[John Mdluli]

<p style=”margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;”>1. By Goal we refer to a broad statement about what the community engagement program or strategy want to achieve. Goal can also refer to the intended  long-term outcome that the community engagement program want to achieve. An example of a goal include: the description of techniques and strategies to build and sustain relationship with stakeholders through various stages of the research life-cycle.</p>
<p style=”margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;”>2. Objectives on the other hand refers to the expected achievements that are specific and well defined, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.  Example of objectives will include the development of stakeholder data base consisting of all relevant stakeholders in a specific  during a specific time period.</p>
<p style=”margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;”>3.  Activities refers to specific actions conducted to achieve the project objectives. Identification of key stakeholders and consultation meeting that are important to the development of stakeholder data-base</p>

[John Mdluli]

Dear Laura Potter

I strongly agree with you that there is a shift in focus between recruiting high risk population and low risk population. The biggest challenge is how does one distinguish between a low risk and high risk behaviour. Many people consider Christians population as a low risk  population due to their emphasize on “no sex before marriage”. The issue here is before people took a decision not to engage in sexual activities, how did they behave in the past? Secondly, it is even worse when people do not know their HIV status. I strongly agree with you, we need to strike a balance between these two concepts

 

[John Mdluli]

The starting point in Biomedical HIV prevention research is the identification of key and important stakeholders. Key stakeholders are  the individuals, trial participants, groups, organizations and any other individuals or groups who are either affected or influenced by the conduct and results of the research trial. Stakeholder maps are the important part of the stakeholder engagement occurring during the early phase of the trial. Formative research processes are undertaken to identify stakeholder maps. Through formative research process the site is able to put in place an effective stakeholder engagement plan  and have a better and informed picture or understanding of the local population, HIV/AIDS incidence and prevalence, local perceptions about the disease, channels of communication and the decision making processes followed in that community.

Through stakeholder maps or stakeholder data-base the site is able to identify the important stakeholders who will need consistence and on-going engagement. Such key stakeholders are important for the formation of site Community Advisory Board (CAB).  They include the involvement of important stakeholders such as Department of Health representatives, representatives from People Living with HIV/AIDS, community leaders, Traditional Health Practitioners, Faith Based Organization, youth representatives and any other stakeholders that can emerge during the conduct of the trial.

Working with key stakeholders to build and sustain the longer-term relationship requires a site specific CAB or study specific CAB e.g. youth CAB for trials involving youth and adolescence. CAB Constitution serve as an important strategic document that provides guidelines on the full functioning of CAB. The document provides directions in terms of CAB leadership structures and roles and the frequency of CAB meetings. The community team can have effective working relationship and communication with the site staff by having a regular meetings with them in which community engagement activities form part of the standard agenda

 

[John Mdluli]

Benefits of conducting stakeholder engagement throughout the entire trial

Stakeholder engagement through formative research assist research trial staff to have a better understanding of the socio-cultural norms, local power and dynamics, local perceptions, channels of communications and decision making. It also assist the research trial staff to have a better understanding of the HIV incidence and prevalence. Implementation of effective stakeholder engagement throughout the life cycle of the trial ensures stakeholder support for the current and future trial.

Consequences of not doing stakeholder engagement

Failure to implement community engagement can results in a lack of stakeholder support for the envisaged trial and future trials. This can also have a negative impact on stakeholder understanding of the trial progress.

 

 

[John Mdluli]

Dear All

I agree with Leader and all who have commented on these tools.  I also had a privilege to attend the training with Leader last week. Our site Aurum Tembisa CRS also participated in the  piloting process of these tools.

9 tools were administered as follow: 1. Community Engagement Log 2. Compilation of clinical data. 3. Interview with community member 4. Interview with community stakeholder 5. CAB member interview 6. Interview with trial participants 7. Interview with prospective participant. 8. Interview with community manager  and 9. Interview with the study PI

Also note that these tools are administered on line. Not sure if we can share cause from my understanding we were advised that they  still need to do some amendments to certain tools. TB Alliance have the intellectual property rights to the system  and we might need their approval before sharing

[John Mdluli]

1. Importance of Stakeholders in the research Process

Stakeholders are an important part of the research process because these are the individuals, policy makers, government institutions, groups or organizations who have a direct influence or impact on the research process. Stakeholders are either directly or indirectly influenced by the planning, conduct and research findings. For example if one day the HIV vaccine or treatment is discovered through a research process, this will change both National and International policies on HIV prevention and treatment. In South Africa this will have a direct impact on our National Strategic Plan (NSP) in terms of how this disease should be prevented and managed.

For a product to go through a licensure we need different stakeholders at different levels. Such Stakeholders will include Policy Makers, pharmaceutical companies and the broader community. Therefore I feel that stakeholders form an integral part of the research process.

2. Understanding of the value Community Engagement by the research team at our site

Fortunately our site participated in the FACTS 001 trial. Part of the requirement was that the site staff should be trained on GPP guidelines. The guidelines clearly indicate the role of Community Engagement in the planning, conduct and results dissemination of the trial findings. During the planning of FACTS 001, Formative research was conducted and the findings were shared with the site staff. The findings of the formative research highlighted the importance of understanding community dynamics, languages used and the HIV incidence and prevalence in the area. This in-turn advised on how we can recruit high risk participants for the study. The results of the formative research also advised us on how participants recruited  and enrolled for this study can be retained.

Community Engagement initiatives such as Formative research helped to increase our site staff understanding of the role and importance of community engagement in the conduct of biomedical HIV prevention research

 

 

[John Mdluli]

Hello everyone

Its a pleasure for me to be part of this exciting initiative

Meet John Mdluli, responsible for the community engagement program at the Aurum Institute Tembisa site. I have involved with GPP through FACTS 001 trial, the first ever study to implement GPP from the begging to finish. I am excited that we are now preparing for the results dissemination.

My scope of work include community preparedness for all studies to be undertaken at our site, coordinating CAB activities and managing the outreach and retention teams.

I am looking forward to this exciting on-line and hope to do well at the end of the course

Kind regards and looking forward to interact  and work with you all

John Mdluli

 

[Author]

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