Using qualitative principles to decolonise research into children’s dietary diversity in Papua New Guinea

Introduction

Although research into low dietary diversity and malnutrition in children 2-5 in Papua New Guinea reflects colonisation, researchers are now exploring Decolonising epistemologies.   

Goals/methods

To understand how combining expert and community knowledge can reveal cultural dimensions of PNG children’s dietary diversity.

Secondary analysis of an internationally designed quantitative survey of children’s diets explored associations between diet and cultural factors. Then, the first author, a Highlands woman, recruited women cultural leaders, sent them data summaries, and conducted telephone interviews seeking their accounts of findings. Thematic analysis and critical feminist synthesised findings from the mixed methods.  

Findings

Quantitative analysis showed high malnutrition and low diversity with urban and rural differences: eg education, income, polygamy. Diet was’nt associated with income or women’s empowerment.  Women cultural leaders critiqued quantitative income measures which did not work rurally, and the culturally inappropriate empowerment measure.  Examples of omissions included gendered silences whereby children lacked protein despite abundant pigs. Men controlled pigs for ceremonies, politics, dowries, and dominance. Other silences were women unable to feed children who had to accompany them to work on men-owned land.  Women could not feed children whilst menstruating and men always ate first.  Women cultural leaders recommended including factors in future surveys. Further exploration revealed that a small group of men approved the  survey for PNG by and potentially useful data were collected but not analysed.

Conclusions

Women cultural leaders revealed how the quantitative data cannot influence policy because it was flawed and ignored key cultural and gendered influences. Colonialist quantitative methods should be replaced by Decolonizing mixed methods. Qualitative should guide survey design and analysis. Then further qualitative research should check findings and seek cultural explanations of nutrition. Co-produced research synthesising expert and community theories can inform policies with a better chance of implementation because they resonate culturally.