Hi folks,
I am interested in studies that explored the differences in the affinity for research studies between community based organisations and statutory Health organisations, and why would such variation exist.
Thanks.
Itodo.
In my experience, ther is also a political component that should be considere when we examine the role of research in official entities. Sometimes, people may see research as the evaluation of their work or thei performance. And people can frame it as a possible threat (results may show deficiences or poor performance, proven or suggested). For statutory organization, this may be an obstacle for reearchers.
Community initiatives have also a strategic dimension to take care of. But usually they are interested to obtain results and to gain credibility playing a usefull role among credible health partners. This can be an incitative to produce researches as these may result in more gains and fewer risks for the organization.
Thanks for this. My experiences of recruiting participants from statutory organisations and community-based organisations fully support this view as there are differences between the response from both organisations. The community-based organisations were more forthcoming in terms of access to their sites while statutory organisations tends to decline access to site for one reason or the other.
Kind regards.
There are a number of reasons that I can highlight:
1. Community organisations are directly in touch with grassroots communities, which make it easier for researchers to recruit research participants while statutory health organisations function within the rigid delivery systems of government;
2. Sometimes funding for research in contexts where government is less trusted is channelled directly to communities with the support of NGO structures. This enables researchers and donors to quickly achieve results and avoid red tape in statutory organisations.
3. Communities are sometimes unaware of their rights as research subjects vs statutory organisations. While this may sound exploitative and extractionist, researchers find it easy to gather through communities and community organisations rather than restrictive conditions sometimes imposed statutory organisations.
4. Research in statutory is usually conducted in a manner where standard operational tools (data collection instruments) are the ones used within standard care systems which makes it difficult to design studies outside the statutory organisations framework. This is usually done to ensure that the collected data fits within government analysis frameworks. Therefore to avoid this, community organisations provide an option for researchers to use own research tools adapted to the community context.
5. First, there is increased trend of evidence based interventions and a push to build in research in NGOs and CBOs so that their work contributes to knowledge generation. Second, implementation research has been recently identified as an important way of conducting research, which means the day to day work of CBOs in communities provide this research space.
Thank you Itodo for asking this question it has been helpful to me as well, thank you for all the responses
Thank you Vhumani for this insight.
It provided further context to this discussion. This help address the observed variation in responses from Community-based organisation whose participation in research studies help to boost their profiles while statutory health organisations operates within bureaucratic constraints.
Very valid observations, another factor which promotes research in community based organizations is the peer pressure from within the community to address issues relevant to community needs.
Vhumani has given the highlights
Sociopolitical climate of the state influences the answers to this question. First world countries with clear vision for their state and well defined processes, community organizations do not easily support research thus most researchers conduct their research in third world states. Community organizations as supplementary organs of state are strategically positioned. Thus they are able to influence change in the community. As a researcher you are also a community member it is easy to access familiar environment versus bureaurocratic authoritative environment, statutory environment. Technology has made it easy for researchers to have direct access with community organisations..
Great insight Farhana, but how does peer pressure as a factor encourage participation of community-based organisations in research?
Hi Kholeka,
My current findings supports what past contributors like Vhumani are saying and that community-based organisations are more than happy to participate in research compared to statutory organisations. Like you pointed out, socio-political climate could be a contributory factors with responses varying from countries to countries.
Research in official institutions like medical education institutions in developing countries and health care institutions occupy a late priority in the rank of their tasks. They normally pay more attention to teaching and care provision. Three reasons might be put to explain why research is occupying rear rank: Financial, technical and institutional. In most developing countries, the finances for research are limited, the technical capacity for sophisticated research are limited and institutions "hate" to be researched. Community-based organizations are in a better position to direct their resources. They are at better position to allocate resources to research. One of their concerns is to uncover deep routed health problems in the community and suggest solutions. Research help in both these aspects.
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