Researcher intentionality in knowledge production practices: issues in demographic and health data construction in Africa
Demographic surveillance systems (dss) are underpinned by extremely demanding data collection processes that lead to increasing weariness among surveyed populations. Our working hypothesis was that reporting back research finding directly to the participants might mitigate this problem. Consequently, the main objective of our study was to identify the communicative tools best adapted to making findings as accessible as possible to respondents, while taking into account the social and cultural context of our four dss sites in Africa. Our fieldwork led us to reflect on the intentionality of the researcher in the research process, thus forcing us to critically examine our own ethical protocols and procedures. We, in fact, came to understand that the same social inequalities inherent in the research process, which frequently lead to the production of decontextualised knowledge, also contribute to undermining the objectives for which standardized ethical norm and rules were designed.