Engaging communities through participatory systems mapping to identify changes in the public health data ecosystem

This session describes how we engaged multiple community voices through participatory systems mapping approaches to assess the collective efforts of a portfolio of grants funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in changing the public health data ecosystem. We achieved this by using the Multi-Dimensional Kinship Net (MDKN) mapping methodology, an Indigenous evaluation approach aimed at capturing multiple perspectives on a situation. By applying this methodology, we cast multiple "nets" through our data collection efforts, including a literature review, participatory activities with grantees, and interviews with various actors in the ecosystem. These "nets" allowed us to surface insights from different groups within the public health data ecosystem on changes that have occurred. Future systems evaluations could consider employing the MDKN or other Indigenous and non-western paradigms to ensure their research includes diverse voices, experiences, and narratives.
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Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner; Nicky Bowman; Jeremy Braithwaite