Research, Knowledge-building and Dialogue

Many people today agree that our current ways of doing things aren’t working, and that new holistic approaches are needed. Our organization was founded in response to this need. We sought transformational approaches to social change that could integrate inner awareness and experience with action and engagement in the world to arrive at deep, long-lasting change. Over the past five years, we have conducted several research projects to inquire into how and why that is so.

At Drishti, we take a unique stance to knowledge and inquiry. We see that efforts in sustainable development are most effective when they are responsive to good research. Our Drishti team does “action research”, which places the research process and results in service of social action and is conducted with the individuals and groups who will use the research findings. To further amplify the usefulness of research, we also make available our results and reports online to the wider global community.

Our action research has investigated and documented how to apply the Integral Approach to social change in the areas such as community development, international development, sustainability, gender and HIV/AIDS, psycho-social healing, and monitoring and evaluation.

We are committed to bring new knowledge to practitioners using a dialogue approach that builds on practice in various fields and discipline. This interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approach has formed exciting new collaborations, provided useful resources for the NGO sector, as well as inspired graduate students across the world for looking at ideas in new ways. (See our Resources page to downloads articles, case studies and book, free.)

Our most recent research focused on how to monitor and evaluate the various interior changes involved in any sustainability project, such as changed worldviews and values in regards to sustainability, looking particularly at capacity building for rainforest conservation in the Peruvian Amazon. The next research project to be undertaken by Drishti will be carried out with the Global Environmental Change and Human Security and two Salvadoran NGOs on an integral approach to climate change adaptation in the vulnerable regions of El Salvador.

Once research is completed, we find ways to bring that knowledge into dialogue with others so to build knowledge across the field. This takes shape as “Drishti discussions” that focus on a particular topic and allow for a free flow of discussion and creative thinking. Other times this takes shape as delegations to visit southern partners, such as our Salvadoran partner Centro Bartolome de las Casas, where we engage in-depth conversations together on various themes regarding our shared objectives. Other times this means bringing leaders in the field together to brainstorm new research questions and to collaboratively design research projects we see important today.

You are welcome to download our research reports, case studies and articles, found on our Resources page. We also encourage you to get involved with co-creating in this essential knowledge-building and application in sustainable development!