Continuing the discussion from Adolescent Insights on HCD + ASRH
In our learning work at HCDExchange, we have been looking at the generation and utility of Adolescent Insights in the HCD process within ASRH. One of the questions that often comes up in discussions around HCD in ASRH, and one that we have posed to practitioners in our research is around the added value of HCD generated insights. More specifically how are these different from what we are already getting from traditional approaches of ASRH insight gathering? While we have been exploring this distinction through our learning work in adolescent insights there is a long way to go in building a good and concrete understanding of the same.
I am sharing below some of what we have heard from practitioners working in different organizations as a starting point to this discussion:
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While ASRH program insights will often identify ‘what needs to be done?’ for a program, HCD insights tend to give you an understanding of ‘how that can be done?’ in a way that it is integrated into the daily lives of the target group.
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The process of insight gathering differs in traditional approaches versus HCD approaches. HCD methods and processes incorporate the element of observation in the context of interest even outside of planned field interviews. Practitioners noted that when doing HCD, teams often tried to spend time in the community speaking to different people in it and understanding how things work, where do community members meet, how do they get information, etc. These findings in some cases could lead to a solution that builds on mechanisms that are already integrated into the community.
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HCD insights are more directly applicable to the solution being created than traditional ASRH insights. Learning is a continuous process in HCD, and insights often become more and more applicable to the solution as the process moves along.
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HCD insights end up repeating a lot of the work at the inspiration phase, which is already done through insight gathering with traditional approaches. Instead of using what has already been found HCD processes sometimes result in repetition of fieldwork to get the same insights that were already known.
Overall, I have found that there is a need to define the distinction between insights that are gathered from HCD and ones that are gathered from traditional approaches in ASRH programming. This might help define the boundaries of what HCD can and cannot do in terms of insight gathering, and lead to a more nuanced understanding of the kinds of aspects that we can expect insights about when using an HCD process versus traditional approaches.
I look forward to hearing from you if your experiences resonate with these findings or if they are different, and in what way?