With Eunice Phillip, PGR student, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
All seminars online. Please contact sue.davis@nottingham.ac.uk for the link. Subject to change.
Part of the Environment and Society Seminar Series.
Eunice Phillip. PhD Scholar (Global Health) Yr. 2. Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI)
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is well established as an approach to engage and integrate community voices in research. Despite this, little is known about community members' perspectives of the approach and how the different constructs influence capacity building for change.
Using a qualitative case study design, this PhD study aims to implement, explore, and evaluate the CBPR approach in a household and ambient air pollution in a rural community in Malawi.
Between August and November 2021 (study phase 1), fifteen key informant interviews (community members, research team, policymaker, relevant organisation members), community mapping exercise, informal interviews, and four photovoice group discussions were conducted to inform the CBPR approach.
The key informants' data shows engaging the community, recognising power imbalance, respect for cultural and social norms, providing incentives, recognising local knowledge, and equitable decision making as necessary component of CBPR.
Integration of these findings has shaped the communication style of the project, informed distribution of incentives, and increased the community's engagement and total buy-in of the project. In addition, informal interviews and photovoice group discussions provided insight into the value placed by the community members on open dialogue, research team engagement in community activities, and respect for cultural and community norms. In subsequent project phases, these baseline findings and insight will be integrated into the CBPR approach to inform outcome evaluation.