Lessons Learned from a North-South Science Partnership for Sustainable Development
Sustainability of Southern African Ecosystems under Global Change Ecological Studies(2024)
Abstract
AbstractSDG goal 17 seeks to strengthen global partnerships, especially between Global North and South. However, in research and development, experiences indicate a mismatch in expectations with perceived power, funding and workload imbalances, a situation derogated as ‘parachute science’ or ‘helicopter research’. The research programme SPACES seeks to enhance North-South collaborations. As an inter- and transdisciplinary research programme focusing on the interactions between land, sea, atmosphere, biosphere and society, it aims to be a forum for fruitful partnerships. In this chapter, we carve out lessons learned from the nine projects involved in the programme’s second phase. Based on a survey amongst 66 SPACES II scientists, we explored their motivations for collaboration, their involvement in decision-making, the assigned resources and workloads as well as conflicts between Northern and Southern teams. Furthermore, we conducted bibliometric analyses and observed an intensification of the North-South co-authorship network over time. We conclude that SPACES can be considered a success as researchers acted largely as peers on an equal footing. Nevertheless, our insights show that (1) the asynchrony in funding is a threat for effective collaborations, (2) continuous project evaluation should incorporate a North-South component and (3) collaborative publications should be formalised as a tool for integration.
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