Abstract:
Disparity in economic development between high-income
countries (HICs) and low- and medium-income countries (LMICs)
has necessitated collaborations, some in health-related activities.
Globalisation frameworks indicate that, in fair collaborations,
the ultimate aim should be to improve the situation in LMICs. In
this paper we present the findings of a research study in which
we used Aristotle’s concept of friendship among unequal parties
as an analytic framework to engage with the issue of inequality
in an existing international partnership in health, the Indiana
University–Kenya Partnership (IU-Kenya Partnership). This is a
collaborative health programme involving a consortium of North
American universities and schools of the Moi University College of
Health Sciences in Kenya. We carried out in-depth oral interviews
and focus group discussions with a sample of 41 partners of
various IU–Kenya Partnership programmes. We did a comparison
of obtained themes to the Aristotelian pointers of aspects of
friendship among unequal parties. We eventually identified good
and bad aspects of North–South partnerships as perceived in the
IU–Kenya Partnership restricted to the Aristotelian model.
