Ethical Dimensions of Community Engagement and Involvement in Global Health Research

Abstract

A practical entry point is to start with the question of space – e.g the physical sites or virtual platforms where community engagement will take place. How will you or your team identify potential spaces and sites of engagement and co-leadership? It is important to recognise that global health research is typically an “invited space” in practice [6]. In the simplest terms, this means that people with more power often “invite” those with less power into what would otherwise be a “closed” space: the research enterprise. In practice, this might mean foreign and/ or national researchers invite locally-based researchers or community organisations to collaborate on a research project. It could entail inviting community members to a local health clinic or the offices of an academic research institution for the purposes of running a focus group discussion or carrying out face-to-face interviews.