Forum: Eksempler på forskningskomponent i Civilsamfunds projekt

For most patient organisations research is a key strategic priority. In our CISU programme we support patient organisations in East Africa to facilitate research, in order to limit the knowledge gap in the region, to facilitate an evidence based advocacy effort and evaluate the impact of our interventions.

Our current research approach are two fold and can be described by two examples. 

1.       We facilitate meetings in a regional non-communicable disease (NCD) research committee in East Africa, where key researcher from the region can meet each other and discuss regional research priorities and common project. On top of this, we invite researcher from Europe, mainly Denmark, Germany and UK to participate in some of these meetings, as they are usually capable of attracting research funding. A recent example of a research project fostered by these meetings is an article on diabetes and hypertension control and learnings from HIV funded by London School of Tropical Medicine but conceptualized through our network (https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(21)01731-1.pdf#%20).

2.       In a climate and health integration project in Kenya we are working with a team of national and Danish researchers to conduct a Knowledge, Attitude and Practice study, to measure the impact of our intervention. The intervention is a pilot intervention trying to increase the local community’s resilience towards air pollution, in one of the major informal settlements in Nairobi. The research effort is important to measure the impact of the pilot and estimate the effect of the effort. If proven successful the research component can also help us in our advocacy effort as we can present valid data to policy makers, and we expect it to be a major asset in future fundraising to potentially scale up the intervention.

What and who?: Together with the Sierra Leonean organisation Youth Dream Centre, the Sierra Leonean University of Makeni, the Australian organisation Urban Synergies Group and the Australian University of Canberra, Dreamtown did a large survey on youth wellbeing in Sierra Leone. 

Where and why?: The purpose of the research was to explore key factors influencing youth wellbeing through contextual and youth inclusive research. Across three cities - Freetown, Makeni, and Koidu - more than 1000 young people took part in a survey about their level of wellbeing. The research was part of a programme called Spaces for Youth, which is about creating better public spaces for young people in vulnerable urban communities, and improve their inclusion in decision-making processes. 

How?: The youth wellbeing survey was co-designed by the project partners to collect a robust baseline dataset with information about characteristics of the communities and qualified descriptions, characteristics and patterns on subjective well-being of the target youth population. Data were collected using face to face interviews, conducted by students from University of Makeni and volunteers from Youth Dream Centre. Training sessions were held with the students in data collection and data analysis, to ensure the process was used to build local capacity amongst youth, consistent with the objectives of the project. Data were captured on mobile devices. Analysis of the data was done by the partners from University of Canberra, after a ground-truthing process in which the data collectors, supervisors and partner staff came together and evaluated the quality of the survey data and findings.

What did we learn, and what do we use it for?: The research helped us concretise elements of wellbeing for young Sierra Leoneans in their everyday life in the city and develop a detailed understanding of youth wellbeing with strong roots in the local context.  This focus has shaped our follow up interventions in the communities, and the the results of the research have been used to identify key priorities for advocacy at local government levels in a Call for Action, which are now being acted on together with local youth groups and community based organisations. 

Want to know more?: A research report was published on the results of the work, which can be found here: https://issuu.com/dreamtown.ngo/docs/survey_baseline_report. The report examines multiple dimensions of well-being of youth in Sierra Leone, drawing on the survey, with a particular focus on public space

Yderligere information omkring vores research - her et par links til materiale:

Full research report gennem Dreamtowns hjemmeside her: https://www.dreamtown.ngo/research

Artikel skrevet af Dreamtown og Canberra University: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335975463_EXPLORING_NEW_HORIZONS_FOR_YOUTH_WELLBEING_AND_PUBLIC_SPACE_IN_SIERRA_LEONE

Email Greg, Canberra University: gregor.mews@qut.edu.au

In our organisation we have applied research methods for the last 20 years for the following reasons:

• Basis for planning of relevant activities
• Evaluation of effects of the activities
• Advocacy and spread of knowledge at a local/national/global level
• Networking to get influence

We have learned that by doing this as an NGO we earn credibility not only at a local but also at a national level and our objectives are more easily spread from a small project area to a bigger context. 

Many of our Danish members are doing research in their jobs and that makes it easier to plan together with local partners. The advantage for our local partners is that they learn how to do research and how to publish results which creates opportunities for themselves and their NGO's.

We do what can be called 'action research', a type of research that is relatively simple to perform and not expensive. This makes it realistic in a low-income setting without much tradition for doing research.

You can find our articles in scientific databases, on NGO homepages and in newspapers.

The Development Intervention, ‘NEXTCAP’, builds on experiences, knowledge, collaboration networks and capacities built in a successful CISU-funded Citizen Participation Intervention, ‘NETCAP-DIB’, which took place throughout 2018 in two rural indigenous Amazon communities, Tumupasa and Buena Vista, in the San Buenaventura municipality of the La Paz department in Bolivia. The NEXTCAP intervention will expand the target region and types of communities, extend the health issues in question and involve more stakeholders, actors and methods to reach the objectives described below.

