Grassroots indicators: A systematic review of literature on conceptual and methodological issues

Overview

Conventional indicators can struggle to capture the complexity, diversity, and lived realities of local communities, particularly when they are developed through predominantly top-down approaches. This paper reviews the conceptual and methodological literature on grassroots indicators—approaches that draw on local observation, community experience, and indigenous knowledge—and considers their potential relevance to public health emergencies. The review synthesizes findings from 43 studies across disciplines and identifies six recurring themes, including scale, competing understandings of reality, indigenous knowledge, community empowerment, participatory methods, and the balance between local and scientific knowledge.

The review finds that grassroots approaches can produce indicators that are more context-sensitive, reflect local priorities, and reveal issues that conventional indicators may overlook. At the same time, purely bottom-up approaches can create challenges around standardisation, comparability, and interpretation. The paper therefore argues for a participatory middle ground that brings local and indigenous knowledge together with scientific expertise, enabling communities to help define and generate the indicators used to inform policy and decision-making.