A prestigious research grant from the Wellcome Trust, International Engagement Award

A collaboration between the Abaseen Foundation, UCLan, Khyber Teaching hospital, University of Peshawar and Northumbria University has received a grant of £30,000 for a project entitled “An ethnographic exploration and an evaluation of the potential of the Jirga for community engagement in research in North West Pakistan”.  The project will start in October 2011 and run for 2 years.

Project summary:

The Jirga is a Pukhtun term for a decision making assembly of male elders.  It constitutes a traditional means of communication, discussion and debate that operates primarily in the border tribal regions in North West Pakistan and Afghanistan. Traditionally the Jirga is used for conflict resolution, information dissemination and gathering, alliance building, forum to find solutions to problems and means of peace keeping.  Our experiential evidence also suggests that local Jirgas are equally essential means to the successful development of research in the area, as they enable the full collaboration of local communities.

The primary objective of this project is to generate understanding about the mechanisms of the Jirga system as a culturally embedded route for community engagement and explore its potential for community engagement in research. The research will take place in North West Pakistan, a region where the proposers have established relationships and a growing programme of research activities. This project will utilise qualitative and quantitative research methods to

a) generate understanding about the model;

b) evaluate its applicability to engagement in research and

c) explore the degree of transferability of the certain functions of the model to other contexts.

In a context of poverty and considerable health and social care needs, there are sizeable challenges attached to engaging people in a research agenda. Our proposed approach is unique, in that it seeks to capitalise on a local culturally embedded means of community engagement to introduce research in a community.