Community Engagement

DEFINITION

What is community engagement?

Community engagement is a deliberate, inclusive, and continuous process of building relationships and working alongside communities to address issues that matter to them.

Partnership, not extraction

We do not "extract" information from communities. Instead, we build genuine partnerships based on mutual respect, shared decision‑making, and equitable benefit.

Communities define their own priorities
Joint planning and resource allocation
Transparent sharing of findings and outcomes

Continuous and iterative

Engagement is not a one‑off activity. It is a continuous cycle of listening, learning, acting, and reflecting that deepens over time.

Ongoing dialogue and feedback loops
Adaptive approaches based on community input
Long‑term relationship building

Nothing about us, without us.

— Core principle of our community engagement work

WHY IT MATTERS

Why we prioritise community engagement

Without genuine engagement, even the best‑designed interventions can fail. Engagement ensures relevance, trust, and sustainability.

Relevance and fit

Communities know their own contexts best. Engaging them ensures that solutions address real needs and are culturally appropriate.

Trust and acceptance

When communities are involved from the start, they trust the process and are more likely to adopt and champion the interventions.

Sustainability

Community ownership drives long‑term sustainability. When people feel a sense of ownership, they invest in maintaining and scaling solutions.

OUR APPROACH

Our engagement framework

We follow a structured yet flexible framework that adapts to each community's unique context, culture, and priorities.

Guiding principles

Inclusivity

We actively seek the participation of all community segments, especially marginalised groups.

Respect

We honour local knowledge, culture, and ways of knowing.

Equity

We work to reduce power imbalances and ensure fair benefit sharing.

Accountability

We are accountable to communities for our actions, decisions, and results.

Our engagement cycle

🔍 Explore & Listen

→

🤝 Co‑design

→

⚙️ Implement together

→

📊 Learn & Reflect

→

📈 Sustain & Scale

METHODS & TOOLS

How we engage

We use a range of participatory methods to ensure that community voices are heard and acted upon at every stage.

Community dialogues

Open forums where community members discuss health issues, share experiences, and identify collective priorities.

Focus group discussions

Small group conversations with specific segments (e.g., youth, women, elders) to explore perspectives in depth.

Participatory mapping

Community members map assets, challenges, and resources using visual tools to inform planning.

Co‑design workshops

Interactive sessions where community members and researchers jointly design interventions and prototypes.

Community feedback systems

Ongoing channels (SMS, suggestion boxes, community meetings) for continuous input and course‑correction.

Peer‑to‑peer engagement

Training community members to facilitate engagement activities among their own peers, building trust and ownership.

IN PRACTICE

Community engagement in action

These examples illustrate how we have applied community engagement to achieve tangible health outcomes.

Maternal health – community‑led outreach

Through community dialogues and mapping, we identified barriers to antenatal care. Together with community health workers and village elders, we co‑designed a mobile outreach schedule and culturally tailored health education sessions.

Antenatal attendance increased by 62%
Community ownership of outreach teams
Ongoing community monitoring of services

WASH – community‑designed handwashing stations

We engaged community members to identify the most practical locations and designs for handwashing stations in informal settlements. Community members built and maintained the stations using locally available materials.

Handwashing compliance rose from 22% to 78%
Local fabrication and maintenance
Community champions sustained the initiative

Mental health – community‑led first aid

With community members, we co‑created a mental health first aid programme that integrated local understandings of well‑being. Community volunteers were trained to provide initial support and referrals.

150 community members trained
Referrals to services increased 3‑fold
Stigma reduced through community dialogue

Digital health – co‑designed SMS reminders

We worked with a peri‑urban community to design SMS‑based reminders for chronic disease management. Community members shaped the content, timing, and language of messages to ensure relevance and trust.

Medication adherence improved by 45%
Community‑designed message content
User‑driven iteration based on feedback