Development Cooperation as a Knowledge Creation Process: Rhythmanalytical Approach to a Capacity-Building Project in Zanzibar

Abstract

In development cooperation, the ideas of material support and instructive teaching have increasingly given way to those of reciprocal collaboration and non-material support. In this research, we explore the potential of rhythmanalysis as an approach to studying complex knowledge creation processes in an international development cooperation project. The Zan-SDI project aimed to enhance the geospatial infrastructure in Zanzibar through cooperation between Finnish and Zanzibarian experts. Our rhythmanalysis shows that knowledge creation in the everyday practices of development cooperation is extremely vulnerable to various distractions on multiple spatio-temporal scales. Continuous learning and efforts are required to sustain the project ensemble and knowledge creation. Although new partnerships and inter-organisational collaboration are a source of novelty and innovation, much of their potential remains unrealised without intensive long-term engagement, possibilities to quickly reform the project scheme, and a sufficient combination of financial, material and non-material support.

Knowledge based interventions for sustainable development cooperation: insights from knowledge systems mapping in Zambia

“…the CDC similarly as any other national-level development cooperation suffers from lack of robust and legitimate processes to co-produce knowledge by multiple actors, that would bring together existing knowledge in both, the "donor" and "recipient" countries (Boucher and Roch 2017;Ojala and Hooli 2022) and allowed for knowledge cross-fertilisation (Tengö et al 2014).…”

“…In addition, knowledge serves not only implicitly as the basis of international development cooperation design, but also as an explicit element that gets actively transferred and shaped among actors within project implementation (Mosse 2014, Ojala andHooli 2022;Shepherd 2010), e.g. in the form of training, workshops and awareness raising campaigns, particularly as transfer and dissemination of knowledge have become the core of many international development projects (Janus et al 2015;Molina-Maturano et al 2020;Taylor and Bhasme 2018;Thuijsman et al 2022).…”