Tania is a midwife in Kutapalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. To work successfully with marginalised groups researchers need to invest time in overcoming barriers. Picture: UK Department for International Development/Flickr
The author of a new ethical framework for global health research aims to support researchers and their partners to better engage disadvantaged and marginalised communities when setting research priorities. University of Melbourne School of Population and Global Health ethics researcher Dr Bridget Pratt also wants research funders to ensure their grants programs encourage and support meaningful community engagement. "Many current funding programs fail to substantially invest in global health research that is responsive to local needs," Dr Pratt said. "Their emphasis is on funding research that will help protect donor countries against infectious disease threats from poorer countries." Dr Pratt's framework is the first to list ethical considerations for engaging disadvantaged and marginalised groups when setting priorities in health research. "Its use can help reduce the likelihood of shallow, tokenistic community engagement in health research priority setting and deliver projects with research topics and questions that more accurately reflect the health needs of disadvantaged and marginalised groups," she said. Writing in Developing World Bioethics , Dr Pratt argues that the framework supports researchers and their partners to better represent diversity, mitigate power disparities and promote more inclusive community engagement. "Disadvantaged and marginalised groups are more likely to be present and heard, which, in turn, will help generate research projects with topics and questions that encompass their health needs," the paper says.
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