Empowering communities through university partnerships in public health: a pilot project in Nepal and the Philippines
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sussex
Department Name: Sch of Global Studies
Abstract
In Nepal and the Philippines, communities have had little voice in public health initiatives. Health providers often take a top-down approach, 'preaching' to families about how they should live more healthy lives and ignoring their everyday realities. Effective health promotion is however dependent on approaches that recognise local health knowledge and beliefs, and build on existing community assets, including staff and infrastructure. With their key role in educating future health workers, universities can contribute directly to transforming attitudes towards marginalised communities.
Bringing together two institutes of medicine - at Tribhuvan University in Nepal and University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines - the project aims to contribute understanding of the range, scope and perceptions of community-based learning in public health courses. Extending our team's established community-based learning approach to public health and our research on indigenous/intergenerational learning, we will pilot a new kind of partnership between universities and local communities. Currently, community-based learning in medical institutes can be unidirectional, with the main intention of introducing students to health issues faced by communities so that they can offer advice based on their medical knowledge. Such initiatives have also often been framed in terms of a 'service' objective, rather than setting out to engage in mutual learning about different perspectives on health and wellbeing. This project aims to develop a learning partnership between university medical institutions and local communities which is framed around a relationship of respect for their differing health beliefs and practices.
Our overarching research question is: How best can universities engage communities in a mutually respectful and equal partnership to advance public health education? The research will begin with interviews, focus group discussions and documentary analysis to explore current approaches to community-based learning in each medical school. A co-produced study into food and nutrition will then be conducted with one community in each country. Through informal conversations about food beliefs and practices, we will work with community groups to develop their ideas for a public health intervention in this area. Community members, public health students and university researchers will come together to develop methods for co-investigating local and indigenous health knowledge.
Methodological expertise in participatory research will be provided by the UEA UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation, a partnership established between our three universities over six years ago. With strikingly different approaches to community-based learning in public health, the collaborating medical institutions offer a valuable comparative dimension. The project includes opportunities to gain first-hand insights into each other's university public health courses through exchange visits and workshops. Through comparative analysis of the intervention process, the project will explore the relevance for other country contexts too.
Project outputs include guidelines for universities, public health workers and students on how to build on local health knowledge, as well as how medical schools could apply this model in practice. The major benefit will be to communities in Nepal and the Philippines, who until now have had little agency in public health initiatives. By situating and building the intervention within the framework of existing public health and medical university courses, the project seeks to ensure longer term sustainability, affordability and feasibility.
Bringing together two institutes of medicine - at Tribhuvan University in Nepal and University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines - the project aims to contribute understanding of the range, scope and perceptions of community-based learning in public health courses. Extending our team's established community-based learning approach to public health and our research on indigenous/intergenerational learning, we will pilot a new kind of partnership between universities and local communities. Currently, community-based learning in medical institutes can be unidirectional, with the main intention of introducing students to health issues faced by communities so that they can offer advice based on their medical knowledge. Such initiatives have also often been framed in terms of a 'service' objective, rather than setting out to engage in mutual learning about different perspectives on health and wellbeing. This project aims to develop a learning partnership between university medical institutions and local communities which is framed around a relationship of respect for their differing health beliefs and practices.
Our overarching research question is: How best can universities engage communities in a mutually respectful and equal partnership to advance public health education? The research will begin with interviews, focus group discussions and documentary analysis to explore current approaches to community-based learning in each medical school. A co-produced study into food and nutrition will then be conducted with one community in each country. Through informal conversations about food beliefs and practices, we will work with community groups to develop their ideas for a public health intervention in this area. Community members, public health students and university researchers will come together to develop methods for co-investigating local and indigenous health knowledge.
Methodological expertise in participatory research will be provided by the UEA UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation, a partnership established between our three universities over six years ago. With strikingly different approaches to community-based learning in public health, the collaborating medical institutions offer a valuable comparative dimension. The project includes opportunities to gain first-hand insights into each other's university public health courses through exchange visits and workshops. Through comparative analysis of the intervention process, the project will explore the relevance for other country contexts too.
Project outputs include guidelines for universities, public health workers and students on how to build on local health knowledge, as well as how medical schools could apply this model in practice. The major benefit will be to communities in Nepal and the Philippines, who until now have had little agency in public health initiatives. By situating and building the intervention within the framework of existing public health and medical university courses, the project seeks to ensure longer term sustainability, affordability and feasibility.
Technical Summary
This project will pilot a new model of partnership between university medical institutions and local communities, which is framed around a relationship of respect for their differing health beliefs and practices. Bringing together public health specialists in two institutes of medicine and educational researchers in Nepal and the Philippines, the project promotes a multi-disciplinary, participatory action research approach to public health.
Through conducting an action-orientated ethnographic study, the project will explore community-based learning interventions of the two medical institutes and the health practices and beliefs of community members. The focus on food and nutrition for the study reflects the growing importance of public health interventions in the Global South that address non-communicable disease. The choice of this area also positions women centrally in the research process, as the main actors involved in food preparation and production. They will be encouraged to identify a specific health issue that they would like to address through this intervention.
Theoretically, the research team will adopt a decolonising lens to investigate and find ways of addressing inequalities within related institutions, including public health organisations and universities. Comparative analysis of the two country contexts will encourage questions and analysis of the broader health systems that are often influenced by practice in the Global North.
The project outputs will include guidelines for public health workers on how to build on indigenous learning and knowledges, developed through interaction in workshops with key stakeholders in the health sector at national and local levels. The project will work closely with relevant departments in the university to produce revised university curricula on public health. A key impact is intended to be the greater visibility and importance attached to public health within both medical institutions and across universities.
Through conducting an action-orientated ethnographic study, the project will explore community-based learning interventions of the two medical institutes and the health practices and beliefs of community members. The focus on food and nutrition for the study reflects the growing importance of public health interventions in the Global South that address non-communicable disease. The choice of this area also positions women centrally in the research process, as the main actors involved in food preparation and production. They will be encouraged to identify a specific health issue that they would like to address through this intervention.
Theoretically, the research team will adopt a decolonising lens to investigate and find ways of addressing inequalities within related institutions, including public health organisations and universities. Comparative analysis of the two country contexts will encourage questions and analysis of the broader health systems that are often influenced by practice in the Global North.
The project outputs will include guidelines for public health workers on how to build on indigenous learning and knowledges, developed through interaction in workshops with key stakeholders in the health sector at national and local levels. The project will work closely with relevant departments in the university to produce revised university curricula on public health. A key impact is intended to be the greater visibility and importance attached to public health within both medical institutions and across universities.