Relevance of International Collaborations in Promoting Sustainable Development: The Case of IU-Kenya Partnership

Sustainable development goal number 17 (SDG 17) focuses on international collaboration contemplating the amelioration of the socio-economic situation in low and medium income countries and the responsibility of the developed partners towards this end. Such a vision is influenced by the ideals of utilitarian and egalitarian nature of a responsible constituency of a greater part of the global society which acknowledges the value of shared vulnerability and shared future. The IU-Kenya Partnership, a health collaborative partnership involving a consortium of a number of North American universities and schools of Moi University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS) in Kenya is highlighted in this study as an epitome of such collaboration. This paper is part of a study conducted to show how IU-Kenya Partnership is a form of global North-South ‘unequal friendship’ and whose benefits particularly to ‘inferior’ party in the partnership are enormous. The qualitatively descriptive and analytical study had field research carried between January and April 2017 within IU-Kenya Partnership programmes at MUCHS, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) and Academic Model Providing Access to Health care (AMPATH) Kenya. Co-Directors of AMPATH Research Network, Co-field Research Directors of AMPATH Research, Co-chairpersons of AMPATH Research Working Groups and Cores, principal investigators in collaborative health research projects under the IU-Kenya Partnership and students within the IU-Kenya Partnership programmes were purposively sampled for in-depth oral interviews and focus group discussions. This paper argues that, in the spirit of SDG 17, international collaborations could be used as vehicles for sustainable development in low and medium income countries as it is demonstrated by the success in the thirty year old IU-Kenya Partnership in improving health situation in western Kenya. The paper opines that the situation of the IU-Kenya Partnership ought to be replicated elsewhere in Kenya and the world. There should be measures to ensure that there is also mutual development of partners for global north-south partnerships and genuine empowerment for sustainable development.

Keywords: Sustainable Development, Global Collaboration, IU-Kenya Partnership, Replication.