U.S-based non-profit AVAC, is offering a useful set of webinars and resources looking at how rapid COVID-19 research can benefit from the lessons learned in the fight against HIV - including the importance of applying good participatory practice guidelines to ensure research is effective and inclusive
The Good Participatory Practice (GPP) Online Training Course is a four-month, hands-on eLearning experience that brings the GPP Guidelines to life through interactive online content, case studies, work assignments and online discussions.
This tool, developed by the site staff of the Microbicide Development Program in Tanzania, can be used to help community, trial participants, or staff members, prioritize issues and concerns central to the trial. This tool can serve as a platform to generate a list of potential issues and provide direction for what or which issues should take priority at the research site.
Using this tool, participants can raise and explore issues they perceive as priorities in HIV prevention research; discovering links between them. An interactive and fun way for community members and participants to be involved with the planning of HIV prevention research at the site.
GPP Strengths and Gaps is a facilitator’s guide for an exercise that is designed to help evaluate GPP implementation at a site level. It can be used with community and trial participants to garner honest feedback and constructive suggestions for improvements.
The AVAC Stakeholder Interview Questions is a tool that is designed for trial site staff. It guides members of the research team through the process of conducting a one-on-one interview with a stakeholder. The tool provides guidance for talking with many different types of stakeholders. It can be used to evaluate the impact of stakeholder engagement efforts.
The GPP Trial Site Binder is a companion tool to the Good Participatory Practice guidelines that research teams can use to help develop, organize and document the stakeholder engagement activity at the site. The binder is is divided into sixteen sections aligned with the guidelines. Each section contains key steps to help research staff follow the practices, templates for documenting and planning activities, and a place to file draft documents.
The GPP Blueprint is a companion to the Good Participatory Practice guidelines for biomedical HIV prevention research. It is a step-by-step guide designed for the research team members in charge of stakeholder engagement. It presents questions, worksheets and explanations that can guide and generate a stakeholder engagement plan for a specific trial or research program.
Guide: AVAC Good Participatory Practice: Monitoring and Evaluation Tools
by AVAC, Mesh Editorial TeamAVAC has developed a large set of supplementary tools to help research teams and other stakeholders understand, implement, and monitor the GPP guidelines. The monitoring and evaluation tools consist of a set of data collection tools for community and stakeholder engagement activities.
AVAC has developed a large set of supplementary tools to help research teams and other stakeholders understand, implement, and monitor the GPP guidelines. The GPP training tools can be used by anyone who wishes to conduct a training or to provide an overview of the GPP guidelines to a secondary audience.
Project Report: Creative Arts and Social Inclusion: Engaging communities with substance misuse and HIV in Zimbabwe
by Clement Nhunzvi, Mesh Editorial TeamSubstance abuse and HIV are highly prevalent, complex and often misunderstood conditions among young people in Zimbabwe. Clement Nhunzvi and his team in Zimbabwe used a creative arts competition to engage school children (13-20 years) in social inclusion and stigma reduction when confronting substance abuse and HIV in the community.
Project Report: Scrutinized: Harnessing adolescence advocacy to end TB in Botswana
by Lucy Mupfumi, Mesh Editorial TeamThis project from Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, supported by the DELTAS CPE Seed Fund, used storytelling and film to explore perceptions and attitudes to HIV/TB in schools in Gaborone, Botswana
Teaming volunteer community members and research staff, this tool helps map out points of interest where key populations live, work, and access services. It can serve as a vehicle for community participation in the research process.
The Stakeholder Engagement Toolkit for HIV Prevention Trials, developed by FHI360, is a guide to engaging a wide range of key stakeholders throughout the trial lifecycle.
These offer an at-a-glance look at the GPP guidelines for individuals who may not be primarily responsible for implementing GPP, but who need to understand them. They are organized according to the stages of the trial life cycle: planning, trial conduct and post-trial. Each stage outlines GPP topic areas, highlights key practices, and lists considerations for various stakeholders
Although these Good Participatory Practice (GPP) Guidelines were developed by AVAC and UNAIDS for HIV prevention trials, they are valuable to clinical trials across fields, research areas, geographies and populations.
Project Report: Understanding silenced and gendered health experiences and the impact on access
by Devi Leena Bose, Paromita Saha, Kashma Goyal, Joyeeta Mukherjee, Saif ul HadiThis reports on the The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative's community consultation workshop which aimed to contribute to a better understanding of gender contestations with regards to access to health and participation in biomedical research. They describe how they used body-maps, sharing circles and roadblock/hurdle mapping excercises to explore the topics of the workshop.
This article addresses community engagement around the COVID-19 outbreak in South Africa in April 2020 and proposes a free-to-use mobile app as well as a longer-term Community Engagement Nerve Centre for the country
The SALUS project is a school engagement project exploring HIV research and treatment using animation, storytelling and online content. The pilot was conducted in the Umtata Region of Eastern Cape, South Africa
Arting Health for Impact: Botswana engaged the public on HIV/AIDS, mental health and hypertension using street art
Arting Health for Impact: Street art engaging communities in Botswana, South Africa and India
by Abraham Mamela, Mesh Editorial TeamAn international collaborative public engagement partnership using street art to engage local communities in Botswana, India and South Africa.
Published Literature: Introducing participatory visual methods to develop local knowledge on HIV in rural south africa
by Mesh Editorial TeamThis paper reports a study into the insights and perspectives of rural South African communities on HIV- related mortality. The aim of the study was to elicit local knowledge in order to identify priorities for service organisations to improve health.
Improving Ethical and Participatory Practice for Marginalized Populations in Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials: Lessons from Thailand
by Mesh Editorial TeamGuide: Community Stakeholder Engagement (CSE) Monitoring Toolkit
by Engagement for ImpactThis user friendly set of quantitative and qualitative monitoring and evaluation tools allows users to capture, collate and analyze Community and Stakeholder Engagement (CSE) data at the clinical trial site-level. The database is designed to support engagement teams working on clinical trials on a daily, monthly, quarterly and biannual basis.
Art is a powerful medium for communication and engagement with science. To create a collaborative project that melds art with research creative practitioners and scientists must be brought together, but these individuals may think differently, have different priorities and work in different ways. This account of Genome Adventures, gives a little insight into the process of bringing different disciplines together and the challanges and benefits that result.
Published Literature: Future Connect: a review of social networking today, tomorrow and beyond, and the challenge or HIV Communicators
by Pete Cranston and Tim Davies et al.An extensive introduction to the growing and changing role of social media in communication with an emphasis on developing country experience.
Project Report: Project Khuluma: providing psychosocial support for HIV positive adolescents in South Africa using mobile technology
by Nikita SimpsonA summary and evaluation of the Khuluma project which provides psychosocial support for HIV positive adolescents in South Africa using mobile technology.
Project Report: co-produced exhibition on migration, health and wellbeing in Southern Africa
by Jo VeareyMigration, health and wellbeing in Southern Africa: Co-produced exhibition captures experiences of LGBTIQ migrants and asylum seekers in Johannesburg and migrant men, women and transgender persons who sell sex in South Africa
Case study of a project run by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine which enabled adolescents in Zimbabwe to capture their stories and the stories of others living with HIV.
Guide: Recommendations for Community Engagement in HIV/AIDS Research Version 2.0
by Mesh Editorial TeamThese recommendations are intended as a tool to help research staff and community representatives expand and deepen existing partnerships, and forge new ones, with the ultimate goal of facilitating effective community engagement in all aspects of clinical trials research.