Conducting a Participatory Situation Analysis of.pdf - Global HIV ...

Tips for Reaching Policy Audiences
• Keep reports brief.
• Include an executive summary.
• Provide talking points to policy stakeholders
who may use or disseminate the study results.
• Recognize that analysis results may have larger
political implications, requiring consensus among
many stakeholders before action will occur.
• Use graphs, tables, and diagrams to illustrate
important points.
• Encourage policymakers to weigh data from different
sources.
• When planning to use information for policy
purposes, consider the availability of resources,
the institutional capacity to change practices, and
the potential risk if change is mismanaged or
misguided.
• Identify locally credible champions (not necessarily
experts, but respected individuals to convey
analysis-based information) to make the case
for change with those who can actually influence
OVC policies and their implementation.
• Never underestimate the importance of personal
contact in policy dissemination efforts.
The Advisory Team may, however, decide to use the
quantitative and qualitative findings to address similar
issues among the same populations. When writing the
full technical report using this scenario, a structure that
works particularly well is to organize the presentation of
all findings by key themes; for example, education for
OVC, healthcare, psychosocial well-being, and caregiving
practices. One must be selective when choosing
themes—with so much data it may be necessary to
leave some material out.
As noted at the end of Chapter Five, triangulating the
data (e.g., by themes) presents a more multifaceted
description of the situation of vulnerable children. A
report that integrates different data guides the reader
through the findings from one methodological approach,
then presents the findings from a different approach, and
then explains to the reader what the combined findings
mean with regard to a particular theme. After treating all
key themes sequentially in this way, a conclusion is written
that explains the linkages between themes, explains
the findings in light of the data gathering framework,
and discusses whether the findings are consistent with
other OVC analyses and studies.
Sometimes an analysis that uses both quantitative and
qualitative methods provides different results for the
same phenomenon. The analysis report does not need to
reach a unifying conclusion regarding discrepant findings,
but it should present these contradictions and offer
supporting data for the reader to assess.
Approaches to Organizing the Report
Using the purpose and the audience’s needs as a guide,
consider the approach and style that will best convey the
findings. There are several options: problem-solving
approach, narrative approach, policy approach, and analytical
approach.
Problem-solving approach
The problem-solving approach to organizing the report
includes the following:
• State the problem and describe the importance of
the analysis topic and its implications for health and
child welfare policies or practices.
• Briefly describe the methods.
• State what was learned about the situation of OVC
and their caregivers.
• Offer recommendations and conclusions.
Narrative approach
The narrative approach to organizing the report includes
the following:
• Tell the story in a chronological narrative, illustrating
a problem or process—such as sequential hardships
of orphanhood (e.g., prevention-to-care continuum)
or orphan experiences from multiple perspectives.
• In the conclusion, explain why and how the problem
or process occurs. For example, if the analysis examines
perspectives on community caretaking of
orphans, and approaches vary from village to village,
organize the findings by site.
Policy approach
The policy approach to organizing the report includes
the following:
• Present a summary that explains why a process, situation,
or behavior occurs or does not occur.
• Begin by presenting evidence to show how this conclusion
was reached. Journalistic and policy-oriented
reports typically follow this pattern, for busy readers
who have little time to read a lengthy report until
they have grasped the relevance of the material.
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Guidelines and Tools