Unlocking hard-to-reach audiences at scale
ActionAid needed to understand street harassment to truly take action on it. To do this, they needed to reach both victims and perpetrators in some of the poorest countries in the world and gain their trust to unlock deep insight.
To enable the work to progress at pace, I trained ActionAid outreach workers to carry out the primary research at each location, coordinating the fieldwork and processing the resulting data into usable insights.
What we did
Early on in the project, it became apparent that the fieldwork would need to be carried out by the outreach workers who already had the relationships with the relevant audience and had spent years building trust needed for the very vulnerable conversations that this research would entail.
Creating a structured manual
Working with an experienced copywriter, we created a well-structured training pack that provided the outreach workers with a handy reference manual for when they were out in the field. This, thorough booklet gave them a good understanding of everything involved in field research.
Training sessions
We carried out remote training session with outreach workers in the target countries of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Nepal, South Africa and Zimbabwe, giving them a change to work through the material with us, briefing them further on how to ask questions and what to look out for, as well as allowing them to ask further questions.
Coordinating fieldwork and processing data
Throughout the fieldwork period, I was on hand to answer any further questions and guide the outreach workers through the research process. The resulting data was gathered in a well-structured spreadsheet that simplified the analysis process.
Communicating the findings
Working with a visual designer, I created depth profiles for each of the archetypes that provided key insights including transport experiences, sources of information and access to technology.
This became a key resource for the campaign that was used to target efforts and communications effectively.
Resulting campaign
Insights from this work are still being used 10 years later and have helped unlock simple but meaningful improvements such as improving street lighting in Brazil, providing safer public transport in Vietnam and improved street lighting in Liberia.