PEERing into communities and beyond

Mary Manandhar, who I met recently at the Development's Futures conference, has brought the PEER participatory research approach to my attention.

'PEER is an innovative approach to participatory research and evaluation. It is
a rapid and effective way of gaining an in-depth understanding of the social
world of specific communities and groups. PEER is carried out by ordinary
community members who conduct detailed interviews with others in their social
network. PEER enables programmes to access the insider view of social
relationships and behaviour within the specific social context.'

As Mary also points out from her own experience,

'the method works particularly well with the more secret and sensitive aspects
of beliefs and behaviours, such as transactional and intergenerational sex, and
sexual violence among the most marginalised groups whose voices are seldom
heard. It has advantages over the more conventional qualitative research
methods.'

Thanks to Mary for the heads up.