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Addressing power imbalances in co-production

Nature Climate Change volume 10, pages 877–878 (2020)Cite this article

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Co-production is an increasingly popular approach to knowledge generation encouraged by donors and research funders. However, power dynamics between institutions in the Global North and South can, if not adequately managed, impede the effectiveness of co-production and pose risks for long-term sustainability.

Climate services aim to facilitate the provision of weather and climate information in ways that enable these to be accessible and useful for decision making1. This is best achieved through co-production, which is a method that brings users of climate information into the knowledge generation process, as opposed to viewing them solely as recipients of it. Donors and research funders in the Global North have embraced co-production of climate services as an opportunity to support their strategic goals of addressing knowledge gaps, building capacity and enabling technology transfer, because co-production promotes partnering of Northern and Southern institutions to generate information that aids climate-resilient development. Example initiatives where co-production of climate services is funded by the Global North and implemented in the Global South include Future Climate for Africa and Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa, as well as those under the Global Framework for Climate Services2. However, there is currently limited evidence for the sustainability of co-produced climate services beyond the lifespan of funded projects.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported through two funding sources: the Future Climate for Africa programme, with financial support from the UK Government’s DFID and the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), grant refs. NE/M020010/1 (Kulima), NE/M020347/1 (UCT) and NE/M020428/1 (CEH); and the Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) programme, funded by the UK Department for International Development (project contract no. P104414). We thank D. Conway, E. Archer, D. Kniveton, C. Audia, S. Moosa, J. Araujo, A. McClure and C. Jack for comments on earlier drafts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kulima Integrated Development Solutions (Pty) Ltd., Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

    Katharine Vincent

  2. SouthSouthNorth, Cape Town, South Africa

    Suzanne Carter

  3. Climate System Analysis Group, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Anna Steynor & Katinka Lund Wågsæther

  4. UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK

    Emma Visman

  5. Department of Geography, King’s College London, London, UK

    Emma Visman

Authors
  1. Katharine Vincent
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  2. Suzanne Carter
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  3. Anna Steynor
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  4. Emma Visman
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  5. Katinka Lund Wågsæther
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Contributions

All authors conceived the work jointly; K.V. drafted the initial text with inputs from S.C., A.S. and E.V.; K.L.W. provided critical comments.

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Correspondence to Katharine Vincent.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Vincent, K., Carter, S., Steynor, A. et al. Addressing power imbalances in co-production. Nat. Clim. Chang. 10, 877–878 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00910-w

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