The World Mosquito Program’s Wolbachia method safeguards communities from mosquito-borne diseases. Partnering with local stakeholders, we aim to prevent disease transmission without compromising human health or natural ecosystems.
Partnering with Communities
At WMP, Community Engagement means creating participatory partnerships with local communities, understanding their needs, designing campaigns based on their interests, and actively involving them in empowering project activities.
Our approach to Community Engagement is called the Public Acceptance Model (PAM) and this guides how we listen to key stakeholders and involve and empower communities.
The PAM follows key principles, releasing only when broad community support is achieved. We pledge to be responsive, respectful, transparent, and inclusive—accommodating requests, considering interests, promoting honesty, and encouraging diverse community participation in our projects.
In collaboration with diverse communities, we tailor our approach while upholding key practices:
- Successful project delivery includes creating Community Profiles to understand communities.
- We form Community Reference Groups, an independent panel of representatives, to gather input on communication and engagement strategies.
- Prior to mosquito releases, we conduct a comprehensive Communications and Engagement campaign to address concerns.
- Empowering communities, we involve them in Releases and Monitoring.
- Finally, we assess Community Acceptance through independent surveys before proceeding with releases.
Listening to Community Voices
WMP has a vision of a world where everyone can live a healthy life – free from the suffering caused by mosquito-borne diseases. That vision can only be achieved through collaboration with communities and by listening to their stories and voices.
Gaining Community Acceptance
Across the globe, we see consistently high levels of community acceptance reflecting public acceptance and recognition of the efficacy of the World Mosquito Program’s Wolbachia method in helping communities to protect themselves from mosquito-borne diseases.
We assess community acceptance before we begin field releases. We ensure we have undertaken a thorough stakeholder engagement and communications campaign. We seek the endorsement of an independent panel of community members, the Community Reference Group. We address any queries or complaints from the community before releases happen. Finally, we commission an independent survey of the community to assess their level of acceptance of the project.
