Principles of Local and Global Engagement

Key components and actions

• Commitment to long-term relationships: Jointly enter into research and education partnerships with a mutual intent to maintain long-term, collaborative relationships.
• Shared vision and long-term goals: Co-develop with all partners a shared vision with long-term goals for the partnership, including how it can grow, evolve, and be sustained over time. During co-development, include plans to review jointly and recurrently the vision and goals to determine where there may be future opportunities for each partner to leverage the partnership and project outcomes for a range of purposes in the long term.
• Understanding of existing partnerships: Identify collaborators working with others in the Department who may have existing partnerships in the same community or country of the proposed engagement.
• Commitment to supporting other collaborations: Support and facilitate collaborations among partners and networks, including South-South and triangular collaborations.

Key components and actions

• Mutual benefit: Co-define and mutually agree upon the potential benefits among all partners for research, education, and community programs. The co-defined benefits should be recognized as valuable by each partner. Mutually agree upon how the benefits of the program will be equitably shared among all partners.
• Reciprocal opportunities: Co-define and mutually agree upon how research and education engagements will provide reciprocal opportunities for all partners, including, for example, support for bidirectional exchange opportunities for students, junior professionals, or faculty.
• Mutual and inclusive participation: Co-define and mutually agree upon each partner’s roles and expected participation in proposed activities, with attention to equity and inclusion, and given the scope of the partnership.
• Bidirectional communication: Co-develop bidirectional communication channels to provide all partners with equitable and reciprocal opportunities to share and receive information and jointly participate in key decisions.
• Mutual respect: Build and sustain mutual respect within the partnership and for all partners, communities, and individuals involved, with attention to respect for diversity and community or country-specific contexts.
• Reciprocal learning and capacity building: Co-develop strategies with partners to ensure that learning and capacity building are reciprocal for all partners, with attention to the complementary strengths of each. Jointly identify and map competencies regularly to highlight both the strengths and the capacity building opportunities for all partners as they evolve.
• Mutual engagement with budgets: To the extent possible, jointly review budget and other financial matters to work toward mutual benefit and reciprocity. Consider from the outset how to incorporate reciprocal opportunities and capacity building into the budget, so that a process is in place to invest in and support these activities for the mutual benefit of all partners.
• Equitable authorship: Co-develop and mutually agree upon a plan for authorship prior to beginning any manuscripts or publications, including authors to be listed; author order; and how publication fees will be paid. In co-developing an authorship plan, recognize and attribute due credit to each contributor’s work, with attention to equitable and inclusive representation of local authorship where the research was conducted. Guided by ICMJE authorship guidelines, we understand that various political, strategic, or other factors may influence authorship, including circumstances which may impact if contributors should or should not be listed. In such circumstances, ensure decisions are mutually and transparently agreed upon among all partners.

Key components and actions

• Recognize and address power dynamics: Jointly communicate openly and respectfully to recognize and address any inequitable power dynamics that may influence governance within a partnership.
• Shared and inclusive decision-making: Co-develop and mutually agree upon mechanisms for shared decision-making around research and programmatic matters, with attention to inclusive participation and incorporating diverse forms of expertise.
• Bidirectional and inclusive communication strategies: Co-develop and mutually agree upon strategies to ensure communication lines are open and inclusive of all partners’ languages. Communication strategies should include identifying bidirectional translation and interpretation needs among all partners and allocation of resources toward ensuring that language is not a barrier to participation, providing expertise, or decision-making.
• Transparent decision-making: Co-develop and mutually agree upon transparent decision-making processes, so that all partners are aware of processes as the project moves forward.
• Clear structures for governance: Co-develop and mutually agree upon a clear structure for governance, including how power is distributed.
• Transparent and equitable resource management: Co-develop and mutually agree upon a transparent resource management plan. Transparently communicate resource and funding allocations and justifications. Manage resources, including budget, equitably given the scope of the partnership, funding parameters, and within the context of each partner’s roles and needs.
• Transparent and ongoing monitoring of the partnership: Co-develop and mutually agree upon a monitoring plan for the partnership, including processes to make adjustments as needed.

