Chimbari Moses John
University of KwaZulu-Natal, College of Health Sciences, School of Nursing and Public Health, Howard Campus, Durban, South Africa.
Acta Trop. 2017 Nov;175:9-19. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2016.09.028. Epub 2016 Sep 28.
Ecohealth projects are designed to garner ownership among all stakeholders, such as researchers, communities, local leadership and policy makers. Ideally, designs should ensure that implementation goes smoothly and that findings from studies benefit the stakeholders, particularly bringing changes to the communities researched. Paradoxically, the process is fraught with challenges associated with implementation. Notwithstanding these challenges, evidence from projects implemented in southern Africa justify the need to invest in the subject of ecohealth. This paper describes and discusses a principal investigator's experience of leading ecohealth projects in Zimbabwe between 2002 and 2005, in Botswana between 2010 and 2014 and in South Africa (ongoing). The discourse is centred on issues of project management and leadership, transdisciplinarity, students' involvement, data management, community engagement, dissemination of research findings and the role of institutions in project management and implementation. The paper concludes that the ecohealth approach is valuable and should be encouraged making the following recommendations; 1) principal investigators must have a good understanding of socio-ecological systems, have excellent project management and writing skills, 2) more than one PI should be involved in the day-to-day running of the project in order to avoid disruption of project activities in the event that the PI leaves the project before it ends, 3) researchers should be trained in ecohealth principles and methodologies at the time of building the research teams, 4) full proposals should be developed with active participation of communities and stakeholders in order to develop a shared vision, 5) involvement of postdoctoral fellows and dedicated researchers with postgraduate students should be encouraged to avoid situations where some objectives are not fully addressed because of the narrow nature of students' work; and 6) citizen science should be encouraged to empower communities and ensure that certain activities continue after project termination.
生态健康项目旨在让所有利益相关者，如研究人员、社区、地方领导和政策制定者，都能拥有项目的自主权。理想情况下，项目设计应确保实施顺利，且研究结果能使利益相关者受益，尤其要给所研究的社区带来改变。矛盾的是，这个过程充满了与实施相关的挑战。尽管存在这些挑战，但在南部非洲实施的项目所提供的证据表明，有必要对生态健康这一主题进行投资。本文描述并讨论了一位首席研究员在2002年至2005年期间在津巴布韦、2010年至2014年期间在博茨瓦纳以及目前在南非领导生态健康项目的经历。论述集中在项目管理与领导、跨学科性、学生参与、数据管理、社区参与、研究结果传播以及机构在项目管理和实施中的作用等问题上。本文得出结论，生态健康方法很有价值，应予以鼓励，并提出以下建议：1）首席研究员必须对社会生态系统有充分的了解，具备出色的项目管理和写作技能；2）项目的日常运作应有不止一位首席研究员参与，以避免在首席研究员在项目结束前离开时项目活动中断；3）在组建研究团队时，研究人员应接受生态健康原则和方法的培训；4）完整的提案应在社区和利益相关者的积极参与下制定，以形成共同愿景；5）应鼓励博士后研究员和专注的研究人员与研究生一起参与，以避免因学生工作范围狭窄而导致某些目标无法充分实现的情况；6）应鼓励公民科学，以增强社区能力，并确保在项目结束后某些活动仍能继续开展。
