Crawford School of Public Policy

Former New Zealand Prime Minister and administrator of the United Nations Development Program Helen Clark is among the authors tackling the challenges of research partnerships for sustainable development in the new issue of the Development Bulletin journal.

The Development Bulletin – based at Crawford School and now onto issue 79 – brings together leading researchers, experts and practitioners to address some of aid and development’s biggest questions.

This time around, more than 30 authors highlight innovative research and the results of research partnerships between academics, development practitioners, village communities, and policymakers. The Development Bulletin is available free, in entirety, online at here.

“Although the outcomes, challenges, and rewards were often unexpected, the partnerships provided valuable insights and new opportunities for more inclusive and informed development activities,” the journal’s Editor Dr Pamela Thomas said.

“As Helen Clark writes, ‘in achieving the sustainable development goals, we face challenges that no one nation, sector or organisation can address effectively on its own. The power of partnership is that we each contribute according to our capacities to get results … partnerships are not just about money – they are about solidarity, exchange of knowledge and best practices’.” Dr Pamela Thomas said.

Innovative approaches to research partnerships outlined in the Development Bulletin include giving engineering students first-hand research experience in developing countries; providing joint research for sustainable fisheries partnerships in Indonesia: collaboration with children in community-based research and the innovative use of Photovoice, which was found to be vital in exploring the lived experience of those with psychosocial disability.

“Researchers write of the need for a commitment to knowledge sharing, translation and utilisation and of the need to allow, from the start, for the additional time needed to explore different cultural concepts, including different concepts of time and the time required to build research partnerships on a variety of different levels,” Dr Thomas said.

“This issue not only provides examples of different kinds of research partnerships but of partnerships from a wide range of countries including Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Pakistan and Vietnam.”

Read and download issue 79 of the Development Bulletin for free at here.