Community engagement to tackle infectious threats: A viewpoint based on a social science mapping process in Bangladesh, Uganda, and Ukraine

The SoNAR-Global Social Science Network for Infectious Threats and Antimicrobial Resistance connects social scientists from Europe, South East Asia, and West and Central Africa in their interest in epidemics and infectious diseases. Ebola virus disease outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo and West Africa and the COVID-19 pandemic highlight the importance of understanding community reactions to infectious disease outbreaks. Preparedness and response activities must suit people’s demands and cultural needs. One approach that allows integrating social sciences into antimicrobial resistance (AMR) or infectious disease research is community engagement (CE). Developing appropriate models for multi-layered, multi-sectored, dialogue-based engagement represents one pillar of SoNAR-Global. Consequently, we performed a mapping and assessment exercise in 2019 as part of the project’s first steps, searching for existing models of CE targeting infectious threats and AMR. We compared the identified examples with the UNICEF Communication for Development (C4D) Minimum Quality Standards for Community Engagement, which defines and narrows down the various understandings of CE and provides practical guidance for CE-based research and response activities, stressing that CE needs to be specific, localised, responsive, and bi-directional, and that top-down approaches must be avoided.