Knowledge Partnerships for Development: What Challenges for Evaluation?

Building upon the case study evaluation of the training partnership between the World Bank and the University of Sao Paulo, the paper highlights the challenges to evaluate knowledge partnerships for institutional development. The paper reconstructs the underlying theory of the partnership policy vis-a`-vis the current literature on development and knowledge networks. The evaluation focuses on the organizational structure of partners, their institutional opportunities and constraints. The analysis explores different types of conflict of interest, risk, and accountabilities, considering partnership as a global management reform policy in the field of higher education, research and development. The evaluation shows that partnership favours organizational change through codified and tacit knowledge transfers, and that tangible and intangible benefits and costs reinforce with each other. Yet, global and national implications arise as to how to assure partnership management vis-a`-vis lack of formal authority and enduring asymmetries in power relations