By Francis Anthony Reffell and Yirah Oryanks Conteh FEDURP/CODOHSAPA’s slogan is, “upgrade where possible and relocate where necessary”. This is what guided us when Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr asked us to advise on CrabTong/Kolleh Tong/Grey Bush (CKG) and Kingtom, two neighbourhoods seated on the Bomeh dumpsite. Living among hazards Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, was […]
By Vinodkumar Rao and Smruti Jukur with the support of SPARC Nearly half of Mumbai lives in slums, some on uninhabitable lands – within an arm’s length of speeding trains or on pavements with their living overflowing on to the adjacent street. The state Government of Maharashtra (where Mumbai is situated) has made a lot […]
By Wafa Alam, Tasnuva Wahed and Bachera Aktar Informal settlements are not a one-dimensional box. Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman, BRAC Chairperson At a recent workshop, stakeholders discussed the health, well being, housing and water and sanitation related challenges faced by the residents and the governance systems in urban informal settlements. They talked about important issues […]
READ THE CHARTER: https://www.copasah.net/uploads/1/2/6/4/12642634/copasah_sa_charter_and_call_to_action.pdf We had the good fortune to attend a webinar where COPASAH launched their new Charter and Call to Action for Social Accountability for Health. This comes hot on the heels of the successful Symposium which was held in New Delhi in October. The Charter is grounded in human rights, particularly the […]
By Rachel Tolhurst, Shrutika Murthy, Lana Whittaker, Prasanna Saligram and Surekha Garimella ‘Our rights, your accountability’ was a slogan used by social accountability practitioners from around the world at the COPASAH Global Symposium. Human rights are a fundamental underpinning of many people’s movements to demand accountability for health equity. But how do we understand rights […]
By Wafa Alam, Shafinaz Sobhan and Bachera Aktar Everyday many young men and women migrate to Dhaka city from rural areas of Bangladesh in search of work and in hope of a better life. Many of these people end up in informal settlements where they live in unhealthy and unsafe conditions, often subjected to harassment. […]
Involving community researchers and the broader community in the development and validation of priorities, study tools, data collection processes, data analysis, interpretation and action planning is important to the quality of the CBPR process. Consistently engaging the community in monitoring the progress of community activities and gaining their reflexive accounts of the actions ensures rigour within the research process.
Capacities (competencies and conditions)
●Awareness of trustworthiness criteria that draw on critical epistemologies
●Ability to assess and develop contextualised code of research ethics including safeguarding
●Capacity to undertake validation exercises with stakeholders and the wider community to ensure the study is relevant, accepted and supported
●Ongoing learning, quality assessment and safeguarding assessment
●Capacity to contextualise research materials that value local ways of knowing and knowledge production
●Knowledge on how to engage in and apply reflexivity, considering positionality with regard to research findings, to strengthen rigour and trustworthiness
●Ability to triangulate different sources of information to determine research priorities, approach and actions
●Rigorous research findings which draw on trustworthiness criteria
●Generalisable research processes that can enhance CBPR techniques
●Community based research that is robust and adds value to communities, policies and practices
●Community members learn research skills, gain access to resources, and find ways to legitimate their knowledge, which have previously been limited by a history of exclusionary research practices
●After the research partnership has undertaken a process of prioritisation, and before conceptualising the research, validate the priorities and incorporate additional context to increase trustworthiness in the process
●Design research analysis and interpretation procedures that involve community researchers and associated stakeholders
●Have an outsider to help increase the rigour and real and perceived validity of the research
●Conduct data interpretation sessions to discuss interpretations, add context to information collected, and facilitate a better understanding of project documentation
●Triangulate data sources and add participant checking
●Undertake co-analysis activities with co-researchers and stakeholders
●Increase the reliability of the study by developing and using a case study protocol and a chain of evidence
●Design survey and interview questions that are culturally aligned enhancing the fit of the research with the implementing context
●Identify relational and situated ethical and safeguarding concepts and approaches that best fit the specific context and the process-oriented nature of CBPR (25)
●Constructive negotiation with gatekeeping bodies such as funders and research ethics committees to increase understanding of appropriate approaches
●Engage co-researchers and community members during the research tool preparation to cover all the essential aspects of the research including safeguarding risks
Utilise quality criteria to evaluate the CBPR process – see Springett, Atkey (26) and Sandoval, Lucero (27
●Documentation on the translation and adaptation of the materials and quality assurance processes through minutes and notes on discussions and engagement within the team and with stakeholders
●Documentation of research validation processes
●Documentation of discussion during triangulation of findings
●Case studies/stories/blogs that show reflexivity processes
●Peer reviewed publications
●Audio or notes from community validation processes
●NVivo or other screenshots showing quality checking processes
●Development and use of a case study protocol and the development of a database and a chain of evidence to improve reliability of the study
*Please note that some statements are adaptations or direct quotes from the papers listed in the reference section