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Hello everyone,
I am a nurse and I have just worked for community engagement for few years. I started my job after my colleagues have conducted the study for a while. So I did not have experience about Formative Research Activities. However I have heard some from my colleague what they have done.
I would like to know more methodology we work for Formative Research Activities. Who should I started with and how to approach them if I were a new one in area( I do not know anyone)?
I hope my classmates who have many experiences about community can give me your experiences about this.
Thank you very much for your help.
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Dear Ann,
I do not know if I understand well what you mean by community leaders, we commonly use local authorities who are leaders from District level to the village level, I would even include on that level, Directors of division from our line Ministry which is Ministry of Health. Then, we have central level which composed with Director of Units, Director Generals, Ministers, etc.
When we do initial formative research activities, we work with the local authorities, because in Rwanda, there is any messages or activities done in the community without approval from community leaders, some do, but even if you trial to do that without approval, the sustainability of your activities is not guaranty. There is a group in the community who is in charge of reviewing all materials(brochures, presentations etc). They do that because they want to minimize the duplication of activities in the community, or to see if the messages are appropriates according to Rwandan context. So they are involved because they even review materials and give inputs or suggestions if necessary.
Regarding the design and conduct of initial formative research activities, I would say that Research team together with community team from sponsors draft design research activities, CAG would be invited to provide their inputs. Then, local authorities who is in charge of Research on District level, will be given documents regarding the research activities for review, which in most cases they do not change contents, but at list they know what is being done, or they provides suggestions that would help in better achievement of the activities planned.
A part of having documents reviewed by the local authorities, they contribute in getting the right potential participants, and choosing the best recruitment sites, they also available when media needs to talk to them about research trial done in their community.
Totally agree to add on what we have been doing with local authorities, we would definitely think how to incorporate local expertise and input by doing Focus Group Discussions, interviews or surveys. I have never think that before and it is really interesting and feasible.
As now we are doing research on the family planning with Ring Plus, looking the safety and accessibility of product; we have been doing many FGD and individual interviews for participants and partners. The participants showed that they actually like the ring for diverse reason, we are planning to have meetings and do surveys with leaders who make policies, to see what they think about providing the ring to the Rwandan population in the future. so I think, instead of doing a surveys, we would do Focus Group Discussion, or individual interviews, it would give more information, because at that point you will be able to probe for more information.
So, based on what we are learning, I think we need to improve, and get more information by organizing FGDs and individual interviews to our Local authorities (community leaders)
MMU
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Jau and others:
To what extent have you used key community leaders or representatives in the design and conduct of initial formative research activities? Or, based on what you have learned in the training, would you consider doing more of this in the future, in order to incorporate local expertise and input– like with focus groups, interviews, or surveys, for example?
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How to penetrate, one needs to move with their research identity card, sometimes a an introductory letter from the organisation, and you should have the basic information regarding what you want to introduce to the community. If you are not a scientist have the basic information, if you plan to meet a key stakeholder, on your team have a scientist who will explain the proposed trial to the team.
The stakeholder should not notice that the researchers are not sure of what they are planning to do so people who you plan to speak to the stakeholders should be well conversant with what they are discussing.
Jauhara
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It is very important that as scientist start planning for the study, they engage their community engagement team to start on the formative research process. At this stage they identify the key stakeholders, identify time points of when they hope to engage them, and draft information that they would like to share with them. From that point, they stakeholders are also given opportunity to provide in put in the design and progression of the study on their community.
It is very important to identify the right key stakeholders and engaging them at the right time. Don’t depend on one methodology of getting feedback from the community, employe as many ways as possible. Both formal and informal ways. For example let the scientists attend community meetings, Radio talk shows, conduct focus group discussion with key people in the community. With all the above done as you plan a trial , you will end up having community buy-in.
At national level, scientists should not forget the key stakeholders like media, line ministries and departments.
Pat- I guess that helps to a certain level.
Jauhara
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