Stakeholder mapping involves identification of the key and vital partners that you plan to work along with to execute the research intended for the country. It is done by stratifying the stakeholders in terms of geographical location. As you do the mapping one should factor in the 5Ws to include, who should I have on board, when, where, what, which and how. As you build flesh on the 5Ws, you will have a good plan for the stakeholders.
We should appreciate that stakeholders vary by trial or research however sometimes you may find that some of the key stakeholders have not changed.
We should appreciate the CAB work is voluntary so to have someone represent a certain constituency, it requires that person to be willing to commit time to CAB work. Someone willing to work without pay! Specifically for recruitment of new members recently I have been involved in the same process and I the following process was done.
As research team we did some literature search on what groups of people are represented on the CAB. We developed a list. Then we identified organizations or leadership structures, or groupings that we thought we would engage in form of talking to them, or writing to them to help us identify the interested party.
From there we do the research literacy training to build the knowledge of this new member.
Members are informed the participation is voluntary. This team is composed of 10 individual, however it is a small team and this is due to financial constraints. If resources could allow may be we would have a larger team.
2. Through our CAB, we penetrate community spheres through the current team that we already have. They introduce us into the community and other community representatives that are required. Sustaining this stakeholder engagement relationship requires a lot of effort in terms of planning, organization and resources.
A dedicated staff to have a smooth flow of this process is required to organize, facilitate, and keep in touch with all required communities.
To have the same commitment from the research team, the outreach team has to be very creative in developing engagements that take through/ train the research about the importance of stakeholder’s holder engagement.
Share with the research team scenarios that happened to the researchers who never involved the stakeholders in the whole research process.
Remind them that whatever they are doing is of for the community, there for the need to engage them before, during and after the trial. A sustainable relationship require transparency in terms of communication and mutual respect of all parties. These two will result in trust which keeps a relationship.
