National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), in partnership with Makerere University, Mountain of the Moon University, and Uganda Martyrs University, hosted a workshop focused on building equitable partnerships in research collaborations. The event, held at Nabuin Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (ZARDI), brought together development partners, local governments, academia, research and private sector to discuss best practices and share experiences on equitable partnerships.
The workshop highlighted the growing need for equitable research collaborations across sub-Saharan Africa and with international partners, emphasizing the importance of mutual learning, capacity building, and institutional support. The workshop also intended to identify both the barriers and opportunities for creating balanced collaborations among development partners to foster sustainable development. Specifically, the participants included representatives from government institutions like Local governments in Karamoja subregion, academic institutions like Gulu University, Agricultural research organizations such as NARO Nabuin ZARDI and NARO Buginyanya ZARDI, international organizations such as the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Action Against Hunger, Cooperation and Development (C&D), Save the Children, and the private sector.
The Director of Research Nabuin ZARDI Dr. Walter Odongo gave a background of equitable partnerships project. Dr. Odongo said Equitable Partnerships project was born out of interactions of the British Academy and the four Ugandan institutions in Nairobi and London in 2024 and 2025 respectively. The perceptions from the workshops highlighted the growing need to develop reasonable research collaboration across sub-Saharan Africa and the international partners. The focus aims at promoting mutual learning, capacity building, and institutional support for equitable partnerships to generate useful collaborations.
Dr. Nasser Kasozi, the Director of Research Buginyanya ZARDI delivered a keynote presentation, “the Benefits and Barriers of Collaboration”. Dr Kasozi began with a powerful adage: “If you want to go quickly, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together”. He stressed that forging equitable partnerships is vital for driving innovation and advancing knowledge. Dr. Kasozi outlined several key benefits of strong partnerships that include, enhanced quality and relevance of research, broader dissemination and application of findings, and improved trust and cultural understanding among partners. He also pointed out significant barriers to collaboration such as power imbalances and funding disparities between partners, lack of mutual trust and transparency, unequal recognition and credit for contributions, misaligned goals and expectations, limited governance, accountability mechanisms, capacity gaps and institutional and structural constraints.
Development Partners highlighted common problems like over-delegation of tasks, limited data sharing, and conflicts of interest can easily derail a partnership. Head of Area Office WFP Karamoja office, James Kingori, emphasized the importance of ensuring research is practically applicable to the specific needs and conditions of the local inhabitants. Similarly, Michael Lokiru from the FAO underlined that FAO considers research as an important ally and willing to partner with research organizations. He suggested that researchers should also focus on topics like extinct plant varieties, that are key areas for FAO, sustainable production, climate change, agriculture, food, and disaster risks. Representatives from the United Nations explained their “localization agenda,” which prioritizes local institutions for project implementation, as a natural fit for this collaborative model. The United Nations is a user and a producer of data, and values research for its role in providing vital data necessary for making data driven decision. To further level the playing field, participants called for a shared digital platform to disseminate information on new partnership opportunities and emerging research needs.
With a call to build a stronger foundation for future collaborations, the workshop concluded with a blueprint for a new era of collaboration, built on four foundational pillars:
- Joint Accountability: All partners must share full responsibility for project outcomes, from the initial concept to the final report.
- Shared Proposal Development: True partnership begins at the beginning. By writing proposals together, all parties ensure their goals, methods, and expectations are aligned from day one.
- Transparency: Open communication, shared data, and a collective commitment to preventing the misuse of resources are non-negotiable. Trust is the currency of successful collaboration.
- Capacity building: A partnership is only as strong as its partners. Investing in the skills, capacity, and resources of all collaborators ensures that everyone can contribute meaningfully.
As the workshop concluded, the interest was clear, “to put principles of mutual respect and shared ownership into practice”. And collectively building a more sustainable and equitable future, together. With emphasis that effective partnerships are ecosystems of shared learning, innovation, and impact.