From Silence to Voice: Whole-Community Approaches to Researching the Unspeakable

This panel is anchored in a central dilemma for SBC research: how do we speak to the most vulnerable-adolescents and children in high-risk contexts-without exposing them to retraumatisation, retaliation, or stigma? The risks can deter practitioners altogether. Yet avoiding engagement with these groups would silence the very voices that matter most.

The panel therefore asks: how can SBC practitioners treat both openness and silence as valid forms of evidence, without putting participants at risk or erasing their realities?

It will present two cases on sensitive child protection issues. In Burundi, community members spoke openly about sexual violence against children when given participatory tools such as mapping exercises, which allowed them to describe their realities in their own words. Sensitive issues surfaced naturally, without direct prompting, offering rich insights while minimising harm. In Ecuador, by contrast, children at risk of gang recruitment could not safely be included. Here, proxy informants-teachers, social workers, and CSOs-reconstructed children's experiences; silence and mistrust became meaningful data in themselves.

The panel will explore:
• Approaches to engaging-or not engaging-directly with vulnerable groups.
• Safeguarding measures, from referral mechanisms to ethical protocols.
• Examples where sensitive issues surfaced organically through community-led, participatory tools.

If research can be inclusive in the most challenging settings, it can amplify voices anywhere. SBC should not shy away from the hardest contexts; confronting these dilemmas pushes the field toward greater equity, connection, and transformation.