Re-claiming co-creation: how to build equal partnerships between global north and south

• In Event: Enhancing Development Projects across Cultures

Proposal

In the context of the decolonisation of development, the idea of ‘co-creation’ has proliferated in the language of NGOs, research organisations and multilateral agencies. ‘Co-creation’ seeks to rebalance the power dynamics between the global north and global south, to ensure that the voices of those who identify with the latter are at the centre of the development process. This is entirely right: at its best, co-creation is a highly meaningful way to both end marginalisation and find meaningful ways to includes the most important voices in the development process. However, as a CSO that has engaged in this process and witnessed others also do so, we are concerned that ‘co-creation’ is failing to deliver on its promise. The problem as we see it is that the ‘power’ in the co-creation process remains with those organisations that tend to be from the global north, particularly in terms of resource: for instance, NGOs bring funding for particular projects, or research organisations have funding to deliver on research that fits their existing norms, even when these may differ from their local partners. This implicitly incentivises global north partners to speak the language of co-creation, but ultimately continue conducting ‘business as usual’ where global south partners are not equal. Power dynamics and norms mean this lack of equality is not always obvious to those involved. There may be incentives on both sides for the process to be imbalanced. If ‘co-creation’ is to be meaningful, then we need to be honest about these dynamics so the term can be re-claimed in the spirit in which it was intended.
As an NGO, we have developed an approach to co-creation with our government partners in education systems that we believe can do this. We propose to present our approach, which focuses both on ‘processes’ and ‘spirit’ in order to ensure that the co-creation process is as meaningful as possible. Our approach is particularly focused on getting the ‘psychology’ of collaboration right. We believe building deep trust and openness with our partners is at the core of this. To do this, we do three things. Firstly, we embrace vulnerability, and share up front with our partners our own aims and the perceived constraints we have to deliver particular outcomes (eg from funders). Second, we encourage our partners to do the same. Third, we then identify our mutual key areas of focus and work together to ensure those on both sides are met as meaningfully as possible.
After sharing the approach, we will then share how this approach has worked in two different geographies in different contexts: the respective education systems in Delhi, India (state level) and Uganda (national level). We will share successes and challenges of the approach in both contexts as well as our analysis of why these successes and challenges have arisen. We will also share our assessment of how the approach has impacted on our wider programmatic success, and the mixed methods evaluation approach we used to assess this. We will share our future plans, particularly emphasising the need for global north organisations to be ever more willing and courageous in recognising their role as perpetrators of inequality in co-creation and how we will attempt to deepen vulnerability and trust.

Author

• John McIntosh, Stir Education