Seven core competencies and conditions for equitable partnerships and power sharing in community-based participatory research.

Equitable health research requires actively engaging communities in producing new knowledge to advocate for their health needs. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) relies on the coproduction of contextual and grounded knowledge between researchers, programme implementers and community partners with the aim of catalysing action for change. Improving coproduction competencies can support research quality and validity.

The role of the clinical pharmacist in the respiratory or sleep multidisciplinary team.

The role of the pharmacist has evolved significantly, not least over the last 20 years. It delivers a skilled profession with a vital role in medicines optimisation and the management of patients with a respiratory or sleep disorder. While pharmacists are capable of acting as independent practitioners delivering direct patient care, this article explores their contribution to multidisciplinary teams within asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis, interstitial lung disease and sleep medicine.

Voices and challenges of marginalized and vulnerable groups in urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya: building on a spectrum of community-based participatory research approaches.

Urbanization is rapidly increasing across Africa, including in Nairobi, Kenya. Many people, recent migrants and long-term residents, live within dense and dynamic urban informal settlements. These contexts are fluid and heterogeneous, and deepening the understanding of how vulnerabilities and marginalization are experienced is important to inform pointed action, service delivery and policy priorities.

Power and poverty: A participatory study on the complexities of HIV and intimate partner violence in an informal urban settlement in Nairobi, Kenya.

People in informal urban settlements in Kenya face multiple inequalities, yet researchers investigate issues such as HIV or intimate partner violence (IPV) in isolation, targeting single populations and focusing on individual behaviour, without involving informal settlement dwellers. We formed a study team of researchers (n = 4) and lay investigators (n = 11) from an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya to understand the power dynamics in the informal urban settlement that influence vulnerability to IPV and HIV among women and men from key populations in this context. We facilitated participatory workshops with 56 women and 32 men from different marginalised groups and interviewed 10 key informants.

Household antibiotic use in Malawi: A cross-sectional survey from urban and peri-urban Blantyre.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant threat to public health. Use of antibiotics, particularly in contexts where weaker regulatory frameworks make informal access easier, has been identified as an important driver of AMR. However, knowledge is limited about the ways antibiotics are used in communities in Malawi and sub-Saharan Africa.

A qualitative study exploring hand hygiene practices in a neonatal unit in Blantyre, Malawi: implications for controlling healthcare-associated infections.

Neonatal sepsis causes morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Antimicrobial resistance exacerbates outcomes. Poor Infection Prevention and Control practices (IPC) by healthcare workers and caregivers drive infection transmission.

A health-systems journey towards more people-centred care: lessons from neglected tropical disease programme integration in Liberia.

Background: Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are associated with high levels of morbidity and disability as a result of stigma and social exclusion. To date, the management of NTDs has been largely biomedical. Consequently, ongoing policy and programme reform within the NTD community is demanding the development of more holistic disease management, disability and inclusion (DMDI) approaches.

'Why would they spend all this money and give us these items for free?': Exploring precarity and power in a cleaner cookstove intervention in rural Malawi.

We carried out a qualitative study to gain a deeper understanding of the social context of the Cooking and Pneumonia Study (CAPS) and implications for implementation of clean cooking and similar interventions. Such initiatives are recognised as complex, power-laden processes, which has consequences for outcomes and uptake. However, understanding of how precarious livelihoods and unequal power differentials impact on trials of technology is limited and potentially hampers the achievement of the SDGs including SDG 7, Affordable and Clean Energy.

A syndemic born of war: Combining intersectionality and structural violence to explore the biosocial interactions of neglected tropical diseases, disability and mental distress in Liberia.

The intersections between NTDs, disability, and mental ill-health are increasingly recognised globally. Chronic morbidity resultant from many NTDs, particularly those affecting the skin-including lymphatic filariasis (LF), leprosy, Buruli ulcer (BU) and onchocerciasis-is well known and largely documented from a medicalised perspective. However less is known about the complex biosocial interaction shaping interconnected morbidities.

"Honestly, this problem has affected me a lot": a qualitative exploration of the lived experiences of people with chronic respiratory disease in Sudan and Tanzania.

Background: Over 500 million people live with chronic respiratory diseases globally and approximately 4 million of these, mostly from the low- and middle-income countries including sub-Saharan Africa, die prematurely every year. Despite high CRD morbidity and mortality, only very few studies describe CRDs and little is known about the economic, social and psychological dimensions of living with CRDs in sub-Saharan Africa. We aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the social, livelihood and psychological dimensions of living with CRD to inform management of CRDs in Sudan and Tanzania.

The economics of healthcare access: a scoping review on the economic impact of healthcare access for vulnerable urban populations in low- and middle-income countries.

Background: The growing urban population imposes additional challenges for health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We explored the economic burden and inequities in healthcare utilisation across slum, non-slum and levels of wealth among urban residents in LMICs.

Methods: This scoping review presents a narrative synthesis and descriptive analysis of studies conducted in urban areas of LMICs.

Intra-Urban Variation of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women and Men in Kenya: Evidence from the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.

Although urban areas are diverse and urban inequities are well documented, surveys commonly differentiate intimate partner violence (IPV) rates only by urban versus rural residence. This study compared rates of current IPV victimization among women and men by urban residence (informal and formal settlements). Data from the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, consisting of an ever-married sample of 1,613 women (age 15-49 years) and 1,321 men (age 15-54 years), were analyzed.

