Community-based interdisciplinary research
Situated, rigorous knowledge production focused on public-interest questions.
The Interdisciplinary Research and Evidence Unit develops and coordinates research on historically undercounted populations, combining community knowledge, scientific methods and interdisciplinary analysis. Its accumulated experience supports the study of complex phenomena across public health, the social sciences, psychology, law, gender studies and human rights documentation.
Documented track record
Research and evidence indicators
The following indicators correspond to studies, projects and documentation systems developed across different periods. They are presented as verifiable references of scope, continuity and methodological diversity.
trans adolescents and young people directly reached through the participatory healthy transitions project, 2010–2011.
trans women surveyed in the health, HIV and human rights research funded by amfAR in 2012.
LGBTI people interviewed in the 2012–2013 INEC–CDT case study, developed with the participation of LGBTI organizations; Silueta X contributed methodological experience derived from the amfAR-supported study.
press publications reviewed in a 23-year archival media analysis conducted in collaboration with the IDB.
approximately the number of cases analyzed in the first major 2010–2013 Access to Justice and Human Rights Report.
Methodological approach
Community proximity is integral to research design.
Silueta X combines situated knowledge, community access and research procedures to study populations that are frequently statistically undercounted or face barriers to participation. This approach supports context-sensitive research questions, responsible data collection and rights-based interpretation of findings.
2010 → 2026
Research and evidence-production lines developed since 2010
2010–2011 · Trans health · Participatory research
Healthy transitions among trans youth
With support from the HIV Young Leaders Fund and Tides Foundation, Silueta X developed an information, education and communication project in Guayaquil on safer and more appropriate hormone use among trans people ages 15 to 29. The methodology was developed by activists and validated with the target population; the project also involved medical personnel and an endocrinology specialist. Institutional documentation records 160 direct participants.
View case study →2011–2013 · Sex work · Economic exclusion
From community testimony to data on trans sex work
Silueta X produced early evidence on the factors pushing trans women into sex work, their living conditions and barriers to employment. In 2013, it published the study Transgender Prostitution, explicitly proposing that the findings could serve as a statistical baseline for further research and policy proposals.
View archive →2012 · amfAR · HIV, health and human rights
Community-based research on the health, HIV and human rights of trans women
amfAR documented that its GMT Initiative funded in 2012 what it described as the first study specifically focused on the health and human rights of trans people in Ecuador. Silueta X used focus groups, individual interviews and surveys with 767 trans women in Guayaquil and other cities along Ecuador’s coast.
The study built experience in participatory design, research with hard-to-reach populations and the collection of sensitive information. Silueta X’s institutional archive documents that this methodological experience was later shared with Ecuador’s National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) in the context of the public study on LGBTI living conditions.
2012–2013 · INEC + CDT · Public statistics · LGBTI living conditions
Participation in public research and transfer of methodological experience
Silueta X participated, as a civil-society organization, in the research process on living conditions, social inclusion and human rights of LGBTI people conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) and the Transition Commission (CDT). Silueta X’s institutional archive records that the organization shared with INEC the methodology previously used in the amfAR-supported research.
INEC’s official methodological documentation states that the study was developed with the participation of LGBTI organizations, used interviewers and supervisors from the communities themselves, and applied non-probability snowball sampling. A total of 2,805 interviews were conducted in ten cities. This experience provides a relevant example of dialogue between community knowledge and public statistical production.
2013 → 2019 · Justice · Human rights
The Access to Justice Report developed into a continuing evidence series
The first major report, covering 2010–2013, analyzed approximately 159 cases, including cases involving so-called “dehomosexualization” clinics, institutional discrimination and the killings of trans women. The evidence was subsequently brought into public advocacy and policy dialogue.
The work continued in later editions under the framework of Access to Justice and Human Rights for Sumak Kawsay. The 2014 edition recorded 76 complaints and received documented international support from Hivos and Front Line Defenders. Institutional archives also preserve later editions, including the 2018 review published in 2019.
2014 · IDB · Media, violence and legal change
Twenty-three years of press coverage converted into historical evidence
With the collaboration of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Silueta X conducted an archival media analysis of news coverage published between 1990 and 2013. The study compiled 591 publications from three national newspapers and identified 82 killings within the period reviewed. Its purpose was to examine inclusion, exclusion, media language and their relationship to legal change.
