Theme 2: Responsibility and accountability in health research partnerships

Statement of focus 

This session examines how accountability and responsibility are shared within research partnerships, questioning who should be held accountable for equitable partnerships, whose voices are heard or missing when we consider equitable partnerships, and how perspectives from the Global South could transform existing power structures in collaborative partnerships between the Global South and the Global North. 

Session summary 

Accountability and responsibility are essential elements of equitable health research partnerships. Accountability in partnerships implies that partners are accountable for the research they perform and for their partnership commitments. The focus of accountability can be external, via funders, journals, and global agencies and internal, via research partners and institutions. An important question is also whose responsibility it is to ensure equitable partnerships. For example, external accountability may be one-directional and reinforce existing power imbalances, especially when funders from the Global North dominate agendas that do not always align with health research priorities in the Global South.  

The presenters in this session explore questions of who should ultimately be held accountable for ensuring equitable outcomes in a research partnership, whose voices are missing in the debate on accountability and responsibility. They also explore what acting responsibly in research partnerships mean from the perspective of the Global South, and how might this perspective challenge existing power structures between the Global North and the Global South.  

In the first presentation, Stella Kakeeto (and David Musoke) reflects on internal accountability, on institutional practices of Makerere University (Uganda) that undermine ethical research partnerships. She reflects on the responsibility of Southern institutions and the way in which they themselves sustain practices that undermine collaborative partnerships. In the second presentation, Sassy Molyneux will discuss accountability through a participatory approach as a means to establish and run a research partnership. Using this approach she will reflect on acting responsibly in a research partnership: on how international research programmes can ensure fairer research processes that protect frontline staff from moral distress.