Peer Research and Community Engagement Toolkit

Transaid partnered with Durham University and the University of the Western Cape to investigate how young men aged 18-35,  navigate their walking journeys to and from transport hubs in the context of improving safe mobility for communities in city neighbourhoods where they live where high rates of crime and poverty are a reality.

Recognising there to be a gap in the literature on young men’s mobility experiences, this study, funded by the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF), focused on a primary city, Cape Town and a secondary city, Mossel Bay in South Africa. Important to this study was the peer research methodology employed to gather the data.

Using a peer research approach ensures that the research focuses on critical issues relative to a specific community and provides an insider’s understanding of these issues drawing on the lived experiences of community members more effectively. This Peer Research and Community Engagement Toolkit aims to promote the use of this approach more widely by sharing our experience of working with peer researchers in South Africa.