Community Engaged Research in Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Guide for SRH Researchers

Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) research historically has been an extractive process, in which research subjects from marginalized and oppressed communities were intentionally harmed under the guise of advancing scientific knowledge. Given the racist, ableist, and classist history of sexual and reproductive health research, it is critically important to ensure that our current research practices do not perpetuate harm.

This guide was generated by the Research Implementation Special Interest Group of the Society of Family Planning (SFP) at the request of its members to address principles of community engaged research (CEnR) in the SRH research context. While there are many, many excellent resources on community engagement generally, we set out to provide some basic principles for sexual and reproductive health researchers who are not from or of the communities that are the focus of their research. The guide also contains practical case studies that serve as examples for lessons learned, challenges, and best practices for implementing community-engaged research approaches in sexual and reproductive health research.

This guide is designed to be a starting place for SRH researchers, and is intended to be a living document in service to the field, as best practices for this kind of work are constantly evolving. We hope that authors will continue to add to the case studies included in the guide both successes and “failures” of CEnR can be incredibly instructive to future SRH researchers.

To contribute resources, or suggest additions or modifications, please contact Ruvani Jayaweera at rjayaweera@ibisreproductivehealth.org.