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The paper offers a first-person experiential observational study by a newcomer to the use of research initiatives to combat poverty in two geographic regions and Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Drawing on participatory action research and the tradition of 'the animateur' (catalyst-facilitation), the work of the sponsoring local agency, Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB) is described as illuminating a range of quite powerful applications. The paper is part of a larger project to bring to a western audience knowledge of the use of these methodologies in the Indo-Asian region, and some comparative reflections on them.

AbstractThe profound commitments of a participatory action researcher to engagement with practice and to collaborative inquiry with service providers and service users are historically traced and reflectively analyzed.

The experience of the author led to a consideration of the political nature of social policy oriented research, with a view to developing a strategy which might overcome some of the dissatisfactions experienced with traditional research approaches. Traditional approaches, largely because of their technical nature, have meant a neglect or diminution of those precise characteristics which have characterized the 'community' orientation among health and welfare workers. There is a clear need for a research strategy which reflects these characteristics. Such a strategy is proposed. A brief historical perspective is also included to give a context in which such research styles have operated over the past ten years in Australia.

On March 20th of this year, it will be exactly five years since the Victorian Minister for Health released the Report of the Consultative Council on Pre-School Child Development, a document which was then adopted "in principle" as government policy for the State.This report yielded, amongst many detailed recommendations, the concept of an Early Childhood Development Complex (ECDC) which has since been implemented in practice in a number of different places throughout Victoria.As the research officer to the Consultative Council, I attended, from my appointment, all its deliberations and discussions, meetings, weekend workshops (some residential) and had the unique opportunity of witnessing the meshing of these experienced minds.