Contribution:

I will bring examples from designing and implementing mentorship, curriculum and skills building initiatives that will spark a critical reflection on how to develop and co-create a new paradigm for knowledge exchange for comparative development. I would like to share my ten plus years working in international education in a field capacity where cross-cultural exchange was key to success. I will also draw on my more recent experience from working in higher education on fostering collaboration across sectors, fields and demographics.

Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:

This session will highlight two specific regional case studies to spark critical reflection and discussion around how to set the foundation for more equitable knowledge exchange, particularly in global development or cross-cultural programs. We will explore some challenges, failures, best practices and breakthroughs that occurred in the preparation, implementation and evaluation phases of global development programs in Amman, Jordan and in Humjibre, Ghana. How can such findings shape actionable next steps both in the field and in the teaching of global development subjects? Toward this end, we will share recent research, anecdotes and suggestions on how to embed 'co-creation' into these processes. Acknowledging the barriers to realizing a meaningful exchange in such evolving and often fluctuating contexts, we hope to begin to draw out some key questions, areas for further study and engagement strategies to move towards a more inclusive, transformative model of learning and knowledge-sharing. This session will resonate for those practitioners working on global and intercultural programs and also those working in and around training, teaching and learning, especially of global development and humanitarian subjects.

This presentation will also touch upon some of the larger questions at work in this panel and on the subject of an early design of a Knowledge Exchange Partnership for Comparative Development.