Urban Health – Community Based Participatory PhDs in Informal Settlements
In this episode, we hear from two PhD students from the ARISE Consortium. ARISE stands for accountability and responsiveness in informal settlements for equity, and is about promoting social change for improved health and wellbeing with communities and people living and working within urban informal spaces.
This episodes guests:
Bachera Aktar
Assistant Director, The Centre of Excellence for Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (CGSRHR); and PhD student
A public health researcher and academic with more than 13 years of experience of implementing community-based public health interventions and research in Bangladesh. An advocate of community/people-centric health interventions. The areas of her research interest and work include community-based participatory research, action research, health systems research, health and gender equity, socio-political determinants of health, and humanitarian health systems. Bachera works with marginalised communities living in informal urban settlements and humanitarian settings.
Relevant information sources:
Google Scholar – https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ckDgGNcAAAAJ&hl=en
Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/bachera-aktar-bd/
ORCID: Bachera Aktar (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0242-1792)
ARISE: www.ariseconsortium.org
BRAC University – https://www.bracu.ac.bd/about/people/bachera-aktar
Samuel Saidu
Currently, Samuel works on a project that is multi-country and focused on residents of informal settlements. In Sierra Leone, Samuel’s project works within 3 communities where the research aims are to provide empowerment opportunities to community residents based on data-driven development.
Samuel works with co-researchers (community residents who are now assistants to the research team) and are capacitated based on their various levels of education. They are involved in designing the study/research, data collection, analysis of data, and dissemination.
The community people are the centre of the research in the sense that they are part of the research and play a key role at all levels. It is critical to know that the community people are part of the research team but are also participants.
Relevant information sources:
ARISE: https://www.ariseconsortium.org/news-events/
IDS: https://bulletin.ids.ac.uk/index.php/idsbo/article/view/3119
TWITTER HANDLES
@samuelsaidu0 @AktarBachera @ARISEHub @UKRI_News @BRACJPGSPH @BRACUniversity @COMAHS_USL @GCRF @SclAgency
This is a podcast is produced by The SCL Agency and is part of Connecting Citizens to Science which focuses on health research based on equitable partnerships between researchers and communities.
If you would like to be a guest, co-host or have your own series designed for you, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We’d love to speak to you about your ideas!