Examples of IDS partnerships in 2018-19
Over the past year we have continued to strengthen our longstanding strategic partnerships and have created many new ones. Here are just a few examples.
Extending our network of global partners
The UK government’s UK Aid Connect programmes have seen the establishment of several consortia of groundbreaking research partnerships involving IDS. The Coalition for Religious Equality in Development (CREID) consortium, led by IDS, is a combination of faith and human rights-oriented organisations with an emphasis on applied research. Partners include the Al Khoei Foundation, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Minority Rights Group (MRG) and the World Organization for Al-Azhar Graduates (WOAG). IDS is also a member of the two DFID-funded consortia that will manage the UK Aid Connect and Disability Inclusive Development programmes that are being led by Sightsavers. Other consortium members include the International Disability Alliance and ADD International, and partners include Standard Chartered Bank, Youth Career Initiative, BBC Media Action, Development Initiatives, Benetech and Humanity and Inclusion UK.
The new five-year programme Tackling the Drivers of Modern Slavery and Child Labour – a Child Centred Approach, funded by DFID’s Asia Regional Team and led by IDS, is being implemented with core partners Terre des hommes, ChildHope, Consortium for Street Children, and the Ethical Trading Initiative.
The IDS-led International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) is a partner in a new three-year project with funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Cancer Research UK’s Economics of Tobacco Control Research Initiative. This project will be conducted in partnership with the Economics of Tobacco Control Project at the University of Cape Town (project lead) and the Consortium pour la recherche économique et sociale (CRES) based in Senegal. The partnership is focused on supporting innovative fiscal policy research on tobacco control in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
IDS’ involvement in four of the newly created UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Research Hubs has led to many new international partnerships across a wide range of thematic areas. IDS is part of interdisciplinary hubs on Accountability for Informal Urban Equity, One Health Poultry, Urban Disaster Risk, and Gender, Justice and Security. Over the next five years, the 12 interdisciplinary hubs will work across 85 countries with governments, international agencies, partners and NGOs in developing countries and around the globe, to develop creative and sustainable solutions that help to make the world safer, healthier and more prosperous.
“The exciting thing about this programme is that, for the first time, it brings together organisations in government like DFID and the FCO, academics, advocacy organisations, religious leaders and development organisations to work together in the same direction.” – Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London and member of the CREID International Advisory Group, speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Today Programme.
Strengthening longstanding partnerships for academic exchange and intellectual leadership
In April 2018, IDS and the University of the West Indies – Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) – signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during the University’s annual conference on Sustainable Futures for the Caribbean. IDS shares a common commitment with SALISES to teaching and research to inform social and economic development. The signing of the MoU marks the beginning of working closer together to establish collaborative links, supporting learning and developing opportunities for joint work between researchers. The collaboration has already resulted in funding from the EU-LAC Foundation to support an IDS-SALISES roundtable and seminar on climate change preparedness and response in Caribbean small island developing states.
IDS has recently taken on the role of UK anchor institution for the Research and Learning Platform for the China International Development Research Network (CIDRN) which aims to strengthen China–UK global development knowledge, cooperation and effectiveness. The new three-year role builds on a long history of collaborative research on China and will enable IDS to strengthen relationships with CIDRN’s 22 Chinese institutions (which include universities, think tanks and the central Chinese Communist party school), China Agricultural University and a range of UK research institutions. Activities will include a programme of exchange visits, a summer school and a series of stakeholder workshops on various issues regarding China’s engagement in the Global Goals implementation.
IDS reinforced its longstanding partnership with BRAC, an NGO originating in Bangladesh, by jointly hosting a highly successful expert dialogue at the Rockefeller Bellagio Center. The event explored how NGOs and civil society from the Global South, such as BRAC International, could continue to strengthen their roles and impact in achieving sustainable development outcomes.