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Rationale
Communities possess an understanding of themselves and a capacity to change themselves. This central premise of the Alliance’s participatory community assessment process is supported by a long history of community development practice and theories of social change. The HIV epidemic is largely a problem “of community” - of the values, structures and histories which shape relations between people in communities and which determine their vulnerability to HIV infection. It is also important to consider the impact of external factors such as economic trends, conflict and patterns of migration and mobility. The participation of communities in assessing their own HIV-related situation is essential to asking more useful questions, generating more detailed answers and mobilising communities to reflect and take action to respond to the HIV epidemic themselves.
But who is part of the community and who should take part in the assessment? Communities are not single entities, but groups representing different identities, interests and ideas. People can be part of a geographically defined community and also experience other forms of “community” – defined, for example, by gender, ethnicity, age or occupation. The participatory community assessments supported by the Alliance were sensitive to the way that power relations within communities can marginalise and silence people because of their gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and socio-economic class.
NGOs’ decisions on who to include in their assessments took account of the effects of these power relations. In Cambodia, each NGO divided its target community into six groupings according to a range of factors, such as gender, age, marital status and, less often, occupation. Working in ‘peer’ groups in this way helped to create a safer environment for women, especially unmarried women, to participate in discussions about sexual health, sexuality and gender relations. Some NGOs sought ways to involve community members in decisions on who to include in the assessments. In Bangladesh, for example, NGO staff identified key informants within the community who could help them identify an appropriate variety of individuals to take part in the assessment.
Through the work of its linking organisations and partner NGOs who supported and conducted participatory community assessments in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, the Alliance has identified three core, interdependent, elements that are important to the success of participatory community assessment practice. These are the:
- Attitudes and behaviour of those carrying out the assessment;
- Skills and tools used in the assessment; and
- Process frameworks within which the tools are used.