Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration: A Relational, Partnership Model for Building Educational Capacity Between a High- and Low-Income University

Abstract

Educational partnerships between academic health sciences centers in high- and low-resource settings are often formed as attempts to address health care disparities. In this Perspective, the authors describe the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration (TAAAC), an educational partnership between the University of Toronto and Addis Ababa University. The TAAAC model was designed to help address an urgent need for increased university faculty to teach in the massive expansion of universities in Ethiopia. As TAAAC has developed and expanded, faculty at both institutions have recognized that the need to understand contextual factors and to have clarity about funding, ownership, expertise, and control are essential elements of these types of collaborative initiatives. In describing the TAAAC model, the authors aim to contribute to wider conversations and deeper theoretical understandings about these issues.

Perspectives and Solutions from Clinical Trainees and Mentors Regarding Ethical Challenges During Global Health Experiences

“…Trainees were critical of one-time, short-term experiences, which they stated are more extractive and unilateral (mostly or only beneficial to the visiting trainee) and create a substandard system of care for populations with significant health and other needs. Since longitudinal engagement is a wellknown best practice, further efforts in developing systems for long-term partnerships is needed [19].…”

Passing the microphone: broadening perspectives by amplifying underrepresented voices

“…Within the TAAAC partnership, a key principle is that UofT teaches into the AAU curriculum (Alam et al 2010 ; Meshkat et al 2018 ; Wondimagegn et al 2018 ). UofT faculty members are ‘invited guests’ who co-teach and co-develop teaching materials that AAU colleagues are free to modify and adapt.…”

“…We consider the under-representation of certain voices and/or contexts to be an important area of absence that requires further examination. We write this piece as a group of educators and scholars who are part of a longstanding high income country (HIC)-low income country (LIC) partnership between the University of Toronto (UofT) and Addis Ababa University (AAU) (Wondimagegn et al 2018 ). The Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration (TAAAC) relies on a commitment to long term engagement with a focus on building strong relationships as part of our continued work together.…”

Development of a pediatric ophthalmology academic partnership between Canada and Ethiopia: a situational analysis

“…One existing model for the delivery of postgraduate medical training (i.e. residency and fellowship) in Ethiopia is the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration (TAAAC) [11][12][13][14][15]. It was established in 2008 as a collaboration between the psychiatry departments of the University of Toronto (UofT) and Addis Ababa University (AAU), with the goal of developing a residency program to support the training and retention of psychiatrists in Ethiopia [16].…”