International and Cross Cultural Evaluation
Katharina Anton-Erxleben, PhD
Senior Program Associate
Pulte Institute for Global Development, United States
Katharina Anton-Erxleben, PhD
Senior Program Associate
Pulte Institute for Global Development, United States
Paul Perrin, PhD
Director
Pulte Institute, United States
Paul Perrin, PhD
Director
Pulte Institute, United States
Alexandra Towns, PhD
Research Translation Strategy Lead
Catholic Relief Services, United States
Laura Riddering, PhD
Research Translation Advisor
Catholic Relief Services, United States
Maria Estela Rivero, PhD
Senior Research Associate
Pulte Institute for Global Development, United States
Location: White River Ballroom A
Abstract Information: In the international development sector, supposed partnerships between organizations have been anything but equal; the status quo has long seen organizations in the Global North build the capacity of those in the Global South, who have been therefore viewed as passive recipients of knowledge transfer. In addition, partnerships between academic institutions and global development policy and practitioner institutions have often been fraught with challenges due to unresolved tensions inherent to the different ways in which these organizations work. This session will describe a set of tools to facilitate more equitable partnerships that have emerged in two separate USAID-funded programs to address these barriers. Under the USAID-funded Supporting Holistic & Actionable Research in Education (SHARE) activity, which aims to advance global education learning priorities in partnership with local higher education and research institutions, the Pulte Institute at the University of Notre Dame (UND) has developed a capacity building process that centers partners’ needs, agency, and strengths and aims to shift from unidirectional capacity building to capacity exchange. A key element of this process is a tool that SHARE has developed to support research partners to assess their capacity in various areas such as research project management, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), methodological competencies, and promoting evidence uptake. The tool contributes to measuring USAID’s capacity building standard indicator (CBLD-9) but also serves as the basis for developing partner capacity strengthening plans and for facilitating exchange between partners with partners themselves leading learning activities for others. The second tool was developed under the USAID-funded Long-term Services for Research - Partners for University-Led Solutions Engine (LASER-PULSE) activity, which collaborates with USAID missions, bureaus, independent offices, and other local stakeholders to enable researcher-practitioner teams to co-design practical, research-driven solutions to global development challenges. Emerging from this activity, the Researcher-Practitioner Partnership Toolkit was designed to help practitioners and researchers form more fruitful collaborations. Since researchers and practitioners have different world views, experiences, and needs in designing and implementing evaluations, certain partnership challenges can occur. This toolkit is organized by challenge, which is a potential area of conflict due to different perspectives of each person involved. Each challenge presents a caricature of what an academic researcher and a practitioner might say and a suggested convergence point, or perspective that can ease conflict and improve the partnership, along with discussion guides and tools to help alleviate the potential challenge. In this session, we will present these tools, demonstrate their use, and discuss how they can be applied to different international development projects. The presentations will discuss how the tools address common challenges in capacity exchange and research-practitioner partnerships and how to implement an equitable approach to partnership within the limits of the current international development system. Likewise, the session will demonstrate how evaluators in academic institutions and in policy or practice institutions can more effectively work together in achieving common goals. Ultimately, the session will showcase an approach to capacity exchange and partnership that contributes to telling a different type of story in international development.
Relevance Statement: Until partnerships see each party as an equal contributor, partnership challenges will continue to beset global development efforts. Despite ongoing efforts to shift the power, localize decision-making, and promote developing countries' path to self-reliance, predominant narratives in the international development sector still view partners in the Global South as needing capacity building interventions from organizations in the Global North and view them as passive recipients of these efforts. This mindset influences how relationships in international development are approached, how resources are allocated, and who has decision-making power. This type of story impacts partnerships at every level, ranging from interpersonal to organizational relationships. The approach to capacity building developed by the Pulte Institute at the University of Notre Dame (UND) for the USAID-funded Supporting Holistic & Actionable Research in Education (SHARE) project aims to contribute to telling a different type of story by centering partners’ needs, agency, and strengths, and aims to shift from unidirectional capacity building to capacity exchange. Using the capacity assessment tool that SHARE has developed, SHARE promotes a collaborative, equitable approach in the following ways: - Partners self-rate their own capacity in key areas and have the opportunity to add capacity areas they want to evaluate beyond those suggested by SHARE. - Partners select capacity areas they wish to strengthen, ensuring that activities are driven by partners’ own priorities rather than prescribed. - Partners are also asked to indicate capacity areas where they are strong and are willing to share their expertise, and are invited to lead capacity strengthening activities for others. - Capacity strengthening plans are developed in co-creation with partners, following the assessment. Likewise, researchers and practitioners often come to a partnership with a lack of understanding of the tensions and challenges inherent to these types of collaborations. The Researcher-Practitioner Toolkit is organized by phase of the partnership, identifying the potential challenges or areas of friction that are often inherent at each phase. Since researchers and practitioners have different world views, experiences, and needs, these challenges can occur. Following each challenge is a discussion guide with questions that each entity in the partnership can ask the other to have an open dialogue, learn each other’s perspectives, and forge a way to work together. Lastly, there is a list of resources, templates, or activities that can assist in resolving the blind spot and improving the working relationship. Both tools are applicable or can easily be adapted for use in a wide range of different international development programs. While the two tools present slightly different approaches to overcoming tensions and inequities in partnerships, both will ultimately contribute to changing the story of international development partnerships to one that highlights collaboration and exchange between equal partners.