger countries, such as Ghana, the majority of the publications were done by Ghanaian scientists. Though the percentage is shifting, there is still a gap.'

What can the North do to bridge that gap and make the playing field fairer?

Taylor: 'The most important key is capacity building. Collaborations should always be aimed at enabling training, coaching and mutual learning processes. The North must be able to build on their strong contextual understanding of Southern researchers in any collaboration, and ensure that researchers in the South can continue their professional careers and development as researchers.'

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Agyepong: 'Just educating people is not enough. Sometimes young Ghanaian scientists are very well trained and then leave the country. Because of the benefits and wages - it's just not worth it. Think of a young scientist who can earn 200 dollars a month in Ghana, realising that elsewhere in the world he can get 5,000 dollars a month. That makes it extremely difficult for me to say to such a person: don't leave, stay here! Which does not prevent me from saying this over and over again. Capacity building must be more than just providing training paths. It is the investment in people, but also in buildings, institutions, the context. We take a holistic approach, in which we also train scientists to manage projects. If you have a good scientist embedded in a bad environment, he will leave.'

Taylor: 'That is why we have developed methods in the Think Tank Initiative to allow southern partners to continue building their capacity. This starts, for example, with more effective negotiation. Researchers in Africa, Latin America and Asia often find this very difficult, because they are not experienced in it. They say "yes" too soon when they are asked something - they appear not to include a lot of costs in their quotation. We taught them in workshops to do this better. For the Northern partners, this means that they must be open to fair negotiations. They must be willing to invest in long-term relationships and pay what the research actually costs.'

Do southern countries also invest in science?

Agyepong: 'Far too little, and when they do it, the physical sciences get priority. They are the mechanisms of poverty at the micro and macro levels. Poor people are focused on survival, they don't think about the long term. The same is true at the macro level: vulnerable countries are so focused on survival that they say: why should we invest in scientific research? It is quite a requirement: you have to give people money, and it is only ten, fifteen years later that you see that it - perhaps - has an effect. Poverty is a huge threat to science. You see this problem throughout Sub Saharan Africa.'

Does the North have the right attitude towards Southern research partners?

Taylor: 'It is often unavoidable that the Northern partner will pay most, if not all. The sensible northern parties manage to say, "okay, we have the money, but that doesn't mean we decide and determine everything unilaterally. We do this in a way that is inclusive and participatory. So, from the start of the collaboration, we build in structures that ensure that we make joint decisions." This is quite possible and it is happening a lot. But it does not happen automatically, it requires a conscious attitude.'

Engaged excellence means that the high quality and transformative impact of our work depends on our collaboration

Peter Taylor

This attitude is often described by the term "engaged excellence". What does that mean to you?

Taylor: 'For IDS - and for me - engaged excellence means that the high quality and transformative impact of our work depends on working with governments and parliaments, international NGOs and local civil society, communities and citizens.' All this with the aim of achieving positive change, strategically underpinned by research and knowledge. It comprises four pillars:

  • rigorous, robust evidence;
  • the co-construction of knowledge with actors in society;
  • mobilising evidence for action; and building;
  • work through sustainable partnerships.

'This means that we must always take power relations into account in research, education and communication.'

Taylor lists a series of examples of working through those pillars: "Research based on first-hand experiences of refugees in Uganda, personal reports on gender relations in Nairobi, research on the different perspectives of environmental and land management groups in Finland and Canada."

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Agyepong: 'My experience with the North-South relationship over the years has been overwhelmingly positive, I feel privileged. I continuously work with parties and donors in the North who understand what we are asking for. They agree and support capacity building. As a result, I have been able to raise many scientists of a new generation.'

The Netherlands plays a special role in this, says Agyepong. "I work a lot with the UMC and they are inventive there; they even managed to fund an extra PhD student, in addition to what NWO gave us. Such cooperation grows over the years. There must be time for that, and trust that that investment of time will lead to something.'

In their own words, Agyepong has experienced the 'best and worst things'. In the bad category: Researchers from the North who assumed that we knew nothing and that knowledge and wisdom are preserved for rich countries. That is not constructive. We must strengthen the capacity of the southern countries, including the South-South networks that are growing. So that the South can better defend itself against researchers with the parachute mentality.'

We must strengthen the capacity of the southern countries, including the South-South networks that are growing

Irene Agyepong

Taylor: "Inclusive global development is at a crucial turning point. It has a lot going for it in addressing major global challenges, many of which are highly complex, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, there are high expectations: development research and education should contribute to significant impacts and transformations in human lives. The Sustainable Development Goals emphasise the need for universal development, which is fair in itself and helps overcome the many imbalances in North-South relations."

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