STOP Spillover in Bangladesh

“I’ve learnt a lot from these outstanding participatory exercises. Participants were free and spontaneous to contribute to the workshop, which was beyond my expectation in a virtual workshop like this!”- Participant’s feedback from the OM workshop

A journey from national level stakeholder engagement (Outcome Mapping) to Interface level stakeholder engagement (Outcome Mapping) in Bangladesh

STOP Spillover partner, icddr,b, leads implementation of the project activities in Bangladesh and recently led a process to design the activities for the second year of the project. The poultry–human interface – specifically, the live bird markets (LBM) in Dhaka – was identified as the prioritized interface during a national level stakeholder engagement ( outcome mapping -OM) workshop, followed by three interface workshops focusing on the LBMs in November and December 2021. The interface workshops were part of a consultation process to identify knowledge gaps, barriers and opportunities to reduce spillover risks at Dhaka’s LBM. One hundred and seventeen stakeholders participated in these workshops including representatives from retail and wholesale LBM, representatives from market committees, poultry shop owners/workers/slaughterers, mobile poultry vendors and slaughterers, cleaners, live poultry transporters, restaurant owners, fishery owners and workers, as well as national-level stakeholders.

“We need many things to improve the current live bird market condition, among them, separated dressing and selling arrangements, protection gears for slaughterers, strong monitoring, a management committee of the poultry shop owners, and guidelines for poultry shops/businesses are very important.” – OM workshop participant highlighting some of the needs to effectively reducing risk of spillover.

As a result of the workshops, 13 different interventions and research ideas were proposed to mitigate the risk of viral spillover. These suggested interventions were carefully analyzed and prioritized through the Interventions Studies and Selection Process (ISSP). Three interventions and two research themes were selected for the upcoming year 2 workplan for Bangladesh which is pending approval from USAID. Like with Viet Nam, the project will set up an OH-DReaM working group to support the activities for year 2 in Bangladesh.

Quotes from other stakeholders from stakeholder engagement workshop.

“It was really an interactive and bottom-up approach. It opened my eyes on designing projects and selecting interventions.”

“I’ve learnt a lot from these outstanding participatory exercises. Participants were free and spontaneous to contribute to the workshop, which was beyond my expectation in a virtual workshop like this!”

“Tiled floors of the shops and alleys, water connection/supply of running water in each shop, improved sewerage system, arrangement of spot check of birds coming from the farms at the entry point of the market are very important for biosafety at live bird markets.”

- Personal protective equipment, distancing, and group size standards in this photo were consistent with local public health guidance and COVID-19 status in the specific country and time it was taken. This may not reflect best practices for all locations where COVID-19 is still spreading. -