This article from PLOS MEDICINE highlighs how ethical, social and cultural issues can have an impact on community engagement. The authors set out to define community, community engagement and then its goals within research.
In the article the authors define community engagement as a method to improve communities identifying and addressing local ideas, concerns and opportunities. Other definitions are included to demonstrate the variety of perspectives of community engagement by both academics and practitioners in the field. The article also provides a brief description of community engagement in practice and demonstrates two relevant case studies in Sub-Saharan Africa which has led to the creation of two separate community engagement models.
The Centre for AIDs programme research in South Africa (CAPRISA) model supports community involvement and informed participation through consultation with indigenous communities to investigate issues on participant recruitment. They do this by studying community engagement strategies in Zulu language and look at cultural factors that may impact research initiatives. The second model highlighted in this publication is the Navrongo Model which involves process of going into the community to meet with community leaders before initiating a research activity, and community durbars. Durbars involve gathering chiefs, elders, opinion leaders, and community members, along with researchers, to deliberate on a proposed research agenda, and to consolidate and communicate community views and concerns.
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Tindana PO, Singh JA, Tracy CS, Upshur REG, Daar AS, Singer PA, et al. (2007) Grand Challenges in Global Health: Community Engagement in Research in Developing Countries. PLoS Med 4(9): e273. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0040273
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