Paper short abstract:

The two decades of research partnership between the University of Cape Coast and Durham University has produced ten research projects, 40 scientific papers, 12 Doctorates and various master's students. This reciprocal partnership provides a template for long-lasting capacity building architecture.

Paper long abstract:

Ghana has been collaborating with varied European institutions in a wide range of disciplines including education, agriculture, governance and economy and at different platforms like governmental, institutional, and individual levels as manifested in collaborations with the British Council and the Department for International Development. A couple of examples of such long-standing academic collaborations is the two decades of research partnership between the University of Cape Coast in Ghana and the Durham University, UK. There is a general narrative that such collaborations are dominated by the western partners, with African researchers only involved in research data collection. This paper seeks to highlight the key drivers that have led to how the co-production of knowledge between the two institutions have resulted in impactful reciprocal achievements during the last twenty years, serving as a model for other intended partnerships. The partnership has produced ten cutting-edge international and inter-disciplinary research projects in the areas of transport and mobilities, mobile phones usage and livelihoods, health systems research focusing on trust in medicinal transactions and mapping medicines supply chain. These studies have directly led to the publication of about 40 scientific papers, support for doctorate and master’s degree students in Africa. In all, it involved 12 Doctorates and a host of master’s degree students as well as about 80 researchers from various universities and research institutions worldwide. This type of Europe-Africa reciprocal partnership provides a template for effective collaborative research that has transcended even into a South-South collaboration and long-lasting capacity building architecture.