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Importance of Stakeholders in a research process
The success of a research is when at the end all the parties involved or rather all that are affected by the research are a contented lot with the outcome. To achieve this therefore it is only practical that the people who can impact on the research or the people affected by the research (be it directly or indirectly) are involved throughout that process. Stakeholders are therefore an integral part of a research process and will remain important if researchers are to make a meaningful contribution to the society.
Value of stakeholder engagement: my research team understanding
I would describe my team’s understanding of the value of stakeholder engagement as average. About five years ago our research site was attacked by the local community and was almost torched down because of misunderstanding by the community about the activities that the site carries out. Working with GMT population in research was interpreted as ‘breeding’ gay men and officiating gay marriages and this is what prompted the community to want to set ablaze the premises and all those in the premises. However, when the assessment was done it did emerge that the community was not involved in the research process and thus they did not understand ‘why do research with gay men’. this called for intensified community/stakeholder engagement efforts and in a recent ‘evaluation’ it is apparent that the community now understands what kind of research the site does and why engage GMT population in HIV research. From this experience therefore the research team is very aware about stakeholder engagement and why it is important though the different levels of stakeholders may not be as clear to everyone.</div>
Identifying stakeholders is of course imperative but from my experience it is not that simple. In our project we work primarily with GMT population and with the high levels of stigma in especially the region we target, people do not want to be associated with this population. The target group itself remain in the closet for the same reason of stigma and discrimination.more often than not we have engaged ‘stakeholders’ but we find ourselves in a quagmire with the involved not being ideal representatives of the identified stakeholders. Are our experiences unique?
Hi Everyone,
Its my pleasure to be part of this GPP family. I am Bernadette Kombo a Social Scientist with Kenya Medical Research Institute at the Kenyan Coast. I am somewhat new to GPP but being a proponent of locals participation in not only research but also in interventions I have a lot to learn from GPP. I am glad that I am in the midst of experts in GPP. I look forward to learning new things as well as sharing my experience in the field.
Kind regards
Bernadette
