<i>COMPARE</i>Forum: The idea of North-South and South-South collaboration

Holmarsdottir, Halla B.; Desai, Zubeida; Botha, Louis Royce; Breidlid, Anders; Bastien, Sheri; Mũkoma, Wanjirũ; Ezekiel, Mangi J.; Helleve, Arnfinn; Farag, Alawia Ibrahim; Nomlomo, Vuyokazi

doi:10.1080/03057925.2013.765274

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The usefulness to Canada of this international collaboration was recognized by an award given by Canada's top medical authorities to two of the Canadian practitioners involved [39,40]. Our findings also support the call (for example, Holmarsdottir et al, [12]) to challenge hegemonic knowledge-production that has characterized many previous North-South collaborations; our experience indeed stresses the importance of respecting Southern perspectives and Southern leadership within a North-South-South community of practice.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…This model allows for direct assistance but is limited in sustainability; also Northern experts may not have sufficiently in-depth understanding of the local reality, and may be more focused on addressing scientific-technical dimensions than practical implementation process challenges-particularly those at the macro level. Here cautions about hegemonic knowledge production [12] are particularly warranted.…”

Section: Contextualizing Why and How The Canadian-south African Partnmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Just as peer-to-peer North-south partnerships between health practitioners promote clinical skill development of health workers in LMICs [8,9], similar collaborations are also desperately needed to build capacities for improving LMIC work environments in healthcare. How to develop, conduct and sustain the benefits of such international partnerships is the subject of active debate [10][11][12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The challenge to more comprehensively embrace the concepts of joint learning and knowledge transfer has encouraged consideration of "community of practice" approaches that actively encompass different types of knowledge and experience [11]. This approach attempts to reduce the power imbalances discussed by Holmarsdottir, Desai, Botha, Breidlid and colleagues [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Protecting health workers from infectious disease transmission: an exploration of a Canadian-South African partnership of partnerships

et al. 2016

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BackgroundHealth workers are at high risk of acquiring infectious diseases at work, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) with critical health human resource deficiencies and limited implementation of occupational health and infection control measures. Amidst increasing interest in international partnerships to address such issues, how best to develop such collaborations is being actively debated. In 2006, a partnership developed between occupational health and infection control experts in Canada and institutions in South Africa (including an institute with a national mandate to conduct research and provide guidance to protect health workers from infectious diseases and promote improved working conditions). This article describes the collaboration, analyzes the determinants of success and shares lessons learned.MethodsSynthesizing participant-observer experience from over 9 years of collaboration and 10 studies already published from this work, we applied a realist review analysis to describe the various achievements at global, national, provincial and hospital levels. Expectations of the various parties on developing new insights, providing training, and addressing service needs were examined through a micro-meso-macro lens, focusing on how each main partner organization contributed to and benefitted from working together.ResultsA state-of-the-art occupational health and safety surveillance program was established in South Africa following successful technology transfer from a similar undertaking in Canada and training was conducted that synergistically benefitted Northern as well as Southern trainees. Integrated policies combining infection control and occupational health to prevent and control infectious disease transmission among health workers were also launched. Having a national (South-South) network reinforced by the international (North–south) partnership was pivotal in mitigating the challenges that emerged.ConclusionsHigh-income country partnerships with experience in health system strengthening – particularly in much needed areas such as occupational health and infection control – can effectively work through strong collaborators in the Global South to build capacity. Partnerships are particularly well positioned to sustainably reinforce efforts at national and sub-national LMIC levels when they adopt a “communities of practice” model, characterized by multi-directional learning. The principles of effective collaboration learned in this “partnership of partnerships” to improve working conditions for health workers can be applied to other areas where health system strengthening is needed.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Contextualizing Why and How The Canadian-south African Partnmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Protecting health workers from infectious disease transmission: an exploration of a Canadian-South African partnership of partnerships

et al. 2016

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“…Murphy et al [ 30 ] have described practical tools to help North-South partnerships study the ethics of collaboration, with a view to ensuring benefits to all partners. Holmarsdottir and colleagues [ 31 ] call for the practical use of conceptual frameworks of North-South partnership to provide guidance about partnership practices, and point to the need for a critical stance in the conduct (and study) of North-South partnerships, given the “paucity of empirical studies that have been undertaken to both documents and deconstruct the collaborative process…” ([ 31 ], p280-281). Corbin and Mittelmark [ 3 ] describe a systems approach to the study of partnership processes, and a systems analysis of a North-South AIDS prevention partnership has addressed a number of the points of critique mentioned above [ 32 – 34 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aspirations and realities in a North-South partnership for health promotion: lessons from a program to promote safe male circumcision in Botswana

2016

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BackgroundInternational donors support the partnership between the Government of Botswana and two international organisations: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Africa Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership to implement Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision with the target of circumcising 80 % of HIV negative men in 5 years. Botswana Government had started integration of the program into its health system when international partners brought in the Models for Optimizing Volume and Efficiency to strengthen delivery of the service and push the target. The objective of this paper is to use a systems model to establish how the functioning of the partnership on Safe Male Circumcision in Botswana contributed to the outcome.MethodsData were collected using observations, focus group discussions and interviews. Thirty participants representing all three partners were observed in a 3-day meeting; followed by three rounds of in-depth interviews with five selected leading officers over 2 years and three focus group discussions.ResultsFinancial resources, “ownership” and the target influence the success or failure of partnerships. A combination of inputs by partners brought progress towards achieving set program goals. Although there were tensions between partners, they were working together in strategising to address some challenges of the partnership and implementation. Pressure to meet the expectations of the international donors caused tension and challenges between the in-country partners to the extent of Development Partners retreating and not pursuing the mission further.ConclusionTarget achievement, the link between financial contribution and ownership expectations caused antagonistic outcome. The paper contributes enlightenment that the functioning of the visible in-country partnership is significantly influenced by the less visible global context such as the target setters and donors.

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We Can Only Do It Together: Addressing Global Sustainability Challenges Through a Collaborative Paradigm

Avery

Nordén

2021

World Sustainability Series

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A consensus is emerging in both scientific circles and international policy discourse that business-as-usual approaches to sustainability have led to a critical state, and that urgent measures are required to reverse these dynamics. At the same time, national and international commitments to address the crisis remain reluctant to reconsider the assumption that growth can continue unchecked (Alexander 2012; Gough 2017; Adloff and Neckel 2019). Indeed, in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the argument is even made that growth should be encouraged to provide the necessary resources for implementing the goals, and efforts for sustainability in higher education seldom question that paradigm (Ruiz-Mallén and Heras 2020).In recent decades, we have seen that growth, as such, does not address inequity within or across states, and instead tends to reinforce an extractivist model that concentrates control over resources and key technologies in a small number of hands (Acosta 2013). Technological advances have not offset environmental impacts and emissions continue to rise. Climate change and other environmental impacts continue to disproportionately affect the poorest, destroying the basis of their livelihoods. Both armed conflicts and economic warfare, aimed at control over water, minerals and hydrocarbons, drive internal displacement and forced migration, increasing the number of people worldwide that no state is willing to take responsibility for. It

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COMPAREForum: The idea of North-South and South-South collaboration

Cited by 10 publications

References 12 publications

Protecting health workers from infectious disease transmission: an exploration of a Canadian-South African partnership of partnerships

Protecting health workers from infectious disease transmission: an exploration of a Canadian-South African partnership of partnerships

Aspirations and realities in a North-South partnership for health promotion: lessons from a program to promote safe male circumcision in Botswana

We Can Only Do It Together: Addressing Global Sustainability Challenges Through a Collaborative Paradigm

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