Frontiers in Public Health 01 frontiersin.org Understanding the challenges and gaps in community engagement interventions for COVID-19 prevention strategies in Rohingya refugees: a qualitative study with frontline workers and community representatives Charls Erik Halder 1 *, Md Abeed Hasan 1 , Yussuf Mohamed Mohamud 1 , Marsela Nyawara 1 , James Charles Okello 1 , Md Nahid Mizan 1 , Md Abu Sayum 1 and Ahmed Hossain 2,3 1 Migration Health Division, International Organization for Migration, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 2 College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 3 Global Health Institute, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh Background: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are vulnerable to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 due to the crowded living conditions with fragile shelters, and limited water, sanitation and hygiene facilities and practices. While risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) is the cornerstone of outbreak control, there is limited evidence available on the efectiveness of the RCCE strategies in this setting. Objectives: The goal of this study is to evaluate the efectiveness of RCCE strategies and to explore the challenges and community recommendations in relation to COVID-19 preventive measures in the context of Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Materials and methods: It was a qualitative study. Methods used were (a) observation of RCCE intervention by 3 clinical supervisors accompanying 25 Community Health Workers (CHWs) and (b) 5 focus group discussions engaging 60 community representatives. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach, separately for observation and focus group discussions. Results: The study identifed a number of good practices of RCCE, including selecting CHWs from the local community, engaging female CHWs, using local dialect, and collaborating with community/religious leaders. Certain good practices need scaling up, such as utilization of multiple communication methods and interpersonal communication skills. Some areas need improvement, such as CHWs being overburdened with multiple tasks, less efort to active listening, repeated delivery of same messages, inadequate linkage to culture, context, and resources, and less efort to empower the community. Engaging the community, fve critical themes were identifed in relation to poor COVID-19 preventive practices: culture, religion, and language; local context and resources; community trust and interaction with aid workers; communication methods; and gender and social inclusion. Religious misinterpretation, cultural barriers, physical barriers, lack of resources, breach of trust between the community and aid workers, inconsistent/complex messages, lack of gender and social inclusion, and stigmatization are among some key factors. Some key actions were recommended to improve COVID-19 RCCE strategy. OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY Fekri Dureab, Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany REVIEWED BY Maureen Dar Iang, Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany Ahmed Asa'ad Al-Aghbari, Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany Phyumar Soe, University of British Columbia, Canada *CORRESPONDENCE Charls Erik Halder cehalder@iom.int RECEIVED 18 February 2023 ACCEPTED 13 July 2023 PUBLISHED 03 August 2023 CITATION Halder CE, Hasan MA, Mohamud YM, Nyawara M, Okello JC, Mizan MN, Sayum MA and Hossain A (2023) Understanding the challenges and gaps in community engagement interventions for COVID-19 prevention strategies in Rohingya refugees: a qualitative study with frontline workers and community representatives. Front. Public Health 11:1169050. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1169050 COPYRIGHT © 2023 Halder, Hasan, Mohamud, Nyawara, Okello, Mizan, Sayum and Hossain. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. TYPE Original Research PUBLISHED 03 August 2023 DOI 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1169050