A Qualitative Study of Antibiotic Use Practices in Intensive Small-Scale Farming in Urban and Peri-Urban Blantyre, Malawi: Implications for Antimicrobial Resistance.

The routine use of antimicrobials in meat production has been identified as a driver of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in both animals and humans. Significant knowledge gaps exist on antibiotic use practices in farming, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper sought to generate in-depth understanding of household antibiotic use practices in food animals in urban- and peri-urban Blantyre.

Implications of COVID-19 for safeguarding in international development research: learning, action and reflection from a research hub.

COVID-19 brings uncertainties and new precarities for communities and researchers, altering and amplifying relational vulnerabilities (vulnerabilities which emerge from relationships of unequal power and place those less powerful at risk of abuse and violence). Research approaches have changed too, with increasing use of remote data collection methods. These multiple changes necessitate new or adapted safeguarding responses.

'Cooking is for everyone?': Exploring the complexity of gendered dynamics in a cookstove intervention study in rural Malawi.

Background: Household air pollution (HAP) resulting from cooking on open fires has been linked to considerable ill-health in women and girls, including chronic respiratory diseases, and has been identified as a contributor to climate change. It has been suggested that cleaner burning cookstoves can mitigate these risks, and that time saved through speedier cooking can lead to the economic empowerment of women. Despite these and other potential advantages of cookstoves, sustained use is difficult to achieve.

'Pneumonia has gone': exploring perceptions of health in a cookstove intervention trial in rural Malawi.

Introduction: Air pollution through cooking on open fires or inefficient cookstoves using biomass fuels has been linked with impaired lung health and with over 4 million premature deaths per annum. However, use of cleaner cookstoves is often sporadic and there are indications that longer-term health benefits are not prioritised by users. There is also limited information about how recipients of cookstoves perceive the health benefits of clean cooking interventions.

An intersectional gender analysis of familial and socio-cultural drivers of inequitable scientific career progression of researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) suffers from a dearth of concrete information on the causes of women's under-representation in scientific research workforce particularly at higher levels compared with the wealth of information that exists in the global north. The goal of this study was to illuminate familial and socio-cultural drivers that contribute to intersectional gender inequities in scientific career progression in SSA to inform strategies that could promote career equity for African scientific researchers.

Methods: This study was nested within the context of 'Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science in Africa' (DELTAS Africa)-a health-based scientific research capacity strengthening initiative.

Institutional-level drivers of gender-inequitable scientific career progression in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: This study sought to determine how institutional environments, including values, policies, and their implementation, shape inequities in scientific career progression for women and men, and their disadvantages in relation to their multiple social identities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The findings are drawn from a wider research study that was aimed at gaining an in-depth understanding of the barriers and enablers of gender-equitable scientific career progression for researchers in SSA. This was nested within the context of the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science in Africa (DELTAS Africa) programme-a health-based scientific research capacity-strengthening initiative.

Management of chronic lung diseases in Sudan and Tanzania: how ready are the country health systems?

Background: Chronic lung diseases (CLDs), responsible for 4 million deaths globally every year, are increasingly important in low- and middle-income countries where most of the global mortality due to CLDs currently occurs. As existing health systems in resource-poor contexts, especially sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), are not generally oriented to provide quality care for chronic diseases, a first step in re-imagining them is to critically consider readiness for service delivery across all aspects of the existing system.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods assessment of CLD service readiness in 18 purposively selected health facilities in two differing SSA health system contexts, Tanzania and Sudan.

Economics of healthcare access in low-income and middle-income countries: a protocol for a scoping review of the economic impacts of seeking healthcare on slum-dwellers compared with other city residents.

Introduction: People living in slums face several challenges to access healthcare. Scarce and low-quality public health facilities are common problems in these communities. Costs and prevalence of catastrophic health expenditures (CHE) have also been reported as high in studies conducted in slums in developing countries and those suffering from chronic conditions and the poorest households seem to be more vulnerable to financial hardship.

Perceptions of quality of care during birth at private Chiranjeevi facilities in Gujarat: lessons for Universal Health Coverage.

The Indian national health policy encourages partnerships with private providers as a means to achieve universal health coverage. One of these was the (CY), a partnership since 2006 with private obstetricians to increase access to institutional births in the state of Gujarat. More than a million births have occurred under this programme.

Achieving SDG related sexual and reproductive health targets in China: what are appropriate indicators and how we interpret them?

Background: Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) targets have been included as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and indictors are important to monitor progress towards these targets. SRH indicators are recommended for setting norms and measuring progress globally. However, given the diverse political, socioeconomic and cultural contexts in different countries, and lack of global agreement on broad indicators, it is important to select appropriate indicators for specific countries.

How to prevent and address safeguarding concerns in global health research programmes: practice, process and positionality in marginalised spaces.

Safeguarding is rapidly rising up the international development agenda, yet literature on safeguarding in related research is limited. This paper shares processes and practice relating to safeguarding within an international research consortium (the ARISE hub, known as ARISE). ARISE aims to enhance accountability and improve the health and well-being of marginalised people living and working in informal urban spaces in low-income and middle-income countries (Bangladesh, India, Kenya and Sierra Leone).