Chidozie Acholonu - Participatory Field Assessment Guide

A RESEARCHER'S GUIDE FOR CONDUCTING PARTICIPATORY ASSESSMENTS BY Chidozie Acholonu 2020

Forward The Guiding Principles for participatory assessment is a guide to all researchers and stakeholders that engage in participatory assessments Participatory assessments are activities that include baseline studies, assessments and surveys in the field. Indeed, this document is a very important resource as it can enhance the capacity of researchers to conduct their participatory assessments, by reducing problems experienced by researchers in the field. These problems researchers and other stakeholders bump into are often caused by the lack of training preparation received before deploying to conduct participatory assessments in the field. This guide, therefore, seeks to build capacity by giving potential researchers and field staff the requisite best practices required for conducting participatory assessments. It also explains in a user-friendly language supported by clear sample documents to aid understanding. Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Abuja 1

Introduction According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; Age, gender, diversity, rights-based and community-based approaches must be your guiding principles while conducting assessments. A proper participatory assessment is inclusive of women, children and older people, as well as people of diverse backgrounds. It also captures age and gender combined with other social, economic, physical, and political factors that influence certain sections of the population under assessment. It also seeks to understand the community’s concerns and priorities, mobilizing community members and engaging them in protection and programming. A rights-based approach to participatory assessments is also founded on the principle of participation and of working with communities to promote rights and a community-based approach aims at mobilizing women, girls, boys and men as equal partners in protection and programming activities, with the ultimate aim of empowering the community as a whole, and the individuals within the community, to access and enjoy their rights. 2

Age, gender, and diversity mainstreaming in programmes is a strategy to promote gender equality and respect for human rights, particularly women’s and children’s rights, and to enhance the protection of all refugees, regardless of their ethnic, social or religious background. This strategy entails assessing the implications of protection risks and strategies and programme sector activities for women and men of different ages and backgrounds. Generally, women and minority groups have less social, economic and political power and are less well represented informal leadership structures. Consequently, they may be overlooked in assessment and planning processes. It is important to understand existing power relations, e.g. how people, especially marginalized groups, can be excluded from access to and control over resources and decision-making within a community, which can lead to discrimination. Because of their age, children, adolescents, and older people may also be marginalized. Corrective action is therefore required to ensure that the specific risks they face are taken into consideration. Proper participatory assessment involves women, children and older people, as well as people of diverse backgrounds, to focus on ways in which age and gender combine with other social, economic, physical, and political factors to marginalize and disadvantage certain sections of the population. Community-based approach: a community-based approach motivates women, girls, boys and men in the community to participate in a process that allows them to express their needs and to decide their future with a view to their empowerment. It requires recognition that they are active participants in decision-making. The focus is on helping vulnerable persons organize themselves to solve their problems. Your role is to support the rebuilding and strengthening of communities’ capacities to respond to protection risks and to make decisions over access to and use of resources. Participatory assessment is carried out in the spirit of shared responsibility for enhancing the protection of all members of the community and is an essential component of community-based work. 3

Rights-based approach: human rights principles guide all phases of the programming process in all sectors, including assessment and analysis, programme planning, design (including setting goals, objectives, and strategies), implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Participation in decision-making is a right. All programmes must contribute to the realization of human rights. Applying a rights-based approach entails:  Understanding the structural causes of the nonrealization of rights and analysing who bears the obligation to uphold the specific rights;  Assessing the capacity of rights-holders to claim their rights, and of duty-bearers to uphold their obligations, and then develop strategies to build these capacities;  Monitoring and evaluating programmes according to human rights standards and principles;  Informing programming based on recommendations of international human rights bodies and mechanisms. 4