2015 · Psychology · Gender · University of Guayaquil
Community practice also generated academic research
The academic study Analysis of the Interpretation of Gender and Sex among Transgender People Attending Asociación Silueta X in Guayaquil, 2015, presented at the University of Guayaquil’s Faculty of Psychological Sciences, used surveys administered through Silueta X’s psycho-medical center together with qualitative observation and interview techniques. It provides a direct precedent for the dialogue among psychology, identity, community practice and academic knowledge production.
View research →2013 → present · Runa Sipiy · Lethal violence
From annual reports to a longitudinal community monitoring system
Runa Sipiy consolidated the annual documentation of killings, violent or unexplained deaths, attempted killings, threats and other serious forms of violence affecting trans and LGBT+ populations. The report covering 2019 was presented as the sixth edition and the 2020 report as the seventh, documenting methodological continuity.
In 2025, Silueta X reported 30 killings of LGBT+ people in Ecuador. In its current phase, the Observatory incorporates digital monitoring, source verification, case follow-up and analysis from legal, criminological and gender perspectives. The system constitutes one of the organization’s principal repositories of applied evidence.
2022 · FLACSO Ecuador · Race, gender and sociology
AfroTrans: qualitative research on political identity and intersectionality
The master’s thesis Processes and Tensions in the Construction of “AfroTrans” Political Identities in Ecuador, developed by Diane Rodríguez at FLACSO Ecuador, used qualitative methods to reconstruct the social, political and everyday trajectories of Afro-descendant trans women in different cities across the country. The work provides an academic precedent for intersectional research on race, gender, leadership and identity formation.
FLACSO repository →2024 · Mental health · Technical knowledge products
From researching vulnerability to developing prevention tools
The institutional archive also includes technical and evidence-translation products, such as the Suicide Prevention Guide for LGBT+ Youth and Trans and Nonbinary People. These materials are presented as knowledge-transfer and application products, distinct from formal research studies.
Reports and products archive →2025–2026 · Johns Hopkins · CRVS · Gender and public systems
Community-based implementation within an international research collaboration
The study Diverse Gender Identities and Implications for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) is being conducted across several countries and examines how civil registration and identification systems affect access to services for people with diverse gender identities. The Gender Equity Unit associated with Johns Hopkins publicly identifies Silueta X as the implementing partner in Ecuador and Marcela Benavides as Silueta X’s principal investigator.
Preliminary findings were disseminated in Ecuador during 2025. The qualitative research examined experiences with public institutions, documentation and identity, access to health services, and administrative barriers. As of August 2026, this page does not describe a final report as published unless its public release could be verified.
2026 · Digital evidence · Applied analysis
Source integration, digital verification and applied analysis
Collaboration with Tech Labs X is incorporating digital monitoring, case coding, source cross-checking and new forms of human rights documentation. In parallel, Silueta X develops country-conditions analysis for international protection and draws on accumulated experience from Runa Sipiy, justice and human mobility work to produce contextual evidence.
Knowledge-production cycle
From problem formulation to the use of findings
Community access and participation
Community networks, peer recruitment, territorial outreach and strategies adapted to historically undercounted populations.
Qualitative and quantitative methods
Surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, document analysis, archival media analysis, case records and longitudinal follow-up.
Interpretation and knowledge translation
Interdisciplinary analysis, technical reports, data visualization, publications, recommendations and feedback of findings.
Institutional and social use of evidence
Technical dialogue with public institutions, academia, international organizations, media, justice-sector actors and public-policy decision-makers.
Knowledge translation and use of findings
Evidence gains value when it can engage with other knowledge systems and institutions.
Case 01 · amfAR / INEC
Community research → public statistics
Silueta X shared the methodological experience from the amfAR-supported study with INEC. The 2012–2013 INEC–CDT public study used non-probability snowball sampling, interviewers drawn from the communities themselves, and reached 2,805 interviews.
Case 02 · Justice
Dispersed cases → public agenda
The access-to-justice reports made it possible to present patterns and emblematic cases rather than isolated complaints, strengthening institutional dialogue and public visibility of structural barriers.
