In this episode, Dr Kenneth Yakubu speaks with Dr Seye Abimbola to explore the everyday dynamics of building an equitable research partnership in Africa. Seye outlines different characteristics of research partnerships, and unpack the practical challenges around being a champion, along with the language and labelling that embodies it, especially in the context of partnership building in the African region.  

Dr Seye Abimbola is a health systems researcher from Nigeria. He is currently based at the University of Sydney in Australia, where his teaching and research focus on knowledge practices in global health, health system governance, and the adoption and scale up of health system innovations. He served as the inaugural editor in Chief of BMJ GH for nine years, significantly shaping the discourse of global health and the journal. 

We hope you enjoy listening to this podcast, if you do, please share your reflections and thoughts on LinkedIn and your other networks. 

If you have any feedback or ideas for us to include in the future episodes, please write to dsaluja@georgeinstitute.org 

About the series, ‘Ubuntu Reflections: Unpacking the everyday dynamics of building equitable partnerships’

Equitable research partnerships are central to advancing academic global health, particularly to break the power hierarchies, strengthening local capacities and engaging communities in a meaningful manner. However, very little is known about the practical experiences and challenges of navigating and implementing the recommendations provided in the literature (in the form of dos and don’ts) in everyday engagement towards building and strengthening global health partnerships. 

In this series, we attempt to extend the conversation through discussing practical experiences, examples and learnings from experts based in different regions, and unpack these less talked about layers of building equitable partnerships on an everyday basis, what does it entail, the challenges encountered, and tools used to navigate these challenges. 

This series builds on our existing work at the Ubuntu Initiative.

Related item ‘Why does embracing Ubuntu matter for authentic research partnerships?’