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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Bern Open Repository and Information System... Partnerships in Development-oriented Research Lessons Learnt and Challenges Ahead Bishnu Raj Upreti Anne B. Zimmermann Berhanu Debele Guéladio Cissé With contributions from the following NCCR North-South Regional Coordinators: Nazgulmira Arynova, Manuel De la Fuente, Boniface P. Kiteme, Thammarat Koottatep, Astrid Wallner Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North–South, South Asia Coordination Office 2012 Citation: Upreti BR, Zimmermann AB, Berhanu Debele, Cissé G; with contributions from the NCCR North-South Regional Coordinators. 2012. Partnerships in Development-oriented Research: Lessons Learnt and Challenges Ahead. Kathmandu, Nepal: NCCR North- South, South Asia Coordination Office Copyright © 2012 by the authors and the NCCR North-South Published by: NCCR North-South, South Asia Coordination Office, Kathmandu, Nepal; [email protected] ISBN: 978-9937-8174-4-8 Printed by: Heidel Press Pvt. Ltd. Kathmandu, Nepal Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this book are entirely those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the publishers, or the organisations with which the authors are affiliated. Cover photo: Part of the NCCR North-South’s transdisciplinary approach to problem-solving: researchers, Nepal’s tourism minister, a member of the donor agency, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) representative, tourism entrepreneurs, and local community members discuss how to promote rural tourism opportunities in a sustainable manner in a village in the Western Region of Nepal, within the context of a small, research-based partnership action project (PAMS). [Photo courtesy of Regional Coordination Office (RCO) South Asia] FOREWORD This book is essentially the product of South-South cooperation. As such, it is an ideal reflection of what the NCCR North-South set out to achieve when it brought together researchers from diverse regions in the global South at its inception a decade ago. The NCCR North-South sought answers to problems of global change; to help find them it aimed at creating research structures able to deal with the complexity of issues involved in determining successful development policy. Achieving a sustainable improvement in development requires more than just strong will and financial capacity; it also requires knowledge and skills. Knowledge which is both adaptive and solution-oriented can only be developed in cooperation with those it is meant to benefit, making it indispensable to develop research and institutional capacity in the global South. Has it worked? Has creating a network of research scientists from Bangkok to Abidjan, from Kathmandu to La Paz, from Bishkek to Addis Abeba and Nanyuki brought about the desired results? Not only were the regions geographically diverse: so were the topics of research. Geographers, medical doctors, political scientists, and environmental engineers from the South worked, side-by- side, with their counterparts in Switzerland to tackle the issues obstructing development in countries of the South. To find out whether research partnerships as practiced by the NCCR North-South were indeed living up to expectations, the eight Regional Coordinators of Asia, Africa, and South America conducted a study. This book presents the results. By and large, it confirms the value of research partnerships as the most viable and cost-effective way of developing research and institutional capacity in the global South. But it also seeks to be self-critical, making suggestions for improvement where necessary. i Research partnerships promote exchange rather than transfer. Mutual learning – in the South as well as the North – is par for the course. Research partnerships are in perfect accord with the goal of establishing a knowledge society in the global South. While the NCCR North-South as a structure will cease to exist in 2013, we have no doubt that the network of professional and personal relationships built up within it will continue to thrive, in one way or another. Over the years it has become commonplace within the NCCR North-South to see researchers from Tajikistan exchanging information with Ethiopian colleagues on sustainable land management, to combat the erosion common to both countries. Or for researchers from Vietnam and Cameroon – based in Hanoi and Yaoundé – to jointly develop a practical assessment tool for use in planning sustainable sanitation strategies. It is our sincere hope that support for research partnerships as presented here will continue, and even increase, in future. Working towards developing knowledge societies in the global South will lead us towards the goal of self-determined sustainable development. Hans Hurni and Urs Wiesmann Directors NCCR North-South Thomas Breu Coordinator NCCR North-South Tina Hirschbuehl Communications Officer NCCR North-South ii Acknowledgements The idea of examining partnership dynamics emerged during an international training course in Vientiane (Laos) in 2006; it was subsequently discussed within the Regional Coordinators’ Forum (RCF) and with the NCCR North-South Management. The Board of Directors (BoD) of the NCCR North-South supported the idea and encouraged the RCF to further develop the idea. It took several months to translate the original idea into a research proposal. The RCF formed a Core Group (CG) to which it delegated the steering role in developing the proposal further. The draft was finalised in Addis Ababa in early 2008. This draft proposal was discussed among the Regional Coordinators and accepted at the following RCF meeting in Costa Rica in 2008. The proposal, entitled “Exploring Partnership Dynamics” (EPD), was submitted to the BoD of the NCCR North-South and the SDC for funding. After approval the research project was formally launched in January 2008. This book is the collective outcome of three years of effort by the RCF, the Core Group, and associated staffs. North–South research partnership dynamics were assessed by a study team covering nine regions on four continents, coordinated by Prof. Kailash Nath Pyakuryal. Their work is gratefully acknowledged herewith. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the SDC and the NCCR North-South for funding this study and providing feedbacks and suggestions during the entire period of research and writing of the present publication. We are also very grateful to all the individuals and institutional respondents who participated in the survey. The following reviewers provided greatly appreciated comments on an earlier iii draft: Dr. Stephan Rist, Dr. Urs Geiser, Dr. Didier Péclard, Dr. Claudia Michel, and Dr. Eva Heim. Similarly, we would like to acknowledge the untiring cooperation of all the Regional Coordinators and their EPD Project Assistants, and thank them for their comments and suggestions for improving the manuscript throughout the project period. The young local researchers formed an important part of the research team and helped the Regional Coordinators to collect information and we extend our thanks to all of them. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Manuel Flury (SDC) for his encouragement, his willingness to fund this project, and his conceptual input, and to Dominique Simone Rychen (SDC) for her continuous encouragement and support during the project. Last but not least, we would like to express our appreciation for the continued support and encouragement of Prof. Hans Hurni and Prof. Urs Wiesmann, NCCR North-South Directors, and Dr. Thomas Breu from the Management Centre, NCCR North-South. We also thank Julia Slater for her assistance with the final editing, and members of the Management Centre who assisted in collecting literature to complement the material collected by the original research team. Special thanks go to our colleague Dr. Karl Herweg for letting us use some of his cartoons, to Siddhi Manandhar for managing logistic matters, Jyoti Khatiwada for the design and layout, and to Safal Ghimire for supervising production of the proofs. The Authors 2012 iv Abbreviations AIT Asian Institute of Technology AoW Advancement of Women ASAL Arid and Semi-Arid Lands BoD Board of Directors CAS Central Asia CCA Carribbean and Central America CDE Centre for Development and Environment CETRAD Centre for Training and Integrated Research in ASAL Development CSRS Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques: Swiss Centre for Scientific Research in Côte d’Ivoire DANIDA Danish International Development Agency EAF East Africa EPD Exploring Partnership Dynamics FSM Faecal Sludge Management GDP Gross Domestic Product GIS Geographic Information Systems HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome HUCE Hanoi University of Civil Engineering IDRC International Development Research Centre of Canada ITC Integrated Training Course JACS Joint Area of Case Studies KFPE Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries v NCCR National Centre of Competence in Research NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NIDS Nepal Institute of Development Studies NWFP North-West Frontier Province ODA Official Development Assistance PAMS Partnership Actions for Mitigating Syndromes of Global Change RAB Regional Advisory Board RC Regional Coordinator RCF Regional Coordinators’ Forum RCO Regional Coordination Office RP Research Project