With wealth and knowledge increasing in many parts of the developing world, the interest in Southern academia is at historically high levels. Tertiary education is key in all stages of development, but especially for the growing middle class of nations in need of skilled and motivated entrepreneurs and employees. At the same time, high-quality research and innovation are essential ingredients for the competitiveness of national ‘knowledge economies’.

For many academic players in the developing world, teaching and research needs to safeguard independence, but should also contribute to development. In the specific area of knowledge exchange, new alliances have been built among policy, practice and academia in the last 18 months. 28 Southern universities and academic institutions have already come to the forefront of global and regional development policies by engaging in a coordinated analytical effort on South-South and triangular cooperation. Their case studies have informed a Good Practice Paper of the Task Team on South-South cooperation, and policy recommendations for the G20 development agenda and the upcoming Busan High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (see all documents here).

This process has enabled all actors to explore the critical role Southern academia can play in knowledge exchange. Citing the Bangkok Call (see [pdf]), Southern academicians “fully recognize our role and responsibility to support the collaborative idea of bridging policy, practice and analysis to foster informed and evidence-based Southern leadership at the national, regional and global level.”

In many countries, this already bears fruits, as governments are engaging with their national universities and research institutes not only as source of knowledge, but also in order to scale up the national capacities to share knowledge. Training public servants, and supporting monitoring and evaluation around South-South cooperation are examples of a new stage of academia-government collaboration.

In the future, these alliances are bound to become even stronger, as academia from developing countries are connecting to each other and exploring options for joint research, academic exchanges and collaboration for improving higher education policies.