The Good Participatory Practice (GPP) Guidelines and Tools for Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials

GPP Guidelines, 2nd Edition (2011)

The Good Participatory Practice (GPP) Guidelines are intended to provide trial funders, sponsors, and implementers with systematic guidance on how to effectively engage with all stakeholders in the design and conduct of biomedical HIV prevention trials. Click here for GPP translations.

Good Participatory Practice Tools

AVAC has developed a set of companion tools to help research teams and other stakeholders understand, implement, and monitor the GPP guidelines. Current tools are described and available below, and constitute the beginning of a central portal of tools that can be publicly accessed, used, and adapted as necessary according to GPP activities around the globe.

Users may feel free to adapt and modify all tools provided, based on specific needs. In case of adaptation or development of new tools to be added to the portal, please contact us at gpp@avac.org. AVAC is also happy to provide technical support for tool use.

We very much look forward to feedback and will continually add new and adapted tools to this portal.

Training tools

The GPP training tools can be used by anyone who wishes to conduct a training or to provide an overview of the GPP guidelines to a secondary audience. Users of training tools will most likely be research site staff members or HIV prevention research advocates.

GPP Overview Power Point presentation
This presentation provides a standard overview of the second edition of the GPP guidelines. It outlines the history of GPP development, provides a detailed description of the structure and contents of the GPP guidelines, and details issues around GPP implementation. The presentation may be used or adapted for a wide variety of audiences and settings.

GPP Training Curriculum
The training curriculum can be used by research staff members and advocates to introduce and build capacity on the GPP guidelines with a variety of audiences in a workshop setting. The curriculum contains individual, participatory training sessions that can be organized into several types of trainings. A full overview of the training curriculum can be found here.

Three types of suggested GPP trainings:

Introductory GPP Training: Half-day workshop providing a basic overview

Standard GPP Training: Day-and-a-half workshop, providing an overview as well as more in-depth capacity building exercises

Advanced GPP Training: Two-day workshop, providing an overview, in-depth capacity building, and preparation for participants to conduct GPP training and outreach in the future

GPP Training Curriculum Table of Contents

Session 1: Introduction to GPP Training and Pre-Test

GPP Overview Power Point presentation (for use in Session 1)

Session 2: Agree or Disagree
Session 3: GPP Principles Bingo
Session 4: Find Your Match
Session 5: The GPP Journey
Session 6: GPP Case Studies
Session 7: GPP Cabbage
Session 8: Where Do We Fall on the Grid?
Session 9: Stakeholder Layers
Session 10: Hot Seat
Session 11: Facilitate Your Discussion
Session 12: Action Planning
Session 13: Close of GPP Training and Post-Test

GPP Case Studies (coming soon)

Implementation tools

The GPP implementation tools are meant primarily for groups and individuals who are responsible for ensuring that GPP is followed at various levels. GPP defines these groups as research entities—trial implementers/research sites, trial sponsors, and funders. They may also be used by external stakeholders who wish to engage with researchers.

Implementation tools focus primarily on activities at the trial site level, but may also be used by sponsors for GPP activities at a global level. Tools include checklists, templates, methodologies, and program outlines for implementation and maintenance of consistent documentation.

Stakeholder Engagement Toolkit - FHI360/AVAC (2012)

The Stakeholder Engagement Toolkit for HIV Prevention Trials, from FHI360 and AVAC, is a practical guide for engaging stakeholders in research. Based on best practices and the experience of clinical trial experts and community-based advocates, the Toolkit helps research teams deepen their relationships with allies, measure stakeholder engagement and address community concerns.

GPP Trial Site Binder
The binder follows the structure of the GPP Guidelines and provides a template to enable research teams to effectively organize key documents and information required for compliance to GPP.

GPP Community Stakeholder Checklist
The checklist provides a set of questions intended to help stakeholders monitor a research team’s compliance with GPP, help determine what areas of participatory practice a research team is doing well, and identify where the research team can improve.

GPP Assessment (coming soon)
A set of tools is provided to conduct a comprehensive assessment of stakeholder engagement activities, to compare them to standards outlined in GPP, and to develop an action plan for GPP compliance. Assessments primarily occur at research site level, but may also occur at sponsor level. The tools outline a multiple day, participatory assessment process including training activities, focus group discussions, interviews, and action planning.

Monitoring and evaluation tools

The GPP monitoring and evaluation tools will build on implementation tools as relevant. They will provide standard ways to monitor GPP activities at various levels, indicators of success, and, ultimately, ways to measure GPP’s impact on the research process.

Coming soon

Guidelines and documents related to GPP

Engaging communities in tuberculosis research, The Lancet Infectious Diseases (Open Access), 24 March 2013

Good Participatory Practice Guidelines for TB Drug Trials 2012

AVAC collaborated with Stakeholder and Community Engagement Workgroup of the "Critical Path to TB Drug Regimens" (CPTR) initiative to adapt the GPP guidelines for TB drug trials. This work grew out of requests from CPTR, the Gates Foundation's TB team and the TB Alliance.

Download English PDF

Stakeholder Input and Recommendations for Good Participatory Practices (GPP) in Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials in Thailand

AVAC is happy to present a report, released in March 2012 by the Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group (TTAG), that documents the views of a broad range of stakeholders on issues related to biomedical HIV prevention research. Dozens of stakeholders in Thailand were interviewed, including research team staff, non-governmental and community-based organization staff, and community members, among them biomedical HIV prevention trial participants. Methods, findings and key recommendations are summarized in the report.

PDF (English): Download
PDF (Thai): Download

Ethical Considerations in Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials
(WHO/UNAIDS - 2007)

Ethics Issues for Canadian HIV/AIDS Researchers in International Settings (Canadian Association for HIV/AIDS Research - 2008)

Recommendations for Community Involvement in National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Research (the HIV/AIDS Network Coordination project - 2009)
(English full doc) (Spanish executive summary)

HIV Prevention Trials Network: Ethics Guidance for Research, 10 June 2009

HPTN Ethics Guidance webpage

GPP Guidelines, 2nd Edition (2011) Translations

Arabic: تحميل النسخة العربية هنا.
Chinese: 點擊這裡下載中文版。
English: Download here.
French: Télécharger la version française ici.
Khmer: ទាញយកសេចក្ដីរាយការណ៍ជាខ្មែរឯនេះ
Portuguese: Baixar versão em Português aqui.
Russian: Скачать русскую версию здесь.
Spanish: Descargue la versión en español aquí.
Thai: ดาวน์โหลดเวอร์ชั่นภาษาไทยที่นี่
Vietnamese: Tải phiên bản tiếng Việt ở đây.

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