Analysing social-change practice in the Peruvian Amazon through a feminist reading of participatory communication research

Abstract

This article analyses the social-change practices of Minga Perú, an NGO in the Peruvian Amazon which promotes gender equality and reproductive health through radio broadcasts and community-based interventions. This analysis, grounded in participatory research methods, reveals a feminist and gender-equitable approach, allowing participants to take the role of leader rather than of passive research subject. Such participatory research methods helped to empower both individuals and their communities in the Peruvian Amazon, encouraging the development of more productive group dynamics and leadership.

Keywords:

• Civil Society
• Gender and Diversity
• Methods
• Latin America and the Caribbean

Acknowledgements

We thank Eliana Elias, Eloy Neira, Aroma de la Cadena, and our other colleagues at Minga Perú, who made this research possible. We also thank Jethro Pettit, Alfonso Gumucio, and Juán Salazar for their helpful comments in reframing this article for Development in Practice. The present article builds on the authors’ previous works on participatory research methodologies as tools of communicative theory, research, and praxis. Further, this article draws upon the ideas of various scholars and practitioners, of whom some of the most seminal are acknowledged in the references. Please contact the authors for an additional reference list.

Notes

Minga Perú started its work in the Peruvian Amazon in collaboration with the Amazonian Peoples Resources Initiative (APRI) of the University of Kansas. Currently, Minga works independently of APRI. Minga's work is supported by the Ford Foundation, the American Jewish World Service, AVINA Foundation, Empower, Moriah Fund, and Match International.

Community health promoters are selected by their community according to their level of leadership, commitment to others, and desire to learn. As a result, the position is regarded as one with a high level of responsibility. While women in this patriarchal society have traditionally been denied access to positions of power, the establishment of community health promoters who are women has served to alter this balance.

Minga's present work in the Peruvian Amazon is focused in the Marañon and El Tigre river basins, both major tributaries of the Amazon and accessible from Iquitos City, where Minga has its headquarters.