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Rapid assessment procedures (RAP): Ethnographic methods to investigate women’s health. Joel Gittelsohn, Pertti J. Pelto, Margaret E. Bentley, Karabi Ghattacharyya, and Joan Jensen. International Nutrition Foundation, Boston, Mass., USA, 1998. (ISBN 1-892468-01-8) 196 pages, paperback. US$15.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling. (Developing country individuals and institutions, US$10.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling).
This manual contains guidelines and procedures for carrying out an ethnographic study of women’s health. It provides tools for the generation and analysis of data to facilitate programme development, implementation, evaluation, and improvement by governmental and nongovernmental institutions concerned with women’s health. The main body of the manual focuses on a series of data-collection exercises that will permit an organization to develop a sizable body of data on local perceptions and practices regarding women’s health in the study area. It differs from other ethnographic manuals in its focus on the health problems of women rather than a specific disease or cluster of diseases, it provides detailed suggestions for the appropriate training of data collectors, and it provides for the optional use of specialized computer software packages.
