Waste workers-otherwise known as sanitation workers-are often made invisible due to informal work arrangements. In India, as in other parts of the world, sanitation workers tend to be from the oppressed and marginalized communities with little access to healthcare and quality health services. This despite, their work being highly important to society and exposing them […]
Co-production requires dismantling existing power hierarchies. As such, it can support decolonising knowledge generation and fostering inclusive and equitable relationships with diverse (and at times) marginalised actors participating in health governance, research and decision-making. Decolonising knowledge production recognises that expertise lies with those communities directly affected by health inequities and challenges as well as other […]
Decolonising health research requires a shift to inclusive processes, and actively engaging with communities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) fosters collaboration among communities, researchers, and implementers to produce contextual knowledge for action. Enhancing co-production skills and competencies has been shown to improve research quality and validity, while CBPR principles have been developed, limited guidance exists on […]
Waste pickers in India are extremely vulnerable to a range of health problems due to their poor living and unsafe working conditions, and struggle to access the health services they are entitled to. This research uses a community-based participatory research and focuses specifically on vector-borne diseases in two districts of Andhra Pradesh, exploring how they […]
In Kenya, the pregnancy rate of 15% among adolescents aged 15–19 years is alarmingly high. Adolescent girls living in informal urban settlements are exposed to rapid socio-economic transitions and multiple intersecting health risks and may be particularly disadvantaged in accessing sexual reproductive health services. Understanding vulnerabilities and service-seeking behaviours from different perspectives is important in order […]
In this episode of the Health Policy and Planning Podcast, LSHTM’s Public Engagement Manager, Karl Byrne is joined by our colleague Linet Okoth from LVCT Health. They talk about her paper “Policy and practices shaping the delivery of health services to pregnant adolescents in informal urban settlements in Kenya.” It’s a fascinating conversation that covers […]
This photo-narrative book was developed with community members from Green Land (Khulna), Bajekazla (Rajshahi) and Shyampur (Dhaka) communities, as part of the ARISE Responsive Fund in Bangladesh. It tells the stories of how many marginalised people in urban informal settlements of Bangladesh were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they came together to respond […]
Abstract People in informal urban settlements in Kenya face multiple inequalities, yet researchers investigate issues such as HIV or intimate partner violence (IPV) in isolation, targeting single populations and focusing on individual behaviour, without involving informal settlement dwellers. We formed a study team of researchers (n = 4) and lay investigators (n = 11) from an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya to […]
Beyond several interests and speculations on the relationship between formal and informal actors and their networks in support of vulnerable populations, most studies do not conclusively establish whether the two types of support are substitutes or complements. While informal care and formal care may be substitutes in general, they are complements among the vulnerable groups. […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a significant burden on psychosocial health and wellbeing of childcare providers. The need to support childcare managers has been recognized. However, there is to date little research specifically on how best to support the mental health needs of childcare providers, and no studies on their own experiences and views about what might be […]
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