Social Justice Implications from an International Community Based Participatory Action Research Effort: A Multi-Country Comparative Case Study

The development of partnerships and conduct of community assessments are the first crucial steps in the community based participatory action research (CBPAR) approach. Community based participatory action research (CBPAR) is based on a partnership model that involves multiple entities in all aspects o f research process with an emphasis on equity throughout the effort and with the goal of improving the health and wellbeing of the community. CBPAR is a process consisting of five phases (partnership formation, assessment, implementation, evaluation, dissemination) which build on each other to achieve sustainability or social transformation. This project compares and contrasts the findings from the partnership formation and assessment phases of the CBPAR process that is currently being conducted by an interdisciplinary team of community researchers located in the US and Colombia. The team is conducting comparative case study research in the rural upper Midwest region of the US, in the rural Colombian Amazon and in a rural province of the Dominican Republic. Differences in the structure and function of the partnerships have been observed including number and representativeness of community advisors and level of participation. In the assessment phase, differences are noted in the types of data collection methodologies selected by community members as well as in the health priorities, infrastructure issues and community assets identified in each country. Despite the uniqueness of each community, commonalities linked to social justice and human rights bind these efforts together.