ABSTRACT
In recent years, the international development community has focused on designing effective partnership programmes to increase equity between the Global South and the Global North. Structural inequities have remained a major challenge in the development sector. Although discourse on ownership of programming has gained attention, easy solutions are not readily available. The central question in this chapter is two-fold: why does it take so long to include ‘Southern leadership’ in international development programming, and what will it take from the key actors involved to accelerate this process? The findings are related to a theoretical framework on the concept of power. The chapter is written by two practitioners who were involved in two successive international programmes in key positions on the Ghanaian and Dutch sides. They engaged in a dialogue in which they reflected on the long road to Southern leadership. The chapter is built around moments and processes in programming they identified as key for Southern leadership to grow. In practice, they encountered many obstacles. The chapter ends with suggestions of new relations, roles, and processes for overcoming these barriers, highlighting the relevance of having a genuine trust-based dialogue between the Global Southern CSOs and their Northern stakeholders.
