HOW NOT TO DO COMMUNITY-BASED PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH: MEDIA CAMPAIGN FOR SOCIAL CHANGE IN PAKISTAN’S TRIBAL DISTRICTS

Abstract

This paper analyzes “Pakhto Voices” project run by Public Engagement Policy Lab., a U.K.-based non-governmental organization, in the light of Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) principles and approaches. The main purpose of the project is to reduce health disparities among the people of the then Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA—now called Tribal Districts or Merged Districts) of Pakistan through a “community-based research project.” According to World Health Organization (WHO), Pakistan is one of the three remaining polio-endemic countries in the world, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria. More than half of the polio cases emerged from the Tribal Districts where people from Pakhtun ethnic group reside. The formative research design of the project employed a fusion of unobtrusive and obtrusive quantitative, qualitative and ethnographic methods. The formative research design had three components: Content Analysis; Citizen Consultation, and SMS data gathering program. In this paper, we argue that the “Pakhto Voices” project does not adhere to the principles of CBPR. The authors challenge the concept of “cultural competence” used during the creation of messages and interaction with the community in this program and argue that showing “cultural humility” could have improved the outcomes of the project. The paper is divided into 6 sections: 1) Introduction to the problem; 2) Health Disparities in TRIBAL AREAS; 3) Pakhto Voices Project 4) CBPR Approaches 5) Discussion 6) Conclusion.