The art and practice of academic-practitioner collaboration: lessons from Bangladesh

The benefits of academic-practitioner (AcPrac) collaboration in international development are well-known, yet it is difficult to collaborate effectively. Drawing on the author’s first-hand experiences of working as a practitioner and a researcher, this reflection piece discusses the nuances of AcPrac collaborations in the context of Bangladesh. The paper argues that collaborative projects are often shaped by invisible contextual factors, such as power and identity. It presents BRAC’s case in Bangladesh as a successful example of academics and practitioners working together and proposes five principles for achieving impactful collaboration.