1) In completing your stakeholder engagement plan or action plan, did any questions come up that you would like feedback on from the group? For instance, would you like ideas for how to engage particular stakeholders on a specific topic? Feel free to post questions here.
How does one engage the community when protocols are completed and we engage them at implementation phase which is often the case with most research? We have engaged the community when the protocols are in draft and we have had no concerns or issues from the community. The other challenge is to engage communities on HIV when it is not their priority as certain communities do not have access to meet their basic needs, Also we explain the incidence and prevalence of HIV, communities often need help with unemployment, nutrition and poverty and managing an abusive partner. We have started to post job adverts in the site waiting room but this is not always consistent.
2) Lastly, how has your understanding of GPP changed since you first enrolled in the course? What did you learn that surprised you?
I have enhanced my thinking on community engagement and have been able to see areas of improvement in my own processes and systems with community engagement even though we have been implementing the GPP principles for over a decade in research. The GPP section on prioritisation and assessing the stakeholders using the four quadrants has been most useful. The one aspect that requires more dialogue is the process of applying GPP in research projects and settings where there is limited or minimum engagement of investigators with the community. GPP or community engagement needs to equate to GCP and this is an area that we need to work towards collectively.
I am grateful to the team for being part of the 2015 GPP course. THANK YOU
