Unpacking Mistrust: new public engagement project

Recently, Sophie Durrans (SHARE's Research Uptake Officer) was awarded a small grant from the LSHTM public engagement scheme. This internal scheme provides funds for staff and students to plan and deliver public engagement projects related to research done at the School. Here, she tells us a bit about the project that she'll be working on in collaboration with the SHARE Malawi team.

Why engage the public?

I was first motivated to apply for this scheme after hearing about some of the experiences of 2016 small grant holders – hosting a public engagement event takes a specific skillset, but can add value in many ways, including improving transparency and responsiveness with communities we work with.

Our project, ‘Unpacking mistrust: towards good practice in community-based research’, came about through a continued dialogue with SHARE partners at the University of Malawi – The Polytechnic. While collecting human and environmental samples for their project Integrating WASH and Food Hygiene and other WASH projects, data collectors had experienced some resistance and mistrust at the community level, for instance, some people expressed concern that blood or stool samples may be used for sanatic or witchcraft purposes.

What we’ll do

In light of some of these concerns, we wanted to create a workshop with a focus on dynamic, two-way dialogue amongst researchers and people who live and work in rural Chikwawa in Southern Malawi: health and water workers, traditional and religious leaders, and community members.

The format of the workshop will be a world café – a method that suits large group discussions, and provides a safe space for addressing and confronting participants’ concerns. We hope that through this, we’ll be able to gain a deeper understanding of barriers to trust among different groups involved in the research process, and further develop our understanding of what makes ‘good’ research practice within WASH research.

Next steps

We’re at early stages in the project. We are starting to have initial discussions with our SHARE team in Malawi, who have over a decade of experience interacting with this community, and we will further refine the workshop format and structure to ensure it’s as interactive and valuable is possible.

After the event, we’ll feed back to a number of different groups in various ways, including producing a learning document about developing and delivering public engagement events directed at stakeholders working in research and programmes in Malawi.

Keep an eye out for more updates as this project progresses!

You can read about our project and others on the LSHTM small grants page.