The Social Change and Development in Africa Working Group (SCAD) at the Center for African Studies at the University of Florida invites you to participate in a multidisciplinary exploration of partnership in contemporary development initiatives in Africa. The concept of partnership emerged as an organizing principle for international development cooperation in the 1980s in an effort to move away from paternalistic and colonial legacies that characterized many early health and development interventions, Partnership as a normative ideal, discourse, and practice has, however, been debated and scrutinized. Studies of development “partnerships” reveal tensions among stakeholders about its meaning, about how it should be operationalized and whether it truly represents an alternative to previous paternalistic approaches to international development.
Despite these challenges partnership has remained a key principle in international development and continues to be prioritized as both a key objective and approach to the realization of development in the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals. Moreover, as new development actors and transnational corporations have entered the development scene alternative forms of partnerships also have emerged, seen among others in the proliferation of public-private partnerships. How have these new aid-configurations shaped ideas and practices of partnerships for development in Africa? How do differently situated actors in the aid network perceive, experience, operationalize, navigate and negotiate their various partnerships? How does the global narrative on partnerships and aid architecture affect Africa? These are some of the questions we seek to explore in this symposium.
Invited external speakers:
- Jon Harald Sande Lie (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)
- Stephen Kosack (University of Washington)
- Reehana Raza (the Urban Institute)
Symposium Brochure
- Theme Description
- Schedule of Events
- Presentation Abstracts
- Participant Bios