Abstract
BackgroundCommunity engagement is increasingly promoted as a marker of good, ethical practice in the context of international collaborative research in low-income countries. There is, however, no widely agreed definition of community engagement or of approaches adopted. Justifications given for its use also vary. Community engagement is, for example, variously seen to be of value in: the development of more effective and appropriate consent processes; improved understanding of the aims and forms of research; higher recruitment rates; the identification of important ethical issues; the building of better relationships between the community and researchers; the obtaining of community permission to approach potential research participants; and, the provision of better health care. Despite these diverse and potentially competing claims made for the importance of community engagement, there is very little published evidence on effective models of engagement or their evaluation.MethodsIn this paper, drawing upon interviews with the members of a Community Advisory Board on the Thai-Myanmar border, we describe and critically reflect upon an approach to community engagement which was developed in the context of international collaborative research in the border region.Results and conclusionsDrawing on our analysis, we identify a number of considerations relevant to the development of an approach to evaluating community engagement in this complex research setting. The paper also identifies a range of important ways in which the Community Advisory Board is in practice understood by its members (and perhaps by community members beyond this) to have morally significant roles and responsibilities beyond those usually associated with the successful and appropriate conduct of research.
Highlights
Community engagement is increasingly promoted as a marker of good, ethical practice in the context of international collaborative research in low-income countries
We describe and critically reflect upon an approach to community engagement developed in the context of international collaborative research on the Thai-Myanmar border and report on an attempt to develop an approach to evaluation for use in this complex research setting
Methodological challenges in evaluating community advisory boards It was recognised at the outset that, whilst the goals described above were appropriate as a starting point, they would need to develop over time with the growing experience of the CAB members and of Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU), and in the light of appropriate evaluation to explore whether it is achieving the aims it set itself, whether these aims are appropriate, how the CAB is understood by its members and members of the border communities and so on
Summary
Community engagement is increasingly promoted as a marker of good, ethical practice in the context of international collaborative research in low-income countries. For example, variously seen to be of value in: the development of more effective and appropriate consent processes; improved understanding of the aims and forms of research; higher recruitment rates; the identification of important ethical issues; the building of better relationships between the community and researchers; the obtaining of community permission to approach potential research participants; and, the provision of better health care. Despite these diverse and potentially competing claims made for the importance of community engagement, there is very little published evidence on effective models of engagement or their evaluation. The vast majority of these people, who come from a very diverse range of different ethnic, religious, political and language groups, live in insecure, unsafe conditions and face a number of serious health difficulties
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