Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
It has been a good course all together. I have managed to distinguish the basic timelines for particular stakeholder engagement objectives. I also appreciate the importance of GPP to study communities and the site.
it is also good to address community needs that are not research related as they win community support easily because they will feel you have genuinely identified with them.
Otherwise, thank you for the time and knowledge. looking forward to contacting you in case of any challenges.
The CAPRISA team managed to engage stakeholders by educating them, addressing their non trial related needs like building schools. This made them gain more support and trust from the community by indicating that they had more interests in community problems other than research.
The community research groups also enabled them solve issues that were more likely to emerge from community dissatisfaction. more still, the strategies to solve the emerging issues were contributed to by the community members.
We have sustained community interests through;
Outreach activities that sensitive communities about HIV and other common ailments, events that offer HCT services.
MRC/UVRI has built shelters to serve as dispensaries in 2 fishing communities of Bukakata landing site.
Some community based research programs offering house to house follow up on HIV infected persons make community develop more trust in the organisation.
Involve CAB and other key stakeholders including participants to assess the attitudes and perceptions of community members.
Identify possible strategies for addressing the concerns of community which also protect the study participants.
However in the earlier stages of trial, formative research activities had to be done to ensure that the community is understood and well represented on the CAB,.
Stakeholder engagement had to be done to understand possible sources of conflicts through consultative meetings with stakeholders and strategies to mitigate these risks in an issues management plan.
Community sensitization and involvement through meetings and protocol reviews minimizes such risks.
Implications for elimination of clean needles in the prevention package included;
Rejection of results on grounds that the study population was intentionally infected (sero converters)
Ethics and regulatory bodies could stop the trial on grounds of suspected risk for trial population.
Stakeholder engagement;
Consult stakeholders about what works in their context when it comes to HIV prevention packages.
Review the developed packages timely with stakeholders to update them accordingly.
In the Ugandan context, social media has minimal effects on the trial because of its low coverage and values attached to it by the population.
At our site we have had rumors about the IPM 027 IP causing cancer. We have invited participants to share their feelings about the subject, generate solutions as well as give them the right information.
<span style=”line-height: 1.5em;”> The CAB is consulted for information and recommendations applicable to affected communities. </span>
Community sensitization is done following the approved brochures from; Ministry of Health about cancer facts and other approved messages.
This issue has however been anticipated following the earlier stakeholder meetings. It results into non adherence by trial participants but with the rightful information and reference to the Participant Information Sheet (PIS) or consent and protocol the issue is resolved. It is important to exhibit transparency among the study participants by always referring to the PIS and protocol, it has been beneficial in managing these issues as they lay out the action plans in case any anticipated issues emerged.
MRC/UVRI generates a list of stakeholders. Discussion on CAB composition basing on location and expertise is done.Our CAB representative constitutes of people with diverse expertise and influence in community and each of them serves on the CAB for a period of 4 years.
Having this CAB in place is not our ultimate stakeholder engagement plan, other stakeholders are engaged on several occassions in study activities since not all key stakeholder can be hosted as CAB.
Formative research provides a firm ground for effective community engagement. It is through formative research that the research team understands its community, learns and develops strategies on how to engage them in the research activities.
Our sit has managed to Map community leaders and Conduct Focus Group Discussions with different Stakeholders in different study communities.
In Uganda, cases of Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) are to village or local council chair persons in the area. This varies with the preference of the victim. It is from that point that the chairman will address the issue to his best of knowledge and latter on refer to them to the police, civil society organisations that handles these cases.
At national levels are specific legal acts and proposals that look into protection of human rights and support of SGBV survivors to include; Penal Code Act which seeks to compensate the sexually abused and punish the offenders, Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation 2010 (RHU, 2013)
Proposals and policy discussions on HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill, Sexual offences bill are ongoing and if well stated will translate beneficial policies on the latter (ACORD Uganda, 2008)
There is generally commitment to combat SGBV in the nation with reference to regional (Great Lakes) Goma Declaration 2008, UN resolutions on SGBV. They can be reflected in different policy manual of the nation and are backed by political commitment to effect them.
The module refreshes our thinking on key stakeholders who can greatly influence the trial. It is a pointer to respecting the different set of Research principles not only for trial success but also for volunteer protection.
Issue: Bias from stakeholders; could be about the nature of study, they could suspect you are withholding information.
Action: Engage them in information sharing, planning and implementation at different stages.
There problem is not just about drug use but also sharing needles to inject cocaine and heroine that are commonly used in our communities.
In East Africa, Uganda has the least prevalence of drug abuse at 16.7% (Illri, 2014). This is a great contributing factor worth looking out for in different communities. Thank you.
Stakeholders who do not support the trial should be involved too because not involving them is inciting more resistance from them. Remember stakeholders are people of influence in communities at different levels.
Involving them enables you address their concerns or minimize their negative reactions that would impact on study acceptance.
The ideal is to know how to involve them and when to involve them. As long as they are involved in early stages, their opposition is likely to reduce. People with influence usually expect you to recognise them and their importance. That could save alot of resistance, misconceptions and other undesirable outcomes for the trial.
