Facilitating a Remote Community Advisory Board to Engage Practitioners during Complex Emergencies - An Example from Northwest Syria

A Community Advisory Board (CAB) engages a study’s target population in the research process. However, little scholarship exists to guide research to facilitate an online CAB during complex emergencies. This article describes how research exploring perspectives on good social work in complex emergencies, through a study of Northwest Syria, designed and facilitated an online CAB with international and Syrian practitioners. This study found engaging practitioners in a pilot study helped promote the relevance of the overall research to the Syrian culture and context and that carefully designed research could benefit practitioners. This process also demonstrated how ethical research in complex emergencies should be relevant and useful to participants. Ultimately, this article argues that engaging practitioners through a CAB helps improve research relevance and may benefit practitioners.