Personal experience of community engagement in scientific research
Dr. Joel Bargul’s ongoing research study primarily focuses on the transmission of camel trypanosomiasis and zoonotic pathogens in Laisamis, northern Kenya. The chief economic mainstay of the people in this arid and semiarid
region characterized by nomadic pastoralism is livestock production. Little research has previously been conducted
here in early 1980s, partly because of lack of dedicated veterinary support from Kenyan government (as used to happen in 1980s)or private sector and as well due to limited accessibility owing to long distances in search of pasture and water travelled by the pastoralists into very remote regions lacking infrastructure. Get full story in the THRiVE newsletter
Director’s Message
THRiVE has been extra busy in the quarter ending June 31, 2018 but this has added to our enthusiasm and excitement as a network. The site visits to partner institutions offered very
good opportunity to learn firsthand both the direct and indirect contributions that THRiVE has on host institutions. Clearly institutions do underreport their activities and may not optimally use the online monitoring and evaluation tool developed by THRiVE. Partners need to appreciate that underreporting may lead to negative consequences.
This finding will require close attention as part of strengthening partner management. The latter is expensive in terms of time, money and other resources. KPMG auditors took keen interest in this issue as they did for network governance and a check on of value for money in all transactions both at the prime grantee and at partner institutions.
The secretariat staff engaged the auditors in a very professional manner and this was well appreciated. As in the past the Annual General Meeting (AGM) was an opportunity for making the face-to-face connections and learning from different experiences while assessing the progress made by the upcoming researchers. New additions to this year’s program were talks on science and diplomacy, open publishing and a workshop on community and public engagement (CPE) in research. A loud message was delivered by Lilian Mutengu of AAS/AESA that CPE is one of the four pillars of the DELTAS Theory of Change and as such it should not be viewed as simply an appendage or add on to the other three pillars. It was evident from the AGM that nearly all fellows had engaged in CPE through the adoption of a school scheme. The THRiVE CPE committee developed a workplan that will be implemented during the rest of this year.