an activist's guide to research and advocacy

150 Pages·2005·0.89 MB·English

an activist’s guide
to research and advocacy
RASSP core manual
centre for civil society
1
an activist’s guide to
research and advocacy
core manual
Research and Analysis Skills Strengthening Programme
This manual is a collection of materials used throughout the programme and is read in
conjunction with the RASSP workbook and other facilitation tools developed for this
project, available on the CCS website.
2003
Centre For Civil Society
University of Natal King George V Ave Durban
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] Email: [email protected]
C R C Education design, layout and
S S
facilitation by
civil society
research & support collective
Civil Society
Tel/fax: +27 (o) 31 764 1760
Research & Support Collective
e-mail [email protected]

acknowledgements
The Research and Analysis Skills Strengthening Programme was launched by the Centre for Civil Society in 2002. It has
been offered to almost every sector of civil society organisations. Activists came from all nine provinces where they
were introduced to the skill of research and more fundamentally, the uses of research. Today, the Centre has 48 par-
ticipants who qualified for research grants and are now out in the field doing their community based research that has
a strong advocacy component to it so as to assist them in bringing their research alive. All of this would not have been
possible were it not for the dedication and commitment of the following people :
Management and Support
Centre for Civil Society, its staff and administration
Community Agency for Social Enquiry, Dr. Zaid Kimmie
The Project Advisory Group
Russel Ally, Mott Foundation
Ahmed Bawa, Ford Foundation
Kessie Moodley, Workers College
Lusani Nevathula, Department of Labour
Eddie Webster, Sociology at Wits University
Bridget Masango, NDA
Carol O’Brian, SACOB
Gail Campbell, ABSA
Jonathan Jansen, Education at University of Pretoria
The Donors
USAID’s Democracy and Governance Team (RASSP Training)
Finnish Embassy (RASSP Research)
The Conceptual Team
Prof. Ari Sitas, Sociology, University of Natal
Dr. Ran Greenstein, Sociology, Wits University
Dr. Benjamin Roberts, Human Sciences Research Council
Linden Booth, Contact Trust
Nkosinathi Ngcobo, HEARD
The Writing Team
Michael Koen, Civil Society Research and Support Collective
Fazel Khan, University of Durban Westville
Sultan Khan, University of Durban Westville
Thami Ngwenya, Centre for Public Participation
Editing and Layout
Civil Society Research and Support Collective, Durban
All the participants, from the very first 200 to the 48 who have been selected to carry out their research projects.
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preface
What is research? Is it just a skill you need to be a good academic? Can a community activist conduct research?
Often hidden in the massive buildings of universities with an air of austerity and mysticism, research has been kept in
the hands of academics. Its distance from communities has resulted in it developing a mysteriousness and often mythi-
cal edge to it.
Yet everyday, each step of the way, we are engaging in acts of research. Sometimes we do it unconsciously and some-
times we do it with a genuine interest to know something. Research is an enquiry into something : some issue, incident,
to prove a point, to shred a point to pieces, to build a case, and even to start a campaign.
Take for example the people in Wentworth, Durban. If you asked one person how they were feeling and they replied
that they were not feeling too well because they were up coughing all night, you may not be too perturbed with that and
you may easily dismiss that information as the person coming down with flu. Yet should your enquiring mind and health
suspicion prompt you a bit further, you may start asking about ten people from the area how they are feeling. Should all
ten of them answer that they are not feeling well because they have been coughing all night, your enquiring mind
should have picked up that something is wrong. Further investigations would show that one of the big plants in the area
had emitted large doses of pollution into the air during the course of the evening.
Research is an integral part of our lives. Through this field we are able to maintain a healthy suspicion of every written
piece that crosses our paths. Our minds begin to actively question, actively and strategically plan our interactions, inter-
ventions, and programmes. It can even be used to strengthen our organisations and build capacity amongst our mem-
bership and constituencies. It’s a phenomenally powerful tool and skill to have. No-one is able to ignore a piece of re-
search. It has to be taken seriously.
It is also an ongoing process. Research should never be stagnant where it has the inability to change and move things.
Hence it should be strongly located in community that is being researched so that the community, together with the re-
searcher, can organically bring it to life so that things can change, people can be moved. In this way, you not only build
yourself as a researcher but you also help build your community and strengthen your organisation.
Research linked with a strong advocacy plan is important for the building of a strong and vibrant civil society. The right-
ful place of civil society is to act as watchdog over the human, socio-economic and political rights of citizens in their
communities. To assist a community activist in being a strategic watchdog, research has to be his/her key instrument.
In this manual, you will be introduced to research and how it forms part of our every day lives. You will learn how to ac-
cess information and how to classify this information. You will also be introduced to the research process and be intro-
duced to the different research tools that come from the quantitative and qualitative toolbox. You will learn how to read
and analyse research reports, how to plan a research project, how to write up a research proposal as well as a budget
and how to conduct a literature review. And finally, you will learn how to connect research to an advocacy plan.
Attached to this information manual is a workbook that will assist you in developing your skills. Working through the
exercises will give you a good understanding on how to develop a research question by identifying the problem that ex-
ists, develop a research plan, decide on your methodology, choose a sample size, develop questionnaires, interview
schedules, focus groups, then be able to collect the data, analyse it and write up a research report. Included you will
also learn how to search for information, how to classify the information and construct a literature review. Once you
have worked through this you will have a bird’s eye view of the research process. You will also be shown how to link up
your research with advocacy : so you will be introduced to the structures of government and where the access or points
of intervention lies, how to put together a campaign, write a letter to the editor of a leading newspaper, a letter to a gov-
ernment official as well as how to analyse policy.
If you are able to put all of this together you would have developed yourself into a contemporary grass-roots activist that
is able to change the way things exist in your community and in the world!
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contents
chapter one : 9 chapter 8: 89
introducing research fieldwork
introduction 10 understanding fieldwork 90
different types of research 14
chapter 9: 95
data analysis
chapter two : 21
analysis of primary data 96
information and research
understanding & unpacking the language of 22
research
chapter 10: 103
understanding information 27 statistics
Understanding statistics 104
finding existing information 30
chapter 11: 109
chapter three: 37
reporting
literature review
report writing 110
understanding theories and research 38
paradigms
chapter 12: 115
policy and advocacy
chapter 4: 45
research methods introduction 116
introduction to research methods 46
policy and legislation 121
intervention strategies 129
chapter 5: 49
research design policy, advocacy and lobbying 131
introduction to research design 50
Policy analysis 139
chapter 6: 55
sampling
introducing sampling 56 appendix 1: the internet as a research tool 144
appendix 2: research jargon 145
Chapter 7: 65
collecting and generating data glossary 146
collecting and generating data 66 source list 148

chapter
1
introducing
research
10