ISSUE 62 Septembernews 2017

The Bartlett Development Planning Unit dpuISSUE 62 Septembernews 2017 In this issue: Partnering for social and environmental justice See Focus on, page 2 Focus on Partnering with higher education institutions for social and environmental justice in the global South: lessons from the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre Authors: Andrea Rigon, Joseph Macarthy, Braima Koroma, Julian Walker, Alexandre Apsan Frediani In the context of the £1.5 billion aid money that researchers do not see GCRF as just organisations. Through the discussion of that the UK government is now channelling more research money to continue ‘research the DPU experience with Njala University through UK research institutions, this article as usual’, taking for granted that their in setting up the Sierra Leone Urban explores the importance of building local research will benefit a developing country. Research Centre, we will highlight some institutions and capacity in order to establish A fundamental question for researchers is of the challenges and potential of building equitable research partnerships that respond how best can we use these funds, given that these complex partnerships. to local concerns. It will also explore the they should lead to improved well-being for role of these institutions in brokering local some of the poorest women and men. We The Sierra Leone Urban Research partnerships for urban justice. share our reflections to support researchers’ Centre (SLURC) thinking about how to create and engage in Between 1991 and 2002, the Sierra Leone GCRF debate the partnerships needed for ODA research. civil war displaced about one third of the As far back as 1970, UN member nations population and left the country with fragile classified as ‘economically advanced’ The need for strategic research part- institutions, poor infrastructure, and a weak committed themselves to increasing nerships in the economy. In 2014, post-war recovery was “… official development assistance to What we often witness ourselves and hear undermined by the Ebola epidemic, which the developing countries … to reach a from colleagues in the global South is that killed approximately 4,000 people in Sierra minimum net amount of 0.7 percent of its foreign researchers hire local academics as Leone (and many more in neighbouring gross national product at market prices”. individual consultants to do data collection countries) and had a major impact on the The UK is one of only six countries that and other research tasks. Local academ- country’s economy. Sierra Leone remains upholds this commitment today, having ics targeted by international researchers at the bottom of the Human Development made it central to its foreign policy. UK are often among the best academics in the Index, ranking 179th out of 188. 78% ODA has resisted government cuts but, country and are usually happy to join such of the population is in multidimensional in the context of austerity, it has been projects if paid international rates. This poverty2 and a further 15% is at risk of difficult to maintain the legitimacy of this directs their time and energy away from lo- falling into multidimensional poverty, while conspicuous investment, with increasing cal universities and organisations, including maternal mortality is the highest in the pressure to use ODA to the benefit of the government, which desperately need world. the UK economy. The government has their input. Local academics thus have more therefore now taken the opportunity to incentive to conduct work which responds Below: Workshopping urban settlements, Freetown. support an underfunded higher education to external research agendas in projects that Photo by SLURC. sector, at risk of losing their EU funding. may hold little immediate benefit for local As a result, UK universities and research universities. institutions are now receiving £1.5 billion The responsibility lies with UK-based of ODA. researchers, although their practices are David Hulme, head of the Development understandable. It takes a couple of emails Studies Association, the most important to agree a daily fee with a local researcher, professional organisation of academics but it takes months or years to develop a working on international development, strategic partnership with a local university argued that the Global Challenges Research in which the terms of engagement in Fund (GCRF) risks ‘ripping off ’ the poorest research projects for staff are openly people in the world because it moves discussed and arrangements identified resources away from the poorest and puts that benefit all parties. But if Northern them into sectors where investments have researchers do not want to take resources the highest returns for UK society. On the away from global South higher education Recognising the scarcity of reliable other hand, current UK aid policies allocate and government institutions by offering data and other information about large amounts of money to multi-national a parallel salary and diverting people Freetown, and the limitations of local companies and private sector consultancies from their critical work, then a long-term research capacity, the UK NGO Comic for programmes that many consider partnership approach is the only viable Relief, which had a portfolio of funded problematic.1 Therefore, universities may do option. Having equitable partnerships with projects in informal settlements in the a better job of spending these funds. For local research institutions, however, is not city, asked the DPU to conduct scoping instance, the practice-oriented work of the enough. To improve well-being for women research on the knowledge available with DPU has always been supported by ODA. and men living in poverty, the global South a local lecturer. When they approached Nonetheless, these funds pose ethical partner institution also needs to have strong the DPU again to commission research challenges to universities. It is important relationships with communities and their into some of the important knowledge 2 DPUNEWS: ISSUE 62 gaps identified, we asked ourselves what directors and two DPU lecturers: Alexandre Above: Cockle Bay settlement. Photo by SLURC the legacy of such a project would be. Apsan Frediani and Andrea Rigon, with This prompted discussions with Njala the aim of getting DPU lecturers to University, the leading academic institution progressively withdraw from management. opportunities for learning between cities. in Sierra Leone, after which a case was The centre then hired researchers and Another element that illustrates the made to Comic Relief about the need for administrative staff. importance of this partnership between a larger investment. The project proposed This was not an easy arrangement research institutions is the complementarity to establish a research institution to build to set up. Firstly, both UCL and Njala of the networks provided by the DPU research capacity of urban professionals bureaucracies had to negotiate an acceptable and Njala University. The DPU’s and communities in Sierra Leone, to set a agreement. Secondly, that agreement had to international network facilitated access locally-relevant research agenda, to deliver be implemented. to key stakeholders such as DFID, IIED, high quality research in partnership with Cities Alliance, foreign governments and others, to disseminate research outputs, and Partnerships for justice donors, as well as recruiting expertise for to work in partnership with urban actors to To achieve its goals, SLURC needed to the international advisory committee. The advocate for urban justice. establish important relationships, most network also helped SLURC to learn from The Sierra Leone Urban Research crucially with communities living in the experiences of DPU’s friends, such as Centre (SLURC) was officially launched informal settlements. The centre was the lessons from Arif Hasan in setting up in early 2016, aided by sustained support part of a larger programme funded by the Urban Resource Centre in Karachi, from the Njala University management, Comic Relief involving international and which Arif shared during a visit to London whose Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Dean local NGOs implementing development by the SLURC team, and also from the of the Environmental Science Faculty have projects in Freetown’s slum communities. struggles for tenure regularisation of the remained directly involved throughout. This network allowed SLURC to build Los Pinos community in Quito which the SLURC is based at the Institute of relationships with communities and set up team visited with the Mayor of Freetown Geography and Development Studies at a research and training agenda relevant to during the Habitat III conference. Njala University. Therefore, a financially the needs of these communities and their However, the strong network in Sierra autonomous legal structure – controlled by organisations. In particular, SLURC was Leone cultivated by Njala University a board composed of Njala University, the able to build on the legitimacy that these lecturers was equally vital to the project. DPU and a local civil society representative NGOs had established over many years, As a research institution highly involved – was set up to ensure the operational and to communicate the role of a research in practice work and training, SLURC has flexibility needed to implement complex organisation. SLURC was accepted by positioned itself as an institution trusted practice-oriented research projects. Njala local governance actors, including local by communities, NGOs, government

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