A common scenario in development work is that outsiders wish to talk with a community. The purpose could be to consult with them about a particular subject, gauge their interest in a new program or seek their views on how a problem might best be tackled. Commonly, the outsiders are from a government agency, an NGO or a consulting company. The community people could be staff of local organisations, members of the local council, selected population groups (such as parents of young children) or people invited at random to meet the visitors.
In recent months I have worked on several projects for different clients that have involved exactly these kinds of processes. Subjects of discussion have included eye health, new child care services, parenting skills, education initiatives, collective impact and mental health. In development practice, the over-arching term for this work is community engagement.
Community engagement refers to the process of building working relationships between external professionals and local people and groups. While good practice in community engagement can be achieved through applying certain principles and strategies, what has struck me about the work we have been doing recently is that the way the questions are framed has been critically important.
Let me explain.
When an outsider asks questions of somebody from a community, they are almost always being intrusive. This can happen even if the subject matter seems innocuous. For example, if I ask someone to tell me about the condition of housing in the community because the organisation I represent is interested in helping to improve it, this might appear to be a reasonable question about materials and maintenance. But it can mean more than that to the people being asked the question.
Years ago, I worked as a surveyor for the National Housing Survey in the United Kingdom and noticed how anxious people became when telling me their bathroom was mouldy or their roof leaked. Asking questions about these subjects invites the participant to point out where something has gone wrong in the design, construction or maintenance of the place where they live. Maybe they feel responsible or negligent. Perhaps they are nervous about pointing out shortcomings in the work of other people or organisations.
An important principle is to recognise that many subjects are sensitive and community consultation can be intrusive. If the condition of housing is a sensitive subject, so will be topics around education, health, water use, parenting, enterprise and almost any other subject. The way questions are framed is therefore important if outsiders are to encourage people to participate in the conversation in a way that suits them best. By framing I refer to the way we say something, how we say it, what we include or leave out and what we emphasise. There may be several ways of asking a question and each one can lead to a different level of comfort and engagement by the person to which it is asked.