Community Engagement and Involvement

Aim

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This component aims to include local communities in the research and development process to ensure that interventions are aligned with stakeholder needs. Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) is a critically important component of this global oral health research programme. One of the key limitations with existing oral health interventions/policies is that they have been developed almost exclusively based on professional views with minimal or no input from a community perspective. As a consequence, they are often poorly aligned with community needs and priorities leading to ineffective and poorly sustained outcomes.

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In this research programme, CEI will provide input to all aspects of the planned research. The process of community engagement, empowerment and co-production with community groups and civil society organisations will be central in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the planned research activities.

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Planned Activities

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• CEI activities will commence in each country with a mapping exercise to assess the nature of their local communities and existing engagement mechanisms.

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• Community forums will be established in each country to provide on-going CEI input into the research. These forums will meet throughout each year and will be facilitated by the CEI coordinator. Training support will be offered to develop forum members skills and confidence as required. The community forums will be asked to comment on all aspects of the proposed research including study design, participant recruitment, consenting processes, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, data reporting and dissemination of findings.

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• The mapping exercise will inform the CEI strategy which will be developed by the team and the forums in each country.