Table 3.

Power dynamics operating at the meso (interpersonal) level

Subtheme	Q	Illustrative quote
Project governance	1	‘diverse population blocs such as youths, women, migrant groups etc express their preferences through direct engagement with researchers rather than through any go- between. This presents voice that are often lost in top- bottom approaches.’ (Nigeria, Workshop 3, chat box)
	2	‘transparency is really key … not everything will be feasible and that could be due to project reasons, due to the project timelines … [we] made sure that everyone had space to rank what priorities they had, so we tried to make it as participatory as possible, but of course there will be disappointment …’ (Nigeria, Workshop 2, verbal)
	3	‘we work in excluded communities, historically excluded, like indigenous [communities] … people that haven’t had access to education, people that do not have health services. They don’t even have a notion of rights, their own rights. We tell them ‘look, you have to use your rights.’ ‘What rights?’ (Guatemala, Workshop 5, verbal)
	4	‘we empower the …. teams so that they can think outside the box, they can make their decisions and not just look at what the headquarters do…’ (Malawi, Workshop 4, verbal)
	5	‘we [academic researchers] put in some tentative interventions that we could do, but mentioned that we will collaborate with the stakeholders at community level to build this further, in terms of asking them what they would like to be done, where does the community want this [the HIV testing station] to be put, who do they want to manage or distribute the HIV self-testing kits …’ (Zambia, Workshop 3, verbal)
	6	‘we have stakeholder meetings where we have our dissemination … we make sure that … community health workers, people affected by NTDs [and] all the co-researchers are involved in that, including NTD implementers … the strategy … is inclusion, making sure everyone has a place at the table’ (Nigeria, Workshop 2, verbal)
	7	‘Build with community actors in their own territory, in their contexts, starting by recognizing that external researchers there are ignorant, foreign and in need of knowledge.’ (Colombia, Workshop 5, chat box)
	8	‘In a lot of instances, people were ‘volun-told’ to participate, and it was tough to navigate a way to avoid this scenario!’ (Tanzania/Uganda, Workshop 3, chat box)
	9	‘with regards to consulting with the community to inform the design of interventions, I feel like we can run the risk of falling into the trap of calling it participatory research when in fact all we’re doing is using these community partners as informants …’ (Philippines/Kenya/Uganda/Nigeria, Workshop 3, verbal)
	10	‘when you don’t promote these positive behaviours, and you don’t shift power, usually you find that after the intervention is done… there is no empowerment that took place … the power was still with the researchers’ (Zambia, Workshop 3, verbal)
Effective techniques for dialogue	11	‘I always thought power sharing is something about giving power away … but it’s also about offering a safe room or a space where power can be shared … it gives them [co-researchers] the chance to develop their participation in different ways.’ (Germany, Workshop 4, verbal)
	12	‘… if people are more used to sitting under a tree to have a chat while sharing a coffee, then we should do that instead of taking them to a hotel or a restaurant’ (Guatemala, Workshop 5, verbal)
	13	‘difficulties in the internal dynamics [in the research team] … [are] reflected in the relationship established with the communities … if we don’t make an introspection … not [as] individuals but to the whole team … how we work, which roles we assume, how we exchange and share knowledge … [it] will affect the results and the processes with the communities.’ (Colombia, Workshop 5, verbal)
Associational landscape and representation	14	‘power relationships always exist between the academic and non-academic, between university and non-university, between city and village, between indigenous and non-indigenous … Even within the community itself, there are socio-economic scales, gender issues …’ (Guatemala, Workshop 5, verbal)
	15	‘we talk to community partners and we try to identify who are actually the ones who are the most marginalised… we wanted to ensure that we give them an opportunity to participate in our process.’ (Bangladesh, Workshop 2, verbal)
	16	‘an [existing community] structure that is always set and knows what is happening in those communities … [can] lead you as a researcher through these communities for whatever information you may want…’ (Sierra Leone, Workshop 3, verbal)
	17	‘… they [unions] are quite politically influenced and I’m just afraid that by having them as the main partners, the gatekeepers, they might just silence the people we actually want to engage, the people who are less likely to speak up and take actions for their own communities.’ (Vietnam, Workshop 2, verbal)
	18	‘you want to deal with power while riding on power, and I don’t know how much equity that brings … you want to identify the gatekeepers … someone who can influence … do we actually get to the point where we are able to bring in equity, or do we just empower the already empowered in the community? … it seems that we don’t actually really reach the people who need it most.’ (Zambia, Workshop 3, verbal)
	19	‘It is a tightrope walk. We need their [local leaders’] consent to the research. Yet their power could also silence voices in the community.’ (Kenya, Workshop 3, chat box)
	20	‘… ignoring these [gatekeeping] structures is also a problem because these people can demolish the process of new leaderships … [so] we involve the people with this profile in activities and give them a symbolic role … but if you ignore these traditional power structures, you infringe the leadership efforts we are trying to raise.’ (Guatemala, Workshop 5, verbal)
Reward systems and potential risks	21	‘[they want] a vest saying ‘Community Sponsor for Health Rights’, with a logo that they design for their network of community sponsors … this empowers them … [they want something] that allows them to gain recognition and prestige in their community …’ (Guatemala, Workshop 5, verbal)
	22	‘Taking part in the research gave people a passion about what they wanted to change and felt strongly about working towards a sense of justice.’ (United Kingdom, Workshop 4, chat box)
	23	‘… we may leave the project, [and] the [empowered] person is left alone and then they are killed, or there are retaliations, and they need support and then we think that it’s not our responsibility … ‘good luck, you’re alone leading your community’. This is not fair, right?’ (Guatemala, Workshop 5, verbal)
	24	‘… we need to look for local alliances, [to] find ways that our leaders can have higher recognition and visibility at community level [and] receive respect … [to] reduce the possibility of attacks, discrimination, retaliations … if only the farmer is empowered, they are badly treated at every institution they visit …. [we need to] build favourable contexts for community empowerment and leadership.’ (Guatemala, Workshop 5, verbal)