This project spotlighted the ethos and practices of community-based participatory research (CBPR) within the informal settlements of Nairobi which present a compelling case of being over-researched with no/negligible impact. To wit, these informal settlements portray an array of development challenges, among them cyclic poverty, tenure insecurity, illicit governance including gangs, low quality housing, congestion, paltry services, inadequate infrastructure, fragile habitats, unemployment, and increasing climate and disaster vulnerability. These conditions continually fashion informal settlements as “attractive sites of study”, with an emergent fast-paced knowledge circus. In its design, this project supports research as a tool to inform policy and action but earnestly denounces research without impact. The LDE Global funding hereby enabled the project partners to catalyse impactful community-based research in a tripartite iterative process.
First, a primary and secondary mapping of research conducted in the select settlement (Mathare) over the past 10 years with a resultant output being a robust data repository. Second, co-creation of a practical guide for conducting impactful community-based participatory research with a complete set of ‘the ten commandments of CBPR’ defined and a draft practical guide in its design stage. Thirdly, practically embed the co-created CBPR guide into the Mathare SPA (MSPARC) through a set of co-designed community engagement tools (in validation stage) and a work-in-progress funding proposal for an MSPARC community engagement model.
Partners: International Centre for Frugal Innovation (ICFI), Slum Dwellers International, MSPARC – MATHARE SPECIAL PLANNING AREA RESEARCH COLLECTIVE, LDE (Leiden-Delft-Erasmus), Vital Cities and Citizens
This project has been funded by LDE Global