Championing transformation in Africa research and partnerships?

Five signposts

In April 2021 PARC launched to the world. We sought to share and stimulate critical and honest reflection on our mission to champion transformation in global North – Africa research partnerships.  The speakers – key scholars, advocates, policy makers and practitioners in the continent and its diaspora – spoke to the urgency of our endeavour but also gave us pause to consider important questions, ideas and directions to inform our future work.

Given some time to percolate, five particular such ‘signposts’ have crystallised. But first a recap of the broad path we’ve set for PARC which we shared during the launch:

We recognise, as a point of departure, the need for a fundamental shift in the global research ecosystem in favour of Africa. A shift that redresses inequities rooted in, and representing legacies of, colonialism,  and that sees African institutions, constituencies and terms take their rightful place in knowledge production: in and for the continent, and globally. A shift, essentially, that Africa’s own development blueprint, the African Union Agenda 2063, envisions and calls for.

Our premise, drawing on systems thinking, is that a reconfiguration of the global research system as a whole will require changes at different levels, in its various constituent parts, and that global North-Africa research collaboration and partnerships are a vital such part. Structural change in the way that research partnerships unfold is necessary, and may even offer levers for a rebalancing of the system altogether.

As active parties in collaboration with Africa, the University of Bristol (UoB) and UK Universities generally have a part to play; indeed they share a responsibility to play a part in advancing such structural change: with accountability for ensuring that transformation needed on their side happens.

We see PARC’s role as supporting UoB to play its part – and inviting and engaging others keen to join the journey. We aim to do so by bringing together thinking and people invested in the generation and use of knowledge to accomplish Africa’s priority agendas, to:

  • Develop debate, inquiry and thought-leadership on how and where global North-Africa research collaboration and partnership need to change, and what approaches are required to this end – and put together a framework or charter that guides, captures and recognises institutional commitment to advancing such transformation;
  • Apply and foster learning on new modes of research cooperation through capstone programmes of research and policy engagement that are regional in scope;
  • Promote exchange and mutual capacity strengthening to embed new modes for the next generation of scholars to conduct global North-Africa research cooperation;
  • Foster a community of interest and, with time, practice.

If these broad paths for PARC’s work are clear, what principles and perspectives must we bring to bear as we travel them? The five ‘signposts’ raised in the launch offer important orientations:

1. Centring Africa

It ought to be self-evident. But the critical importance of centring Africa in the conversation about rebalancing of global North-Africa research collaboration and partnerships needs stating explicitly. More often than not – and PARC’s endeavour could be accused of the same – it seems debate and initiatives on ‘equitable partnerships’ are initiated, driven and framed by actors in the global North. African ownership of this debate is required, with constituencies from the continent taking a lead in defining, and demanding the necessary change.  This goes beyond the issue of voice and representation.

Centring Africa must also mean that the conversation on research partnerships must be framed as being about Africa. About African scholars’, institutions’ and other constituencies’ determination of where, to what extent and for what purpose research engagement with the global North is sought, and what Africa seeks to offer to, and gain from it. And imagine three avenues:

  1. to provide forums that amplify, convey and offer connections to Africa-internal voices and discussions on the issue.
  2. to convene dialogue with the global North that is framed, explicitly, as Africa-led.
  3. the development of inquiry and thought-leadership on how global North-Africa research needs to be transformed, to build explicitly on directions set in the continent.

PARC itself must take a cue from the continent and diasporic communities on what role it ought to play in advancing such Africa-centred debate.

2. Plurality and diversity of voices

All too often, engagement and conversation with Africa privileges a set of favoured actors and voices that are taken as speaking for the continent, as representing its interests and terms. There is a need to reflect carefully on whom we engage in conversation, whom we listen to and whose perspectives we omit in reflecting on change in global North-Africa research partnerships. We need to insist on bringing in a diversity and plurality of voices and to be deliberate about always making room for those outside, or disadvantaged in, existing hierarchies to contribute vision, ideas and thinking. To do so, we will again need to take signals from the continent and diasporic communities on which relevant actors and voices need to be heard.