Participatory Assessment methodology The participatory assessment involves a process of listening, information gathering, and interactive analysis. Three methods of information gathering and analysis to use are outlined below:  Site visits and participatory observations; Participatory observation is a way of looking at the situation or behaviour of people to compare it with what people report. It also presents a good opportunity to ask questions to persons of concern about how they use certain services, such as health, water, sanitation, etc. and how they live their lives. It is a useful means of obtaining a better picture of the protection situation, particularly of aspects that are difficult for participants to verbalize. Observation can also help to put into context information provided by refugees. For example, IDPs may have access to latrines, but a visit to them may reveal that they are unusable or dangerous for children.  Key Informant Interviews and semi-structured discussions; Semi-structured discussions are conducted with a small number of people informally and conversationally by using open-ended questions. They can be conducted with individuals, families, households, or groups of people known in Operations to each other and with similar concerns (e.g. a small group of boys who are subject to forced military recruitment). Semi-structured discussions help provide detailed data—often confidential—about specific topics (e.g. physical or domestic violence, exploitation, gender relations, forced recruitment).  Focus group discussions; A focus group is a group discussion that enables analysis and understanding of a selected topic based on the common characteristics of the group (gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, etc.). It is important to conduct focus groups separately with women and men of all ages, starting from age 18 and up, because women, girls, boys and men of different ages 5

and backgrounds experience both similar and different protection risks and can access and benefit from services and resources differently. Separate focus group discussions may also provide insights into cultural practices, traditional protection mechanisms and other issues which may be affecting community members adversely and/or may offer opportunities to resolve longstanding problems by seeking guidance from the community on who can best address them. Focus group discussions should be structured around a few key questions that can be adequately covered in the period allotted. A facilitator needs to remember that there is no right answer to a given question and that the discussion and disagreements among participants are as valuable and informative as the answers of particular individuals. Focus group discussions Preparation: Organize separate meetings each one comprising no more than fifteen adolescent girls, women aged 18 to 59 and women over 60 – above. Or fifteen adolescent boys and men aged 18-59 and men over 59 from the different groups. The selection of likely participants will depend on:  Stakeholders (public officials, community leaders, interfaith groups and security)  Groups and individuals with specific needs (e.g. IDPs, returnees and refugees);  Other key groups that have been identified as at-risk (e.g. women and children);  Other groups on which limited information is available (disabled). In meetings involving women, at least one facilitator should be female (in some cultures, only women can meet with women and men with men). Women and girls usually feel more comfortable speaking among other women, and men and boys may also feel more comfortable talking to men. Implementing teams should inform participants in advance so that they can prepare for a meeting, but some spontaneous meetings should also be 6

held to ensure people who may not be in regular contact are included, this is relatively easy in camps, where spontaneous groups, such as unemployed youths, can be brought together. Ensure that two members of the team are present for a group no bigger than 15 women, girls, boys or men: ideally, one to act as a facilitator and one as a note-taker, along with an interpreter, if needed. Interpreters/translators need to be thoroughly briefed and trained together with the teams ahead of time. Teams should explain to interpreters the importance of translating sentence by sentence and not summarizing what people of concern have to say. Teams should help interpreters by asking only one short question at a time and by reminding them about the confidentiality of the discussions;  Organize a meeting space in a safe and comfortable environment. Make every effort to ensure that nonparticipants (e.g. male leaders or curious bystanders) are not present or within hearing distance, particularly as this can give rise to subsequent protection risks; Inform community leaders of the purpose of the meeting;  To create a friendly environment, it is best to hold the meeting sitting in a circle, with the facilitator at the same level as the refugees;  Where appropriate, use visual materials, such as pictures and photos, which can greatly enhance the discussion;  Allow approximately two hours per focus group. Facilitating the discussion a. Introduction Start the meeting with a brief introduction that should include: I. Who you are; II. The purpose and objectives of the participatory assessment; 7

III. Why people’s participation is important and an outline of the process; IV. Respect for confidentiality and use of the Information; V. What the assessment may or may not lead to in terms of outcome; VI. How participants will receive feedback later, for example, the assessment might not lead to additional resources but may lead to reallocating resources to particular issues (teams should discuss before beginning the assessment what key messages should be delivered in the introduction); VII. Ask for permission to take notes. Explain that the written notes are for office use only and for recording key discussion points; VIII. Invite the group members to introduce each other. For example, ask every person to introduce her/himself by mentioning name, displacement details (e.g. where she/he is from—if no security risks are involved in answering—how long she/he has been displaced) and family situation; IX. Establish ground rules, e.g. respect for different viewpoints, the privacy of information shared in the meeting, there are no wrong answers, only one person to speak at a time, everyone has the right to speak without being interrupted, to be respected, and to be listened to; X. Introduce a culturally appropriate ice-breaker, if needed, especially if you are dealing with young people. b. Theme discussion I. Introduce the theme selected for the focus group discussions; II. Before raising issues, ask questions about the background of the individuals participating in the focus group or semi-structured discussion (such as what they 8