The overall objective is to improve the livelihood of environmentally challenged and poor rural communities in the Bolivian Amazon. These communities are threatened by a high occurrence of serious and emerging (but many times undetected) infectious diseases, which are commonly zoonotic (i.e. they spread between humans and animals including wildlife) and/or are vector-borne (i.e. they spread via insects such as ticks and mosquitoes). They are recognised societal burdens due to lost work force and mental disabilities in many similar regions of South America and other tropical regions of the world. Despite an alarming occurrence documented both in the NETCAP-DIB intervention and reported in recent clinical outbreaks in the region these diseases are often neglected in the Bolivian health system due to lack of capacities, knowledge and resources.

The diseases in question emerge due to environmental and climate changes, and ultimately due to regional and external economic and social drivers. This calls for a ‘One Health approach’, which builds on the understanding that cross-sectorial collaboration, interdisciplinary research and a high degree of bottom-up participatory capacity building are needed to mitigate the effect of such complex health issues. A One Health approach proved feasible and beneficial in the NETCAP-DIB project. Hence, in the hereby proposed intervention, the approach will be based on a mix of empowerment of local civil communities and households including women, school children, parents, school teachers and forest or farm workers through educational initiatives, regional capacity building and improvement of networks between local health centres, laboratories, universities and health authorities. Standing on this foundation we will provide advocacy for sustainable health solutions in the target region.

100% for Børnene and YOTA has applied for a Development intervention (2,6 mio DKK). The intervention will address Critical issues of access to and quality in education that have been escalated by the Covid-19 pandemic have received increased attention and investment, as duty bearers and other stakeholders take action in response to young people’s voices and engagement.

As part of the overall project strategy 'building evidence' is a key outcome (outcome 2). A research based national youth barometer is (smaller) part of the strategy to 'build evidence'. The component is approx.  5-6% of the budget. 

Where: Ghana (nationwide) 

OUTCOMES: 

Outcome 1) Mobilize: Organizing capacity and skills of selected youth-led organisations in Ghana have improved, enabling them to better connect, collaborate and self-organise towards evidence-based advocacy for equitable access to and improvements in quality education;

Outcome 2) Build evidence: Youth-led organisations have produced a collective review and a verdict of the performance of government at local and national levels in addressing the inequalities that hamper young people’s progress in education attainment; and

Outcome 3) Advocate: Youth voices have been amplified in policy spaces thereby influencing local and national policies, programmes and budgets in favor of more equitable and inclusive access to education.

The research/survey component: 

A National Youth Barometer on Education and the Future will be conducted to get a nationwide perspective. It will mark an important milestone in Ghana’s youth development trajectory as it will constitute a ground-breaking effort to scientifically survey youth perspectives on education - how young people perceive their education and how prepared and confident they feel of their future. The survey will amplify youth voices to ensure that their aspirations and concerns are taken into consideration as the government and development partners seek to adapt Ghana’s education system to new challenges. Using a mainly quantitative research approach it will collect and publish high-quality, reliable national data to be disseminated to policy makers, development partners and the general public. A Youth Barometer team will be constituted, comprising a Senior Research Fellow and a Research Associate assisted by 3 youth researchers (at least two females) recruited from the Accountability Advocates. The team will lead the design of the research methodology and the survey instrument and will host a two-day study design workshop to receive technical contributions from experts (Finnish Youth Research Society Youth Barometer in Finland, and the Afrobarometer Research Network. Training sessions will be held for 50 youth enumerators in sample municipalities on survey methods, sampling protocols and field practice. Based on a research manual, the methodology will involve face-to-face interviews with a randomly selected sample (to be decided by the team - could be 5000 youth respondents across the country). Aside from the main report, analytical summaries, digital visualisations, infographics and interactive content will be developed. A media event will be hosted to outdoor the report and highlight key findings. The event will have mainstream media houses represented and will be broadcast on YOTA’s SoMe channels.

Based on a small study of the HIV prevalence among sex workers (40+ people) conducted in 2021, Brighter Horizons/SL and Pink Power in collaboration with an american CSO make a larger study (+1,500 people) that can provide strong evidence that can be used for advocacy.

Where: Freetown, Sierra Leone

Background: This intervention builds upon the nightlife testing of 444 active sex workers conducted in 2021 by local partner organisations Pink Power and Brighter Horizons Sierra Leone along with the financial inputs and testing facilities of ICAP[1] – a large US-based health organisation at Columbia University with more than 200 employees currently stationed/working in Sierra Leone. We conducted both daytime (Nichoto approach) and nighttime testing (Moonlight approach) – during Moonlight testing of 240 sex workers we found that 96 were HIV positive illustrating a 40 percentage HIV positive. The Moonlight testing also ensures that we are actually testing sex workers given that a lot of girls selling sex in daytime might not be ‘fully active’ sex workers. Adding to this, even though we spent a lot of time explaining to the girls that they were HIV positive and we could offer them treatment the next day, only 40 per cent of those who were HIV positive showed up to be taken to treatment facilities. One month later when they were offered the next treatment, only 10 per cent showed up. We believe that the lack of trust in both science and authorities is the main reason for this experience and we are aware that we must put in a great effort to change this. Furthermore, given that official data on HIV prevalence among sex workers differentiate a lot from our findings, we have experienced some difficulties in our relationships with key national stakeholders on HIV.

Budget: The intervention is a Citizen Participation Intervention where the research/survey is approximately  50% of the budget, where the other 50% are for capacity building and lobbyism/advocacy. total budget 500.000 DKK.