Community Defined Measures of Success and Inclusive Research in Peacebuilding
Publisher: Proceedings of the African Futures Conference
Author(s): Ella Duncan and Carlotta Fassiotti
Date: 2018
Topics: Assessment, Cooperation, Dispute Resolution/Mediation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Programming
Countries: West Africa
Participatory research is a tool for community inclusion in peace and development programs. Participation is a popularly promoted concept, but rarely implemented in research. Search for Common Ground (Search), an international peacebuilding NGO, reflects in this paper on four past projects to assess if and how participatory research brings an added value to peacebuilding programming. The projects were selected from across Africa, and each applied one of the following participatory research methods: Youth Led Research, Outcome Harvesting, and an adapted Social Network Analysis. The findings are based on a literature review, review of M&E planning, monitoring, and final evaluation of each of the four projects, and seven semi-structured Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with M&E and Project Management staff. Our research questions were, Do participatory research processes change metrics of success? How is success understood under these processes? What lessons can be drawn from these processes? and, Which best practices emerge that differ from what already exists?