do, how they earned an income before they fled, who they live with, where they live and how old they are); III. Ensure that everyone has a chance to speak on the theme, encourage everyone to expand on certain points and avoid moving quickly through a list of questions. It is important to be sensitive to cultural norms when conducting the sessions to ensure that no one feels rushed or excluded; IV. Ask open questions, such as how, what, where, why as much as possible, especially to clarify or to check to understand. Do not judge people who speak; accept what they say; V. Avoid leading statements and questions; questions should guide the discussion rather than solicit direct answers from each of the participants; VI. Avoid dominating the discussion; ask simple questions and only one question at a time; VII. Steer the group towards analyzing the causes of the situation f concern, the skills they have at their disposal to resolve them, and the role of the community in developing solutions; VIII. Ensure that the issues discussed and analyzed are linked to possible solutions that can be formulated in recommendations and follow-up activities; IX. Ensure time for participants to raise their questions and concerns; X. Ask the participants which of the issues raised they consider to be the most pressing. c. Follow-up and next steps  If pressing protection problems emerge from the discussion, communicate them to appropriate staff and partners or take action as needed;  Wrap up by thanking all the people who participated for their time and by explaining the next steps and follow-up action; 9

 Should be aware of any potential risks or inconveniences associated with participation in the assessment (e.g. time away from family or job, reminders of traumatic experiences);  Must be told of the potential benefits arising from the assessment. The information they give might help improve certain conditions for other refugees. However, they will not receive any direct financial or other personal gains from participating;  Must be reassured that confidentiality of information sources will be respected. Refugees must not be exposed to protection risks because of their participation (e.g. victims/ survivors of sexual or gender-based violence (SGBV) becoming known to the community, boys recruited by armed elements being subjected to reprisals for discussing their difficulties, internally displaced persons suffering repercussions);  Must be permitted to express themselves freely without interruption and without having the information they provide “challenged” negatively (e.g. if parents say they cannot afford to send their children to school, they should not be asked why they never sought assistance).  Empathy should guide all interactions with persons of concern and they should be given the names of contact staff with whom they can follow up in case they have questions; Must be kept informed of how the information they provide is being used and of any follow-up actions taken and remain involved in the process throughout. 10

Ethics and Principles During Participatory Assessments  The rights and well-being of persons of concern who share their experiences must be safeguarded. Thus, when assessing persons of concern:  Do not have to participate in the assessment if they prefer not to;  Should not be prompted to give information in public that embarrasses them, makes them feel uncomfortable or makes them relive traumatic experiences;  Must be told the purpose and process of the assessment and be informed of its limitations, so that false expectations are not raised;  Should be aware of any potential risks or inconveniences associated with participation in the assessment (e.g. time away from family or job, reminders of traumatic experiences);  Must be told of the potential benefits arising from the assessment. The information they give might help improve certain conditions for other refugees. However, they will not receive any direct financial or personal gain from participating;  Do no harm. Persons of concern must be reassured that confidentiality of information sources will be respected. And must not be exposed to protection risks because of their participation (e.g. victims/ survivors of sexual or gender-based violence (SGBV) becoming known to the community, boys recruited by armed elements being subjected to reprisals for discussing their difficulties, internally displaced persons suffering repercussions);  Must be permitted to express themselves freely without interruption and without having the information they provide “challenged” negatively (e.g. if parents say they cannot afford to send their children to school, they should not be asked why they never sought assistance).  Empathy should guide all interactions with persons of concern;  Should be given the names of contact staff or implementing partners (IP) with whom they can follow up in case they have personal questions; 11

 Must be kept informed of how the information they provide is being used and of any follow-up actions taken;  They should remain involved in the process throughout. 12

SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE: (Have a notebook handy) Population Group:…………………………………………………………………… Location:…………………………………………………………………………………… 1. GENDER: MALE ……………….. FEMALE………………… 2. AGE GROUP:18-59…………………… 60 and above……………….. 3. Marital Status: Single………... Married………. Separated …………Divorced………. Widow…………. Widower………… 4. State………………………………………………………..LGA………………………………………………………… …….. 5. Current Location……………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………….. 6. Religion: Muslim…………….Christian……………Other………………. Conflict and Security 1. What is the conflict situation? 2. What is the source of conflict? 3. Any conflict between IDPs and Host Communities? 4. Which groups are experiencing conflict? 5. What prompted them to leave the Local Government area of origin? Conflicts? Physical Violence? Destruction/loss of property? Sexual violence/abuse? Forced (survival sex) or exchange of sex for basic needs? Exploitation? 6. Have tensions increased or decreased since arriving in newly liberated areas, camps or host communities? 7. For those that returned what prompted you to? 8. For those who stayed and never left what prompted you to? 9. What were their experiences? 13

10. What are the most significant safety and security concerns? Access to Justice 11. Do you have access to justice? If No, why? 12. Do you feel you can get justice using legal means? 13. Are courts available for grievances? 14. Is the government responding adequately? 15. Are you aware of any situation where people may have approached authorities to seek redress? What happened? 16. What is your view should be the support provided by the government, humanitarian agencies, and CBOs to address grievances? 17. Have government officials, or has anyone else, explained how your legal rights can be protected? 18. In what language are services and legal or rights information available? 19. What are the specific justice needs? 20. Are you aware of any situation where people may have used RJR measures? Explain. 21. Are you willing to participate in RJR? 22. What are your biggest concerns and perception of RJR? 23. Are you willing to reconcile? 24. What activities can they help bring about reconciliation? 25. Would you be willing to help in improving the situation? 26. How do you think you could help? Who should be involved? 27. What might the community do to address this concern? 28. How is your culture/traditions were such problems dealt with/avoided? How can that be applied now? How do you think the situation could be improved? 14

29. Of all the issues just discussed, which do you consider the most important/urgent? 30. What kind of information on RJR and peacebuilding do Men, women and girls want to receive and how can the information be transmitted to them? Peacebuilding 31. What peacebuilding activities are available to you? 32. If conflict were to occur, what would you do? 33. Any Peacebuilding training or support? 34. Who provides this support and where? 35. Do you require training? 36. What are the specific peacebuilding needs? 37. What are the challenges to peacebuilding and reconciliation? 38. Who should be involved in peacebuilding? 39. Are there any forms of dialogue to address conflict? Women (Also ask about children, adolescent girls, single women). 40. What are safety and security concerns for women? Please specify which group of women and girls feels the most insecure? Why? Probe: If not raised, ask “Is it different for women and girls with disabilities? 41. What do women and girls usually do after they have experienced violence? Do they seek help? Why or why not? If so, who do they usually go for assistance? 42. When a woman or girl is the victim of violence, does she feel safe talking about or reporting it? If not, why? 43. For pregnant victims what is the nature of the support given? 44.Do women participate in peacebuilding? Why not or how often? Which women are included or excluded included by the community in peacebuilding? Why? 15

DATA COLLECTION FORM Methodology Female. Age and Male, Age and Total Persons Site Visits / Background Background Observation Focus Group Discussion Key Informant Interviews 16

SAMPLE RESPONSE FORMS (To be applied to conflict and Security). Population Group: _________ Subgroup: (Sex: ____ Age group: _______) Date: __________ Location: ________________ Incidents Causes Response 17

SAMPLE CERTIFICATE OF HONOUR Insert logo Here Certificate of Honour I certify on my honour that the sum of......................................was extended to me by the ………………………………………………, for ………………………………………… in ……………………. State from 24 – 31 July 2xxx, in collaboration with the …………. This was in payment for my role as a research assistant for the assessment. __________________ ____________________ Name Research Assistant Signature & Date .................................. ....................................... Name / Organization Signature & Date 18