Participatory Research Toolkit

"Participatory methods allow participants to take on various roles in the research, analysis, and distribution processes....As such, they have an additional ability to empower participants, foster skill-building, and initiate critical dialogue in the community concerning issues that are important and relevant to the population..."

Launched in the context of Rain Barrel Communications' 10th anniversary, this toolkit gathers together a wide variety of participatory research tools developed over a 20-year period and used in multiple social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) USAID- and UNICEF-funded projects around the world. Examples are provided from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. All of the tools presented have been tried and tested. A majority of them have been used with adolescents. However, children, women, men, key influentials, and, indeed, whole communities have used them.

The toolkit features 28 tools that can be adapted to a wide variety of research questions. Each entry contains a description of the tool, a list of topics and countries where the research team has had first-hand experience of working with the tool, concrete examples of how it has been used in the past, and step-by-step instructions, tips, and techniques.

The tools serve a variety of functions. They can be used to conduct participatory situation assessments, monitor the extent to which interventions are being implemented according to plan, or measure effectiveness, i.e., changes in behavioural and social outcomes. According to Rain Barrel Communications and Drexel University's Community Health and Prevention (CHP) Department at the Dornsife School of Public Health (DSPH), the tools can be used to address sensitive, challenging, or even taboo topics, as well as to examine societal and cultural factors that are difficult to understand and decipher using traditional methods. The tools can be integrated directly into individual and social change communication programming, providing participants the ability and skills to create and analyse data. Many of the tools are specifically designed to build teamwork and to make research an enjoyable exercise.

The free, online open access publication can be adapted for use in many different kinds of projects. Rain Barrel Communications and the CHP Department at the DSPH only request that you acknowledge this publication in your work and share with them any adaptations you make. The hope is that it turns into a living document that the wider community of researchers and practitioners can share and expand.