Partnering and Health Development
The Kathmandu Connection

Melville Kerr

About the Book

Since 1981, the University of Calgary has partnered with the Institutes of Medicine and Engineering of Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal. It has collaborated with Davao Medical School Foundation in Davao, Mindanao in the Philippines since 1987 and with other institutions in Asia and Latin America. Dr. Kerr describes here the process and products of these partnerships and provides a detailed analysis of the positive and negative outcomes of the "Kathmandu connection." He explores the ambiguous language in which discourse on "development" is conducted, examines the diversity of forms that institutional cooperation can take, and advocates a practice of partnering for mutual benefit. The author deplores current systems of medical education and health systems in the South and attributes their weaknesses to ill-conceived interventions from the North. He argues that lessons learned in the South are pertinent to the contemporary crisis in participatory democracy and health services in the North.

About the Author

Dr. Melville Kerr graduated in Medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1955 and trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has held academic positions at the University of Edinburgh and McMaster University and was appointed to the University of Calgary in 1977. He was Director of the new Division of International Development of the International Centre at the University of Calgary from 1986 to 1992. This appointment was based on his close association since 1976 with the Institute of Medicine of Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. Later that same decade, he helped to establish a similar connection in Davao. Other linkages were forged with institutions in Thailand, India, Bhutan, and several countries in Latin America. Since the mid-seventies, the author has been preoccupied with the practice and ideas of institutional partnering and participatory health development. Dr. Kerr is Professor Emeritus in the Office of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, the University of Calgary.

Table of Contents

1. Tribhuvan University, Nepal
2. The Kathmandu Connection
3. The Costs and Benefits of the Kathmandu Connection
4. Davao Medical School Foundation, Mindanao
5. The Davao Connection
6. The Division of International Development, the University of Calgary
7. The Idea of Developing
8. The Idea of Partnering
9. The Practice of Health Development
10. Universities as Institutional Partners
11. Official Development Assistance and Institutional Partnering

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