Equity in Research for Development
About the initiative
Research partnerships between Global North and Global South countries are crucial for achieving development goals – but their underlying power dynamics may not always work as they should. This has led to a surge in efforts to promote equity including new guidelines, funding requirements, and discussions, all aimed at increasing local involvement and reshaping power imbalances in development research.
To this end, Southern Voice is leading a project to understand and make development research more effective and equitable. Together with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a synthesis paper proposing a framework grounded in Southern priorities has been published. It explores the complexities and challenges of promoting equity in research and suggests ways to strengthen agency, align objectives, and identify spaces for transformative change within the research landscape.
In June 2024, a storytelling project was launched to unearth stories of successful North-South research partnerships.
ARTICLES
Three spaces of change for reorienting North-South research partnerships
This article was originally published by Integration and Implementation Insights on August 27th, 2024. What are some of the challenges that researchers from the Global South face when engaging in development research initiatives, and how can resetting the relationships that underpin North-South collaborations help? What are the pivotal areas where change is needed? Challenges The main concerns for many researchers in Global South-based institutions are around the deep-rooted structural challenges that underpin the research for development space, such as: funding dependence on external sources, insufficient national expenditures on research, lack of agency in the design and implementation of research projects, publication pressures built on problematic Global North “output”-driven demands, competing incentives for promoting and achieving policy uptake. Unsurprisingly, these systemic challenges further exacerbate existing inequalities within research partnerships that span the Global South and North. There are, however, encouraging signs of progress in addressing these inequalities, driven by the [...]
Redefining equitable Research Partnerships: a Southern led Action Agenda
Development research itself has inherent inequalities and requires systemic change. Although North-South partnerships are often preferred as a popular funding strategy for it, power imbalances often limit their potential.
This programme was made possible by the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). If you want to learn more about the initiative, or share any feedback, please email secretariat@southernvoice.org.
