This blog was written for World Cities Day, 31 October 2020. The theme this year is Valuing Our Communities and Cities. People in informal urban settlements deserve our support and solidarity. In the blog we explore how they are experiencing some of the secondary effects of COVID-19 and mechanisms that could strengthen the ways that […]
A webinar on 5 November 2020, 10:00-11:30am CET (Geneva) organised by the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, bringing together findings from six countries featuring our colleague Francis Reffell. COVID-19 has a disproportionately large impact on vulnerable populations globally, including but not limited to slum dwellers and migrant workers. These populations often have limited […]
By Abu Conteh, Mary Sirah Kamara and Samuel Saidu Freetown is home to over one million people, with over 68 informal settlements spread across precarious land spaces. These settlements are often built on marginal lands around sea fronts, dumpsites and on dangerous mountain peaks, which always constitute high risks, but are made worse during health […]
By Lynda Keeru On 1 July 2020, UKCDR hosted a webinar titled, “Preventing harm in research – safeguarding in international development research.” The webinar came a few months after UKCDR’s launch of the guidance on safeguarding in international development research in a bid to ensure the highest safeguarding standards in this context. UK funders of international […]
By Lynda Keeru On May 24th 2020, CNN published an article titled “Coronavirus is killing more men. But the lockdown is disastrous for women and their rights.” “The novel coronavirus seems to be more deadly for men. But in many other ways, women are bearing the brunt of this pandemic. From a spike in domestic […]
By Mohamed Bangura, Mohamed Santigie Sesay, Sinneh Turay, Hafsatu Kamara and Zakiatu Sesay Being part of a team of co-researchers training for the ARISE Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) was an amazing experience. This sentiment was shared by a cross section of co-researchers at pre-exploratory research training in Freetown. Three slum communities are being targeted: […]
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