Ethical Engagement through Evaluating Community, Public and Policy Engagement.
Ethical issues relating to global health research have become a subject of scholarly and policy discourse. Over the last two decades, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) has intentionally built and maintained inclusive, responsive, and respectful relations with communities and stakeholders that host global health research. The Engagement Platform consists of three main areas: engagement of local communities and stakeholders, engaging broader publics such as students, journalists, and the public, and engaging with policymakers. The engagement implementation is iterative; and the Monitoring, evaluating, and learning ensures that the engagement’s objectives are achieved. The M&E Protocol enhances the involvement of local communities and the broader public in research, and a theory of change that informs the implementation of engagement activities. This has enabled KWTRP to understand what works, and what doesn’t work, and the ability to tease out ethical issues arising from engaging communities through conducting health research and sharing feedback to study team activities.
Evaluation Methods
Engagement activities are evaluated using different methods; pre-post intervention household surveys, case studies aimed at exploring community engagement aspects, in-depth interviews, group reflection on community engagement practice, participatory observations of activities, and a review of community engagement, documenting and analyzing issues reported through the helpline, focus-group discussions, realist reviews, observations of engagement activities and interviews with scientists/staff; participatory videos, reflective meetings. The analysis is done by using STATA, SPSS for quantitative data, and NVivo for qualitative data through a thematic approach.
Results
The findings have enabled KWTRP to understand communities' perceptions, knowledge, and views about KWTRP and health research, and the adaptive programming that needs to be conducted to ensure that community engagement is impactful, ethical, and sustainable.
Conclusions
Findings from this work will feed into the current and future programming of KWTRP’s engagement activities which are important to ensure ethical conduct of research.