FPHC Conclude CIHR Grant with PAR Workshop

More than 9 years ago, staff of FPHC reviewed their Strategic Plan. They thought long and hard about how to make a bigger impact in their inaccessible corner of KhyberPushtunKhwa region of Pakistan. They determined then to start doing participatory research to help document what worked and what didn’t in primary health care especially in maternal and child health.

In 2009 a grant was obtained from Canadian Institutes of Health Research to begin the process. An extensive environmental scan was undertaken in six communities. Then two floods, a humanitarian crisis in internally displaced people and ongoing insecurity intervened. 


Finally in 2012, the final training workshop in Participatory Action Research was finally held. 22 participants (8 women) attended over three weekends. FPHC field staff, government health workers, students, social mobilizers, medical doctors, lady health visitors and administrators. Participants were pleased with the new skills and tools they learned. One participant attended a Situation Analysis for Afghan Refugee camps and found he had provided the majority of the ideas for how to go about it. Government health workers said they were attending their first training in more than a decade.

Participants learned the advantages and disadvantages of participatory research in communities. They undertook exercises on grounded theory, PAR cycle and Focus groups. This was followed by analysis tools such as card sorting, pair wise ranking, direct matrix ranking, problem & solution trees, fishbone diagrams, time lines, seasonal calenders, transect walks and Venn diagrams.  Now they would like an opportunity to use their new found knowledge.