Global South study group South to South mentoring update
In June 2023, the DSA announced its intentions to roll out a South-to-South mentoring scheme running over 10 months. As of March 2024, ten mentors and mentees (out of 32 applicants from across disciplines) were selected from the pilot programme, which was promoted through the DSA’s global South Study group.
The initiative was set up in response to the exclusion of scholars based in the global South from northern-dominated circuits, which undermines the quality of scholarship.
The Development Studies Association mentoring group aimed to contribute to reducing this exclusion through a South-to-South mentoring approach involving mentors and mentees from the global South, who have direct experience operating in low and medium-income countries. The ultimate goal was to enhance global South-based scholars’ ability to overcome the more overt exclusion based on limited exposure to scholarly discourse, opportunities and experiences enjoyed by their global North based peers.
As a pilot programme, the mentor scheme is also about learning what could make future initiatives more successful. However eight mentorships are active and the following achievement have been made:
- four mentees have had at least one conference paper accepted, including DSA2024
- one mentee is working on a book publication arising out of his PhD thesis
- six partnerships have regularly submitted quarterly progress reports
- one mentee has had an article accepted for publication in a journal.
In terms of learnings, the global South Study group has identified the need for a coordinator to contact the partnerships regularly to maintain momentum. Partnerships where the mentor and mentee are from the same field of study benefit from greater communication and understanding. Time conflicts and busy schedules also made it challenging for arranging regular and timely meetings.
The pilot phase ends in May 2024, when an independent evaluation will determine whether the program should be launched at scale.
Dr. Tuesday Gichuki, the coordinator of the mentoring scheme, representative of the global South study group and Council Member of the Development Studies Association said:
“Coordinating the s2s mentoring pilot scheme has been an exciting journey. The very motivated mentors and mentees have been a real inspiration. A lot was achieved, friendships were developed and both mentors and mentees had something positive to say about the program. Some of the challenges faced were related to the lack of resources to enable face-to-face interaction between the mentors and mentees, as well as supporting internet costs. Pairing mentors and mentees was also a challenge, considering the wide array of professional and academic backgrounds. It is my hope that this scheme will go a long way in assisting scholars from the global South enhance their chances of being published.”