Connecting Citizens to Science – S4E4 – Participatory action research: from community collected data to action and change

In this week’s episode we hear from our co-host Robinson Karuga in his role as a Research, Evaluation and Learning Manager at LVCT. Robinson has been part of a team implementing a participatory action research approach to improve health and wellbeing in two informal settlements in Nairobi. Robinson shares with us: 

• How data collected with community co-researchers using photovoice (see S4E1) was presented to key stakeholders like chiefs, village elders, civil society organisations and community volunteers so they could identify and prioritise key health and wellbeing issues  
• The development of work improvement teams that were responsible for driving actions for change together with key decision makers, government bodies and those who held power such as police 
• The journey from data collection to problem identification, root cause analysis, developing actions and implementing them within the system 
• The role of researchers as facilitators, coaches, and morale support, as well as assessing and navigating power dynamics through reflexivity