Target Malaria’s stakeholder engagement approach 

Stakeholder engagement is one of the three pillars of our project, along with science and regulatory affairs. We believe that considering the interests, knowledge, values, goals and perspectives of our stakeholders increases the likelihood of them making informed decisions about our research, increases ownership of a potential malaria vector control tool and raises public trust in science.  

As a project, we are also committed to openness and accountability in the development of our technology, and this includes active and timely dissemination of scientific advances and project activities.  

To explain our stakeholder engagement work, we have developed a three-part video animation series. 

In the first video, our approach to stakeholder engagement is explained. As a project we have a responsibility to share information about our work and to do so our teams engage stakeholders at different levels from local communities where the research takes place to national authorities, including regional and international organisations with interest in our work. We believe the communities knowledge, priorities and expectations help inform our research and ensure our technologies are effective and meet their needs.  

In the second video, we explain how communities make informed decisions about our work.  Local communities are involved in our research from the start of project activities and our work does not proceed without their support. We work closely with them to share information and listen to their views, before asking whether they agree with the planned activities. This allows communities to ask questions and share their concerns.  

In the third video, we present our community agreement model. In preparation for our current phase of work on the male bias mosquito, we have developed a new version of our community agreement model. This new model builds on our previous approach, whilst considering lessons learned from our first release of sterile male mosquitoes in Burkina Faso in 2019. To ensure accountability to our stakeholders, the new model sets out 13 commitments that reflect our values and provide a common standard across the project for how the framework will be implemented in the field in each country.  

We wish to thank our partners who helped us develop this animation series: Emerging Ag Inc for overall project management, Ryan Carter for video production management, Viktoriia Voitsekhovskaia and her talented team of animators in Ukraine, and Pappy Orion with sound and music.  

I wish to thank my colleague Dr. Nourou Barry of Target Malaria Burkina Faso for lending his voice to the French versions of the videos, while I was lending mine to the English versions.

You can also read more in our factsheet Stakeholder Engagement rationale and approach. 

More videos about the new Community Agreement Model are available on our YouTube channel playlist Target Malaria’s Community Agreement Model Explained.