Case 03 · Johns Hopkins
Territorial experience → international scientific collaboration
Participation as the implementing partner in Ecuador integrates community access, recruitment, qualitative research, territorial coordination and local dissemination within an international study on gender identities and CRVS systems.
Fields of knowledge
Complementary fields for the analysis of complex social problems
Access, prevention, stigma, hormone use, service delivery, institutional barriers and community-generated data.
Identity, gender interpretation, psychosocial well-being, mental health, suicide, violence and affirmation.
Access to justice, discrimination, litigation, case documentation, impunity, policy and country conditions.
Transfemicides, LGBT+ killings, patterns of violence, case follow-up, digital evidence and forensic analysis.
AfroTrans, Blackness, racialization, leadership, culture, intersecting inequalities and identity formation.
Civil registration, CRVS, identity documents, interoperability, undercounting and diversity variables.
Sex work, barriers to employment and education, economic autonomy, precarity and social determinants.
Archival media analysis, media representation, historical archives, language, LGBT+ memory and cultural change.
Migration, asylum, refuge, displacement, international protection and country-conditions evidence.
Principles of scientific practice
Methodological rigor, ethics, traceability and responsible data governance
Projects are organized around methodological quality, participant protection, process documentation, information security, and mechanisms for returning and responsibly using findings.
Objectives, partners, responsible teams, outputs, timelines, funding sources and publication status.
Informed consent, confidentiality, risk minimization, data protection and safe referral pathways, adapted to each study and the relevant ethics-review requirements.
Protocols, instruments, team training, source traceability, version control and technical review.
Avoiding extractive research: communities are not merely sources of information, but participants in defining questions, interpreting findings and shaping their responsible use.
Institutional repository of reports, datasets where safe, briefs, instruments, timelines and supporting documentation.
Each project should also ask: who can use this finding, and what decision could it inform or change?
Scientific and academic collaboration
Capabilities for collaborative research, territorial implementation and knowledge translation
Silueta X participates in projects where local knowledge contributes from research-question development and instrument adaptation through fieldwork, contextual analysis and the return of findings. The Unit contributes capabilities in qualitative and quantitative research, community engagement, human rights documentation, scientific communication and the translation of evidence into policy and services.
Research implementation
Implementing partner in Ecuador
Fieldwork, recruitment, territorial coordination, interviews, focus groups, follow-up and local dissemination.
Community-led research
Community-led research
Participatory design, research with underrepresented populations and return of findings in accessible, usable formats.
Human rights evidence
Human rights monitoring and evidence
Case systems, violence, access to justice, country conditions, institutional discrimination and protection barriers.
Evidence to policy
Evidence-to-policy translation
Policy briefs, recommendations, technical meetings, institutional advocacy, training and strategic communication.
Rapid evidence
Rapid research in crisis settings
Urgent documentation, source verification, contextual analysis and evidence production in response to political change, violence or emergencies.
Dissemination
Scientific communication and dissemination
Technical presentations, web publications, public communication, specialist media and targeted dissemination to communities, academia and institutions.
Research agenda
Priority lines for expanding the evidence base in Ecuador
The research agenda focuses on information gaps identified through community experience, monitoring systems and collaboration with academic and institutional actors. These lines may be developed through independent studies or scientific collaboration projects.
Priorities are updated according to available evidence, community needs, emerging questions and opportunities for academic and institutional collaboration.
Sources and external validation
Documentary traceability and supporting sources
Documentation integrates institutional archives, academic publications, official sources and records from collaborating organizations. Authorship, participation, financial support and technical collaboration are described according to the evidence available for each project.
Documentary integrity
Distinguishing authorship, collaboration, funding and source strengthens the quality of evidence
The track record is reconstructed through institutional archives, official documents, academic publications and external sources. Each precedent is presented according to the nature of the documented participation in its respective period.
Attribution: studies are identified by their teams, programs, observatories, participating institutions and sources of support when these are documented.
Continuity: historical precedents and current research lines are presented as part of an institutional trajectory of research, documentation and knowledge production.
Asociación Silueta X en Guayaquil y Quito Ecuador 