Mmapule,
Accrual is important and certainly a metric of success but it is not Good Participatory Practice. If you are doing good stakeholder engagement you will likely have strong enrollment and retention numbers. Formative research helps build trust between the research site and the community. It also helps establish the stakeholder advisory mechanisms that will be used in a trial.
I love that you are using other events like marathons and imbizos to talk about HIV and vaccine research. Another strategy is to partner with different organizations. For instance, family planning groups are great organizations to partner with because they are talking about sexual health. HIV can easily be incorporated into an agenda in the same way family planning can easily be incorporated into an HIV research event.
How has the community responded to the current strategies you’re using during the formative research phase?
