Aid policy network calls for equal north-south research partnerships

The UK Collaborative on Development Sciences has said that funders should ensure their international-development research programmes are equal partnerships between the global north and the global south.

In its report Building Partnerships of Equals, published on 19 April, the group, which is a network of UK research and government bodies, said that funders could play an important role throughout the research “lifecycle” to build partnerships of equals.

International collaborations are increasingly viewed as important to successful development research and to address shared global challenges, the report said. However, collaborations do not ensure “equity in partnership” over cost of resources and time.