Fair and Equitable Research Partnerships for International Development Research

The starting point of this set of learning resources is the trend in United Kingdom (UK)-funded development research for "fair and equitable partnerships" - the idea that fair and equitable collaborations are more likely to lead to accessible and useful research that has an impact on development challenges. However, for these partnerships to achieve these aspirations, there is a need to consider what is meant by fairness and equity, and then to pay attention to how to translate these ideas into practice - so that, for example, UK-based academics don't end up driving research to their own agendas, with civil society partners playing the role of a source of data instead of an active co-creator of the research and the knowledge it generates.

Funded by UK Research and Innovation and written by staff of Christian Aid's Centre for Excellence in Research, Evidence and Learning, the resources are based on findings from research by the Rethinking Research Collaborative (RRC). The latter is an informal international network of organisations that are working together to encourage more inclusive, responsive collaborations to produce useful and accessible international development research. They have articulated the following 8 principles to support work to develop fair and equitable partnerships:

1. Put poverty first - consider whose knowledge counts, attend to research uptake, and examine "pathways to development impact".
2. Critically engage with context - map stakeholders to identify who needs to be involved to make change happen, and how representative partnerships are.
3. Challenge assumptions about evidence - actively seek ways to redress evidence hierarchies so as to enabling different types of evidence to flow into international development knowledge.
4. Adapt and respond - constantly review and renegotiate research parameters.
5. Respect diversity - take time at the outset to explore the knowledges, skills, and experiences that each partner brings.
6. Commit to transparency - put in place a code of conduct or memorandum of understanding that sets out clearly the rights of all partners regarding acknowledgement, authorship, intellectual property, and data use.
7. Invest in the relationship - ensure that you communicate, listen to each other, and take time to understand different perspectives.
8. Keep learning - view the partnership as a locus for mutual learning and exchange.

These resources - an introduction, 6 modules, and a companion set of online case studies - provide ideas to support 6 development research stakeholder groups to translate the above 8 principles into practice throughout the research cycle, including at the research communication and uptake stage. The 6 stakeholder groups are: (i) academics based in the global South; (ii) academics based in the global North; (iii) civil society organisations (CSOs) in the global South; (iv) international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the global North; (v) brokering and capacity development organisations in the global North; and (vi) research funders. Each module is geared toward one of these groups, and comprises:

• an introduction to the stakeholder;
• a discussion of what the stakeholder brings to research partnerships;
• reflection on the common challenges the stakeholder encounters in research partnerships;
• a checklist of questions and considerations designed to enable the stakeholder to think about fairness and equality in different areas of research practice;
• 2 participatory tools designed to support that stakeholder to reflect on how they can contribute to fair and equitable partnerships; and
• an annotated resource guide introducing resources with particular relevance to that stakeholder group.

Also provided are written and audio case studies in which different kinds of research stakeholder discuss real-life examples of some of the dilemmas and opportunities of engaging in research partnerships:

• Dr. Bhavani of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, who narrates her experiences of coordinating work and navigating relationships in an international research partnership funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
• Eric Gutierrez of Christian Aid, who discusses the process of applying for a Global Challenges Research Fund grant as part of a multi-stakeholder partnership, and the complex relationship between international NGOs and academics in research partnerships.
• Kate Newman of Christian Aid, who shares her experience as a civil society participant on an academic panel convened to make recommendations about research grants.
• Members of the RRC, who reflect on the strengths and challenges of their efforts to model a fair and equitable research partnership in during the research that produced these resources.
• Tom Kariuki of the African Academy of Sciences, who considers some of the challenges of devolving research fund management to African organisations.
• Andrea Cornwall of SOAS University of London, who talks about a research project in which social movement activists were put in charge of the research process (11:32).
• Jude Fransman of the Open University, who discusses how she worked with a diverse range of partners to develop the proposal for research funding that led to the production of these materials (10:07).
• Pradeep Narayanan of Praxis, who considers whose ethics count in research partnerships (5:38).
• Rachel Hayman of INTRAC, who reflects on her experience of taking a brokering role in several research partnerships (8:45).