Explore the Health Issue and Set Priorities

Gathering information

In most situations, gathering information is a two-step process. In the first step, you, as information gatherers, should track down information or data that has already been collected about the community (in previous surveys, research studies, national demographic studies, situational analysis, and so forth). You will then need to analyze this information in light of your objectives and identify what additional information you will need in order to design your intervention.

Now you are ready for the second step of this process which is to supplement the information you found in the first step with information you will now have to go out and collect. To begin this process, you will need to familiarize yourself with and ultimately select a variety of tools for information gathering. A number of the most common tools used in community mobilization projects are described in Useful Tools III at the end of the phase. Your choice of tools will depend on your project’s objectives, your team’s skill, and the dynamics and characteristics of the community in which you are working. We recommend a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods to best support community learning.

BANGLADESH: Whose Community Are We Mobilizing?

Community workers carrying out a participatory rural assessment (PRA) are encouraged to recognize that the people whom we normally meet and speak to in a village form only a small part of the population. Most often we speak to male elders. Young men are often left out, as are children. If we speak to the "women's group", we often fail to recognize that these women tend to be the wives of better-off, more influential men in the community. The single mothers, the divorcees, the poorer women tend to be excluded from such groups on the basis of economic well-being, access, standing in the community, educational levels, or age. PRA's can teach community workers to recognize that each group of people in a community have their own interests, perspectives and needs. One group alone cannot speak for the others. No one group necessarily has "better" information than the next. The PRA will also work to uncover local knowledge, strategies and responses to addressing health and social problems. The community worker carrying out the PRA can grow to recognize that the exercise is rather like filling in a jigsaw puzzle. Unless, we take the trouble to talk to different members that make up a community, we don't complete the puzzle of community knowledge and experience. Those community workers carrying out a PRA are able to learn that each group has their own concerns, experience, and skills that should be heard. Paying close attention to those groups who may be most at risk, marginalized, and with little voice will provide a clearer picture of the context within which communities live, as well as, those influences on community health and well-being.
Adapted from, Participatory Rural Appraisal and needs analysis: Whose Knowledge counts? Alice Welbourn, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Participatory Research in Health Promotion, Kenya, August 1994.

When you build a house, you use tools and techniques to help you perform specific tasks in a particular sequence. The best tool for a job, used in the right way at the right time, makes the job easier and results in a strong house with less effort than had you tried to construct it without the tools. The same is true of using the right tools and techniques at the right time to gather information. In the case of information gathering, for example, a tool such as an interview may provide specific information, but if you were to use a sociodrama for people to act out what they do, you might see differences between what they say they do (in an interview) and what they act out in the sociodrama. Participants will need to pay attention to the various factors that may influence results (such as social norms, self-awareness, wanting to please the information gatherers) and should consider using a variety of appropriate tools to gather information.

When working with the core group/information gatherers to select appropriate tools, techniques, and methods, the program team should consider the following questions:

  • Will the tool gather the specific information desired? What do people drink or eat when they have diarrhea, for example, or what do women do to take care of themselves when they are pregnant and why do they do these things? Some tools are more appropriate for gathering information on knowledge (e.g., interviews, surveys); some work better for learning about practices (sociodramas, videos, observation); others may help to reveal beliefs and feelings (storytelling, songs, poems, drawings); others will illustrate relationships (Venn diagrams, drawings,) or processes (flowcharts, stories, histories, timelines).
  • Is the tool or technique culturally acceptable? Will participants feel comfortable with the tool or will the tool inhibit participation and response? Will “gatekeepers” object to the use of this tool (e.g., parents when the respondents are children)?
  • Is the tool or technique used with individuals or groups and how will this influence responses for your particular issue? Should the tool be used with groups of women or men (or other characteristics that may influence its effectiveness) or can it be used with mixed groups?
  • Are there underlying themes or process outcomes that you would like to address while gathering information that would be better addressed by some tools and techniques over others? If improving women’s status has been identified as an important theme, for example, yet men ask the questions in interviews and lead group exercises while women core group members sit on the sidelines, how does this help improve the status of women?
  • Do you have the resources to implement the tool adequately? If not, are there alternative resources that can be substituted or do you need to consider using other tools? If you are working in a community where paper is scarce, you may want to consider drawing on the ground using sticks, or working with beans or stones.
  • Do the people who will conduct the information gathering process and the participants have the knowledge and skills necessary to use the tools? If some participants cannot read or write, for example, and the tool requires that they do, their participation will likely be less than others who can read and write. You can address this by changing the tool or making sure that those who cannot read or write are assisted by trusted others who can.
  • Is using the tool interesting and/or fun? Do participants learn something or otherwise benefit just by participating in the information gathering process? Participants are likely to devote more time and thought to the exercises if they enjoy the process and see that it can benefit them.
  • How long will it take? Using some tools requires more time than others. You will need to be sensitive to participants’ time constraints and weigh the quantity, quality and depth of information gained against the time it takes to gather it.
  • How would you feel as a participant using a particular tool? Try to put yourself in the position of others you hope will participate in this process. If some tools don’t work for you or members of the core group, consider using different ones.

Information gatherers should always remain focused on what they want to learn and change their tools if necessary, rather than continue to use tools that may be fun or interesting but do not achieve the objectives of the exercise. Until you are certain that the tools you have selected work well, you may want to identify alternatives to use as necessary.

In addition to considering which tools and techniques will be most appropriate to suit the community’s content and process needs, you should also consider the sequence in which they are used. Generally, as mentioned above in step 2, more intimate, complex or controversial issues should be introduced after participants have had a chance to become familiar with the person(s) gathering information, have become oriented to the theme, and feel more comfortable after having discussed easier topics. Community mapping is a good introductory tool to build rapport with community members, but the more sensitive body mapping tool should only be used once safety and trust have been established.

You should also be conscious of the new dynamic that may be created between core group and community members when the former take on their new role as “information gatherers.” Information gatherers should always ensure that participants from the broader community are well-informed about the purpose of the exercise and that they be given the opportunity to decline if they choose not to participate.


INDIA: Asking the Experts

Social Action for Rural and Tribal Inhabitants of India (SARTHI) with external technical assistance used Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods to identify and understand the use of traditional remedies for women's health. Through workshops with traditional healers, forest field visits with local woman, and meetings with village elders, program participants identified flora traditionally used to treat common health problems, specifically women's reproductive health problems. The data collection and analysis methods were based on women's own reality and health belief systems, their abilities, and their common use of terms. When traditional healers were asked to name the plants they used in their practice, they would not disclose this information. Through discussions with key community informants it was discovered that to say the name of the plant, which was considered sacred in its healing powers, was equivalent to disrespect and would result in the plant losing that power. The participants modified the method so that during field visits local women and traditional healers could point out the plants and then the name of the plant could be spoken by women who were not from the area. "In this way, the PAR became a true partnership, facilitating mutual exchange rather than just a one-way process of either extracting information for research purposes or imposing our own knowledge and beliefs in the interests of an efficient service-delivery programme and, with some of us who had received training of a different kind having to relearn."
Participatory Research in Health Issues and Experience, Korrie de Koning, Marion Martin, pg. 66-67, Zed Books Ltd., NPPHCN Johannesburg,1996.

Documenting Information