Key components and actions

• Commitment to long-term relationships: Jointly enter into research and education partnerships with a mutual intent to maintain long-term, collaborative relationships.
• Prevention of unintended consequences: Pay attention to preventing unintended consequences. Be aware that research and education engagements are never entirely neutral; anticipate and make every effort to prevent potential harms, and if harms do occur, these should be acknowledged, discussed, and addressed.
• Awareness of long-term impacts: Consider both the short- and long-term impacts of the proposed research, education, or community program. Pay attention to the community and/or country health, economic, legal, and political systems, and resources, and determine the potential for programs, activities, and outcomes to be maintained in the long term.
• Awareness of political, legal, and social environments: Consider the political, legal, and social environments that programs are operating within and understand the potential risks to communities, individuals, and partners involved. Assessment of these environments and the potential risks is critical throughout all stages of a program, as circumstances may change and there may be implications in design, implementation, and in mitigating any consequences. Pay particular attention to the risks for vulnerable communities and individuals.

Key components and actions

• Engagement of local partners: Engage with local partners in identifying and addressing local interests, priorities, needs, and concerns, with attention to diverse and inclusive perspectives. Engagement with local partners should occur prior to project design or submission of proposals and should be sustained throughout programs to ensure that programs are driven by local partner input from the outset and continue to guide the program as it evolves over time.
• Alignment with local priorities: Align research, education, and community engagements with locally identified priorities, and adjust priorities as needed in response to local feedback and social events.
• Awareness of current policy landscape: Identify and maintain awareness of national and local policies relevant to the intended program, as they may impact feasibility.
• Awareness of existing work: Identify and maintain awareness of existing work relevant to the community or country, so as not to interfere with, conflict with, or duplicate ongoing work.

Key components and actions

• Ethical conduct: Maintain the highest standards for ethical conduct in research, education, and community programs, regardless of geographic location. Be aware of and respect local and in-country ethical standards and practices.
• Approval from all appropriate ethics boards: Engage with and seek approval not only from USC, but also from local ethics or institutional review boards where the program is taking place.
• Respect for community rights: Be aware of the rights of communities including respect for local land, property, and culture.
• Awareness and understanding of laws and implications: Be aware of and understand national and subnational laws, regulations, or standards and what implications any harmful laws may have for potential risks to participants. Respect and comply with local laws, as relevant to the program or topic, and without compromise of do no harm.

Key components and actions

• Equitable and transparent data ownership: Co-develop and mutually agree upon plans for equitable and transparent data ownership among all partners, with attention to how and through which platforms data and results will be utilized and disseminated and by whom. Co-development should include joint review of funder requirements, including around data availability, to ensure that all partners are aware of these from the outset.
• Equitable dissemination to communities: Co-develop with local partners dissemination plans to ensure that the data and results are shared back with the communities that participated in the research or education programs. Dissemination should also include attention to local contexts to ensure that this information is communicated in appropriate and inclusive languages and settings.
• Accessible dissemination: Promote accessible dissemination of information within the wider research community. When possible, publish open access to increase the accessibility of scholarly information to all who might find the work of interest.
• Institutional awareness within USC: Identify and engage with other USC actors conducting research or education programs with the same community or geographic location, and actively share out information for the purposes of coordination and consistency in messaging of USC-affiliated engagements.

Key components and actions

• Accountability for evaluation of programs: Co-develop and mutually agree upon accountability mechanisms for evaluation of how research, education, or community programs are conducted.
• Accountability to communities and individuals impacted: Co-develop accountability mechanisms for evaluation of the impact of research and education programs on communities and individuals involved.
• Accountability to other partners: Co-develop and mutually agree upon accountability mechanisms for jointly fulfilling obligations to any other relevant actors, given the context and any pre-existing requirements.
• Accountability to the partnership: Co-develop and mutually agree upon accountability mechanisms for evaluation of the partnership itself. Evaluation of the partnership should include attention to mutual benefit and reciprocity and equitable governance.