Welcome - East Africa (Mesh)

Published Literature: Report on investing in Kenya's creative economy

The Nairobi Ideas Exchange by The Mawazo Institute hosted a roundtable discussion on the opportunities and challenges of scaling Kenya’s creative economy. This report will share key insights and potential next steps for individuals and practitioners looking to attract more funding.   

Podcast:The Nairobi Ideas Podcast

The Nairobi Ideas Podcast by The Mawazo Institute gives a public platform to the Africans who are making an impact with their Big Ideas. This season explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent.  

Webinar: Community Engagement within Research Uptake - Maternal and Child Health

This webinar held in December 2021 explored the role of community engagement within the process of applying research to changes in health policy and practice, focusing on maternal and child health. 

Project Report: Using ‘Magnet Theatre’ to engage public audiences with health research in coastal Kenya

This project reflection from KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya explains how they used Magnet Theatre to engage communities and what they learnt from the process

Project Report: The Sciback-skit programme: Engaging young people as malaria ambassadors in Kenya

In this project from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya and funded by the DELTAS Africa CPE Seed Fund, high school students were educated about malaria and scientific research, to inspire them to become ambassadors in their communities, and to go on to have careers in science.

Literature: Trust and Health Research in Developing Countries: Summary of the issues (Wellcome Trust, 2013)

This literature review was written by Dorcus Kamuya for the Wellcome Trust's fifth international engagement workshop. It focuses on trust in the context of health research in developing countries and highlights a range of challenges affecting levels of trust.

Guide: Working with journalists and the media

This article shares documents on working with journalists and the media from the perspective of a research programme, including through Media Advisory Groups and a Journalists in Residence program

Published Literature: Involving young people in health research

This study published by Wellcome in 2021 explores the role, benefits and potential of young people’s involvement in health research, with a focus on mental health, infectious diseases and global heating. It provides recommendations on how to meaningfully involve young people in research, and what it means to do that well.

Webinar: Engagement at a distance: Sharing lessons from experience

This interactive Mesh learning webinar held in September 2020 explored the possibilities for community engagement with health research when we cannot meet in person. Find the recording here

Project Report: Right to Food Project - In their Voices

“Right to Food Project” was implemented by the African Population and Health Research Center from 2018 to 2019 in urban Kenya. Different participatory visual methodologies were used to engage with the community members on the right to food. These included graffiti and wall murals, digital stories, photovoice, radio shows, human libraries, participatory educative theaters, open air events and community dialogue.

Report: I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here!

I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here! is an online, student-led STEM engagement activity that has is run in the UK and internationally. Students log in, read six scientist’s profiles, ask them questions, take part in text based live chats and vote for the one they to win a cash prize. The project in Kenya is in partnership with the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme.

Webinar: Why is it important for health researchers to engage school students?

This webinar from Dr Alun Davies from KEMRI | Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya, outlines the goals, methods and outcomes of school engagement as a “win-win” engagement approach for both researchers and students

Literature: Who should decide about children’s and adolescents’ participation in health research?

This paper from BMC Medical Ethics explores how researchers and research centres can activtly involve children and young people in health research activities and in the development of research proposals. They used group discussions with community members and schools students in rural Kenya to explore views on the topic.

Report: KEMRI | Wellcome Trust Research Programme: School Engagement Programme

The KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme's School Engagement Programme (SEP) aims at promoting an interest in science and science related careers amoung students as well as promoting mutual understanding between members of the community and researchers. 

Project Report UPDATE: Science, Art, Community: Building Interactive Understanding of Albinism in Tanzania

Standing Voice is an organisation that works to support people with albinism in Tanzania. This article explores how one of their projects, which communicates facts about albinism through interactive performances, navigates the cultural complexity surrounding albinism in Tanzania.

Published Literature: The Polio Communication Network Contribution to the Polio Outbreak Response in Ethiopia's Somali Region, 2013-2015

This article explores the Polio Communication Network's contribution to the polio outbreak response in the Somali Region of Ethiopia from 2013 to 2015. The article explores the barriers that prevented communities in seeking immunizations and they include weak health worker interpersonal communication during immunization sessions, in accessible immunization site, fear of vaccine side effects and reactions and inconvenient timing of sessions.

Evaluation of KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme Engagement – Programme-wide Evaluation

This case study is about a proposed programme of work on evaluation of the various engagement activities (public and community) that are undertaken at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP). The case study was based on a presentation delivered at the Mesh Evaluating Community Engagement Workshop 2017. 

Guide: Introduction to Evaluating Engagement

Robin Vincent, Evaluation Consultant, UK gives an introduction to evaluating engagement with particular focus on the Theory of Change approach and how complexity in engagement can be navigated in evaluation.

Project Report: Science, Art, Community: Building Interactive Understanding of Albinism in Tanzania

Project Report: Evaluating engagement: Implications for gender and ethics in health systems research

In this article Sassy Molyneux, a participant of the Mesh evaluating engagement workshop (March 2017), reflects on the learning from the workshop, focusing on points useful for health policy and systems researchers with an interest in gender and ethics.

Project Report: Samala Moyo

Samala Moyo is an interactive exhibition with an outreach component designed to open the Malawi–Liverpool– Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme (MLW) to the local community and creatively explore crucial topics in medical research. The project was developed from a small International Engagement Award-funded pilot project and subsequently received £188,000.

Literature: Beginning community engagement at a busy biomedical research programme: Experiences from the KEMRI CGMRC-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (Kilifi, Kenya)

An article published in Social Science & Medicine summarising the rationale for community engagement in research. The article draws upon published literature and local findings to outline the process of community engagement in Kilifi, Kenya and to describe issues emerging from its development and early implementation. It also briefly reviews literature on Community Advisory Boards and a range of related ethical, methodological and contextual issues related to developing effective methods for community engagement.