Engage - Western Pacific Community Engagement Toolkit

Group of people voting in Cambodia with a leader wearing a mask. — Credit: WHO/ L. Khy

Why Engage?

Engaging with communities and other stakeholders allows you to work together to understand and address health-related issues. This starts with connecting – with community members, governments, health and other sectors, and any other relevant stakeholders. Building and strengthening these relationships and ongoing collaboration continues throughout each aspect of community engagement.

Key Questions to Consider

In bringing communities and other stakeholders together, what issue(s) are we trying to better understand and address?
What particular communities are we trying to reach and engage?
Who can help in understanding and addressing the issue, and how can we reach and engage them?
Have those who are directly affected by the issue been participating? If not fully, how can we better connect and support their participation?
Have people who have responsibility or influence to change conditions been participating? If not fully, how can we connect and support their participation?
How can each stakeholder be meaningfully engaged in each aspect of the work?
- - Assessment
  - Planning
  - Action
  - Evaluation
  - Communication & Celebration
Have we created an environment that encourages full and effective participation?
What ground rules and guiding principles can help build trust and relationships among those involved?
What strengths do those involved bring to the group (e.g. knowledge, skills, resources, networks)?
What is the main purpose or function of the group? What group structure can support this purpose?

Some Recommended Actions

__ Clarify the purpose for engaging with communities and other stakeholders.
__ Identify those who need to be engaged, including those most affected and those who can address the issue.
__ Reach out to those you want to engage through trusted people, organizations, and networks. (This may include local leaders or those with influence such as chiefs, elders, or faith-based leaders.)
__ Communicate the need and benefits of taking action together.
__ Make participation easy and rewarding. (This may include considerations for time, effort, cost, and location; ensuring respectful interactions; and making the experience rewarding.)
__ Improve peoples’ abilities to be involved (e.g. provide information, skill training, technical support).
__ Define the function and structure of the group (e.g. roles and responsibilities, coordination and leadership, communication and decision-making structures).
__ Create an environment that fosters full and effective participation (e.g. welcoming, respectful, engaging quieter members).
__ Establish shared ground rules and guiding principles to inform the group’s values, norms, and commitments for working together.
__ Build and strengthen relationships and trust through respectful and responsive interactions.