3. Incremental change

PARC’s envisaged work is about supporting incremental change toward transforming global North – Africa research collaboration and partnership. But can gradual, small steps yield transformation? Some doubt emerged in the launch. We share the sense of urgency that the idea of a more sudden, abrupt turnaround satisfies. Yet, we need to consider realities: the sheer volume of extant global North – Africa research collaboration and partnership, the many actors — individuals, groups, institutions – involved in complex ways in different aspects of such collaboration, and the multiple layers of imbalances that need to be redressed (which go beyond those typically considered in ‘equitable partnerships’ initiatives).

Given these, we see few alternatives to pursuing shifts incrementally: among different actors, in different areas and on different asymmetries, at different levels. Continuously appraising what and who needs to change where and how, and where potential catalysts, multiplier effects and accountability mechanisms could help widen, accelerate or cement gains, will be crucial to ensuring that small steps amount, eventually, to a transformative whole.

4. Values and mindsets

Foundational to change in global North-Africa research partnerships will be shifts in the values and attitudes – at both individual and institutional levels in both the global North and Africa – that presently sustain the imbalances in such engagement.  Though central in the debate on decolonizing higher education, the importance of mindsets has been highlighted less in the thinking about greater equity in partnerships.

Beginning at home, PARC will need to stimulate, and provide spaces for open, guided reflection and discussion on attitudes, values and interests among UoB researchers. With time the spaces ought to be widened to allow for open dialogue with African partners.

5. Engaging funders and funding

Notwithstanding the recent cuts in UKRI support for research in lower- and middle-income countries, we must take as given that Northern funding will, at least for the foreseeable future, play a significant role in resourcing research in Africa. Some UK funders, besides contributing to Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), are now calling for genuinely global South-led or co-led research. At the same time, regional efforts to expand and entrench African funding are gathering pace.

In this constellation, PARC will need to identify opportunities and ways for its work to engage Northern funders to promote both a widening of their support for Africa-led research and direct contributions to Africa-owned funding mechanisms.  In parallel, there is a need for UK Universities, to play their part in fostering a greater direction of available research funding to Africa.  What does this amount to? It may require nothing less than a turnaround in how we, at global Northern Universities, perceive research funding and its flows, and what we mean by success.

A novel mindset is needed: one that prepares us to look beyond the bottom line, and to look beyond, or, indeed, develop alternatives to,  present success metrics, which compel us to bid to maximise the monies, including from awards for collaborative projects with Africa, that flow into our institutions.

Often, to caricature slightly a complex and various research landscape, funds are awarded to projects led by UK researchers to work with Africa. University decision makers are generally pleased, reputations are enhanced, it is good news. But:

  • Has that brought about the real, transformative change that we want to see?
  • How good is the good news?
  • Is it possible that if we are serious about Africa reaching its goals that spending money on UK scholars to pursue their research in the continent might, ultimately, not be the most useful approach?
  • Shouldn’t our commitment be to always seek for partners in the continent to lead collaborative projects, to ensure that more money than stays in the UK goes directly to Africa?

We ask these questions with an awareness of the irony of being a UK-based institution funding UK-based researchers attempting to dismantle a status quo in which we are very much at home. Yet, the questions must be raised, and the awkward and difficult conversations needed to answer them must be had. We will use the space created by recent developments in the ODA funding landscape to have them, toward engendering a more imaginative, transcontinental collaborative approach to research funding.

So, where next?

We will bring to bear each of the directions above in PARC’s future initiatives.

One such project, which we are embarking on, will develop an Africa-centred framework or charter, co-owned by African constituencies, that guides, captures and recognizes institutional-level commitment to changing organizational systems, policies and cultures in pursuit of a transformed way of working with Africa. We believe that such a charter – which would build on, but go beyond existing equitable partnerships frames – is necessary to redress the multiple layers of power imbalances in global North-Africa research relations, foster institutional accountability for action, and help drive and embed the structural shift that is needed.

Other projects to be pursued in coming months include the identification of agendas for Africa-led research to anchor the building of each of our three capstone programmes, the development of inputs into research capacity strengthening efforts and, internally, the fostering of reflection and exchange on values and mindsets in research collaboration with the continent.

Across all areas, our work will need to be informed by continued, shared conversations not only on the above directions but on other relevant questions that will arise. It is imperative that our discussion forums are not only open to, but attend to, all voices.

If you are interested in our plans, please join our community or get in touch with us by emailing parc-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk. You can also follow us on twitter or linkedin. We look forward to your company.