The 3-member team from Mastercard Foundation included Ashley Collier (Head, Partnerships Scholars Program), Emily Gilfillan (Lead, Global Partners Scholars Program and Virginie Dias. They met with the ARUA Secretary-General, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, and staff of ARUA.

The discussions were informed by a presentation on “Developing New Partnerships to Address Global Development Challenges” made by Prof. Aryeetey. The presentation identified what he called the new conversations about international collaborations to facilitate global development research. He noted that in the new partnerships, there was the need to emphasize support for university-based research centres, long-term planning, new funding models, and ensuring equitable partnerships. He noted that ARUA’s recent experiences provided a good example of how such partnerships could be designed.

In discussions following the presentation the two sides discussed how the values and ethos of their institutions were aligned in the search for solutions to global development challenges, especially in providing opportunities for young people. The meeting agreed that there was an urgent need to strengthen the hand of universities in the global south as they sought to become equal partners with their counterparts in the global north in the conduct of research to tackle Africa’s development challenges. The meeting also discussed the need for new ways to incentivize researchers at African universities to see what works best in the conduct of research, while empowering universities to make bold decisions on how best they could be managed.

At the end of the meeting the two parties agreed to continue the conversation and explore ways in which they could collaborate in future to advance their ideals.