Towards effective and sustainable global academic partnerships through a maturity model informed by the capability approach

TY - JOUR

T1 - Towards effective and sustainable global academic partnerships through a maturity model informed by the capability approach

AU - Fekadu, Abebaw

AU - Assefa, Esubalew

AU - Tesfaye, Abraham

AU - Hanlon, Charlotte

AU - Adefris, Belete

AU - Manyazewal, Tsegahun

AU - Newport, Melanie J.

AU - Davey, Gail

N1 - Funding Information: None. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

PY - 2021/12

Y1 - 2021/12

N2 - BackgroundShortage of skilled workforce is a global concern but represents a critical bottleneck to Africa’s development. While global academic partnerships have the potential to help tackle this development bottleneck, they are criticised for inadequate attention to equity, impact, and sustainability. We propose a new values-driven partnership model for sustainable and equitable global partnerships that achieve impact.MethodThe model was based on the authors’ experiences of participation in over 30 partnerships and used insights from the Capability Approach.ResultsWe developed an Academic Partnership Maturity Model, with five levels of maturity, extending from pre-contemplative to mature partnerships. The level of maturity increases depending on the level of freedom, equity, diversity, and agency afforded to the partners. The approach offers a framework for establishing a forward-looking partnership anchored in mutual learning, empowerment, and autonomy.ConclusionThis is a pragmatic model limited by the biases of experiential knowledge. Further development of the concept, including metrics and an evaluation tool kit are needed to assist partners and funders.

AB - BackgroundShortage of skilled workforce is a global concern but represents a critical bottleneck to Africa’s development. While global academic partnerships have the potential to help tackle this development bottleneck, they are criticised for inadequate attention to equity, impact, and sustainability. We propose a new values-driven partnership model for sustainable and equitable global partnerships that achieve impact.MethodThe model was based on the authors’ experiences of participation in over 30 partnerships and used insights from the Capability Approach.ResultsWe developed an Academic Partnership Maturity Model, with five levels of maturity, extending from pre-contemplative to mature partnerships. The level of maturity increases depending on the level of freedom, equity, diversity, and agency afforded to the partners. The approach offers a framework for establishing a forward-looking partnership anchored in mutual learning, empowerment, and autonomy.ConclusionThis is a pragmatic model limited by the biases of experiential knowledge. Further development of the concept, including metrics and an evaluation tool kit are needed to assist partners and funders.

KW - Academic partnership maturity model

KW - Capability

KW - Global partnerships

KW - Sustainable development goals

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85119601350

U2 - 10.1186/s12992-021-00785-2

DO - 10.1186/s12992-021-00785-2

M3 - Letter

AN - SCOPUS:85119601350

SN - 1744-8603

VL - 17

JO - Globalization And Health

JF - Globalization And Health

IS - 1

M1 - 131

ER -