Ewen Le Borgne unpacks the importance of combining ‘hard science’ with the messy complexity of human nature and the huge potential that is held in exploring this upstream in a project. The change required to meet the needs of the issues we are facing, requires the “messiness of ideas, emotions and aspirations that Deliberate Dialogue is designed to hold space for.”

Almost 10 years ago I wrote a brief on partnerships within research for development. It posed a series of questions about partnerships, addressing their necessity, the partnership identification process, the value add of partnership, and becoming a partner that others want to work with. In hindsight, the brief was pretty common sense and straightforward and glossed over the very real stresses of challenges like Covid 19, conflict, and climate change.  Time to revisit this topic.