Consortium for Development Partnerships

The Consortium for Development Partnerships is a research organization linking different research institutes in West Africa, Europe and the US. It aims to develop a research programme that is policy relevant, build research capacity within the institutes involved and further research collaboration between the different institutes and researchers. Founded by CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa) and the Programme of African Studies at Northwestern University, US, the consortium was set up in the Netherlands in 2004. The first research projects were carried out in 2006-2007 (final narrative report) and the second phase of research started at the end of 2009 thanks to a large grant from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The consortium is headed by CODESRIA, with active support from the ASC. Prof. Mirjam de Bruijn is part of the steering committee on behalf of the ASC.  The ASC is responsible for three of the eight research projects:
 

• Local Governance and Decentralization
• Local Dynamics of Conflict and Peacebuilding
• Media and Voice in Democracy

The activities in the second phase started with meetings in Ibadan, Nigeria and Bamako, Mali to draw up a common framework for methodology for the project researchers. Each sub-project will reach out to policy and decision makers at national and regional levels. Data collection and fieldwork are scheduled for April-September 2010 and draft reports will be presented at a restitution workshop in December 2010. A final workshop will be held in 2011 to finalize the synthesis reports and link the research results to policy discussions.