Table 6.

Challenges/Barriers and proposed ways to overcome them for stakeholder engagement

Challenges for Stakeholder Engagement	Structural Barriers
• Difficult to commit time	• Political uncertainty
• Uncertainty of the tenure of the government officials	• Conflicting priorities of stakeholders
• Varying levels of pre-existing knowledge and expertise among stakeholders
• Varying professional and personal aspirations among stakeholders which may not be relevant to the research process
• Difficult to comprehend and incorporate feedback from a diverse group of people
Overcoming Challenges for Stakeholder Engagement	Overcoming Structural Barriers with Facilitators
• Providing prior clear information to stakeholder and obtain inputs on specific issues
	• Present the burden and severity of CVD to stakeholders
• Engage stakeholders continuously throughout the process	•Continuously communicate with the stakeholders, especially from the government using different means such as workshops, in-person consultations, emails, telephone
• When possible, have a written term of reference and/ or agreement
• Clarify roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders
• Plan for small group interactions where people can dedicate more time to discuss.