The Art of Partnerships Fostering Effective North-South

Research Collaboration

Professor Philip Oxhorn

Director, Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University and Editor in Chief, Latin American Research Review

IntroductionPerceptions Matter

• What is a State?• Whose Agenda?• Accountable to Whose Citizens?

Northern Taxpayers? Communities in Need?

Whose Research Questions? Goal: Laying out the Foundation for

Genuine Collaboration

Recognizing Comparative Advantages

• The North’s: Resources• Breadth of Expertise• Information Technology

• Libraries• Databases• Computational

• The South’s• Depth of Expertise• A Unique Perspective?

Ensuring that Policies Reflect Recipient Needs and Priorities

• Consultation and Networking• Building Research Capacity in

Southern Countries Graduate and Postdoctoral Fellowships Visiting Researchers and Professors Added Plus: Strengthening Networks

• Training Our Own Students Internships Research and Study in the South

ISID’S Resident Fellows Program in Democratic Governance

• Developed through Active Collaboration between CIDA and CDAS

• Research by Southern Researchers to Help CIDA and Similar Donor Agencies Meet their Assistance Objectives

• Two Fellows (Bolivia and Peru)• Working with CIDA field officers to identify specific

themes• 6-month residency at CDAS to work with McGill

researchers and CIDA officials in Ottawa

• Graduate Student Involvement

Peace and Development: Democratization, Poverty Reduction and Risk Mitigation in

Fragile and Post-Conflict States

• Assumption: positive developmental outcomes are mutually reinforcing

• Testing that Assumption: Are poverty reduction, risk mitigation

and democratization compatible in post-conflict settings?

Funded by the International Development Research Centre and the World Bank

Peace and Development (cont’d)

• 3 sets of related issues: Participatory Governance and Service

Provision; Power-sharing for Peacebuilding and

Development; and The Economic Agenda for Post-Conflict

Reconstruction.

Peace and Development (cont’d)

• These Issues are addressed in 2 component parts Thematic Essays that Assess Aggregate Global

Trends (North’s Comparative Advantage) 7 In-depth Case Studies (South’s Comparative

Advantage)o Bosnia, Colombia, Lebanon, Mozambique,

Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Sudano Multidisciplinary teams in each country: an

economist and a political scientist or sociologist

Peace and Development (cont’d)

• Integrating the 2 Components: Case studies inform the development of

macro-level theory Theory is a foundation for maximizing

the coherence of the overall study and the comparability of findings

Mechanisms for Integration An Advisory Committee of Northerd and

Southern Scholars Workshops for discussing draft papers

Conclusions

• A Long Term Horizon Building Relations Takes Time and Effort

o With Donorso With Southern Researchers

Expectations Need to Reflect This

• Collaboration as Equals with Different Areas of Experience and Expertise

• Goal: Achieving Better Policy Outcomes in Terms of Effectiveness and Relevance