Mapping synergy and antagony in North–South partnerships for health: a case study of the Tanzanian women’s NGO KIWAKKUKI
Type
Peer reviewed; Journal articlePeer reviewed
publishedVersion
Date
2011-12-15
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Show full item recordAbstract
North–South partnerships for health aim to link resources,
expertise and local knowledge to create synergy. The literature
on such partnerships presents an optimistic view of the
promise of partnership on one hand, contrasted by pessimistic
depictions of practice on the other. Case studies are
called for to provide a more intricate understanding of
partnership functioning, especially viewed from the
Southern perspective. This case study examined the
experience of the Tanzanian women’s NGO,
KIWAKKUKI, based on its long history of partnerships
with Northern organizations, all addressing HIV/AIDS in
the Kilimanjaro region. KIWAKKUKI has provided education
and other services since its inception in 1990 and
has grown to include a grassroots network of .6000 local
members. Using the Bergen Model of Collaborative
Functioning, the experience of KIWAKKUKI’s partnership
successes and failures was mapped. The findings demonstrate
that even in effective partnerships, both positive
and negative processes are evident. It was also observed
that KIWAKKUKI’s partnership breakdowns were not
strictly negative, as they provided lessons which the organization
took into account when entering subsequent partnerships.
The study highlights the importance of
acknowledging and reporting on both positive and negative
processes to maximize learning in North–South
partnerships.
Publisher
Oxford University PressCollections
Copyright The Author (2011). Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.