Reciprocity and Equity in Multilateral Research Collaboration

The National Research Foundation (NRF) participated in a robust panel discussion on “Addressing challenges for reciprocity and equitable multilateralism in scientific collaboration towards achieving SDGs” at the Science Summit at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly 79  in New York, USA on 17 September 2024. 

The panel discussion kicked off with a keynote address by Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO followed by the panel discussion which was moderated by Javier Moreno Fuentes who is Vice-President for International Affairs of the Spanish National Research Council and also Vice-President of Science Europe.  The NRF was represented on the panel discussion by Dr Thandi Mgwebi, Group Executive: Business Advancement; and Dr Mgwebi’s fellow panellists were from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Panama’s National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Japan’s Science and Technology Agency.

Common themes emerging from the panel discussion included the need to harness local knowledge and drive local ownership and upfront sustainability planning of projects; the power of leveraging networks and platforms of shared learning; the need to establish clear metrics for what equitable and reciprocal partnerships look like; as well as the need to include the voice of the Global South as an equal partner and not just a participant in formulating multilateral partnership strategies and projects.  The importance and impact of mindset and language when using terms like ‘donor’ vs ‘partner’ was well noted by several panellists, including Dr Mgwebi. 

In addition to the common themes of discussion, Dr Mgwebi shared the achievements and lessons from the NRF’s extensive partnership modalities with remarks that included “ The Carnegie Corporation of New York funded project managed by the NRF in collaboration with universities on peer learning for Early Career Researchers culminated in evidence based approaches, key principles and recommendations on how to best support individual early career researchers within tripartite and multilateral projects”.  Dr Mgwebi also spoke about the NRF’s world-class infrastructure and how these facilities are made accessible to scientists across Africa and globally to facilitate equitable access to infrastructure and capacity development of scientists working in markets without such facilities.