PARTNERSHIPS FOR EQUITY AND INCLUSION

Inequalities between different groups in society can be created and maintained by public services such as healthcare, education and local government. Discrimination within these services results in poorer access to services, worse outcomes and non-representation in decision-making. This kind of exclusion from public services is in turn linked to higher levels of poverty and unemployment, poorer health and less capacity to influence how society is governed compared to other social groups. This project will establish partnerships between communities that experience such exclusion, organisations that represent their interests, policymakers and academics to challenge the status quo and give these communities a voice in public service planning and decision-making.

We will create a Partnership between five international research projects covering 21 countries in Africa, Asia and North America, to identify common solutions to the above issues. We will make recommendations from the evidence that is already available on how public services can become more inclusive of disadvantaged groups in society. We will provide funding to test out some of these solutions on a small scale and see whether these have the potential to reduce the inequalities that some groups experience. This will help lay the ground for larger-scale research that evaluates the most promising solutions that could work across a range of disadvantaged groups and a range of countries.

This collaborative research will produce:

1) a policy briefing on evidence-based strategies that support public services to work fairly for everyone
2) an overview of recommended research methods and gaps in current evidence
3) two international workshops to discuss how and where inclusion strategies might work in practice
4) four to six pilot studies in low and middle-income countries supported by an international partnership
5) pilot reports describing methods and findings from each pilot study
6) recommendations about which potential solutions could be developed into a larger scale proposal and
7) an academic publication and accessible report bringing together knowledge from the individual pilots and highlighting a future research direction

Our Partnership aims to create a significant development in the field of research on equality and inclusion in society by bringing together researchers from different academic disciplines and by crossing public sector boundaries. We aim to produce new knowledge in and supporting contributions to diverse streams of evidence and publications with global relevance.

Impact will be achieved through learning opportunities, capacity building activities and the outputs from our international workshops and pilot studies and we are particularly focused on impact for members of excluded groups. Partners will ensure identified strategies and recommendations align to current policy, practice and community priorities to support maximum impact at local, national and international levels.

We anticipate that impacts from these activities will include increased understanding amongst all stakeholders of evidence-based approaches to social inclusion in public service settings. Learning opportunities will be facilitated within the partnership and between institutions and contexts through the knowledge exchange opportunities provided by international workshops and pilot study activities. Project activity will identify and promote socially inclusive practices within institutions and also highlight factors contributing to inconsistent, poor or discriminatory practice. This knowledge will be of benefit to all partners involved and to socially excluded populations in general. The research will strengthen and extend the international multisector networks involved, fostering evidence transfer between diverse disciplines and contexts and significantly increasing understanding of processes relating to the implementation of equity interventions.

Briefing papers and partnership support for pilot projects will result in capacity building for all stakeholders involved, strengthening research skills and promoting delivery of inclusive public services. Early career and doctoral researchers will benefit from the ambitious and innovative programme of work with more experienced colleagues as well as from capacity-building and networking opportunities such as evidence synthesis, international workshops and stakeholder engagement. Links to other networks and large research projects, including other GCRF funded strategic networks and studies to which partners are affiliated will widen individual and research group contacts. A number of other networks and projects relating to peacekeeping and education in conflict zones, health, urban development and transport inequalities have formal links with Co-is on the partnership and will collaborate on overlapping areas of interest. We will share our findings with members of these other partnerships and promote these to contribute to their outputs. Dissemination will target a variety of audiences and promote adoption of successful pilots to stimulate local, national and international action. We will link to other projects and networks that we identify or already work with eg Health Equity Network India, RinGs gender consortium and ARISE Hub for informal urban settlements.

Partnership activity will support academics to draw on and contribute to diverse streams of literature eg health sciences, education, peacebuilding and development studies, as well as implementation science, which currently pays sparse attention to population and system inequalities. Cross fertilisation of approaches developed in the individual projects that make up the Partnership will produce multidisciplinary perspectives and knowledge that cross public sector and disciplinary boundaries. This aspect of the project is ground breaking in that it addresses the lived experience of social exclusion in a holistic way rather than reproducing the fragmented perspectives that monodisciplinary approaches commonly produce. The partnership has potential to create a step change in the field of equity research, crossing disciplinary and public sector boundaries and supporting contributions to diverse streams of evidence and publications with global relevance. The pilots developed will inform future research proposals with significant policy and practice impact. This facilitated joint work will provide a solid foundation for continued engagement between Partnership participants after the project ends.