These findings agree with previous studies emphasising the value and importance of policymakers being 'integral research partners', where they deliberately seek out collaborations with researchers, and are actively involved in all key stages of the research project (i.e., research design, data collection, translation, and use in policy) [ 25, 26].
A trained bicultural worker assisted in recruitment, data collection and translation.
Michael Matodzi Mokoena, researcher with the Department of Environmental Health, Tshwane University of Technology, provided technical support with data collection and translation of documents.
We also thank, and Dr Viengnakhone from the University of Health Sciences (Lao PDR) for his assistance with data collection and translation.
TLH contributed to the planning of the study, conducted focus groups and interviews, and otherwise managed data collection and translation, and contributed to the analysis.
We also extend our appreciation to Dr. Onek Awil, district health officer and the district health team members in Gulu particularly; Ojok Naphtali, Nyeko Gaudensio, Akot Amos Tala, Amal Milly, Ocan Robert and Okello Peter who participated in data collection and translation of tools for this study.
Data collection, coding and translation were supervised by two graduate researchers.
Two project assistants were employed with the author only during data collection, transcription and translation of data and hence, analysis was carried out by the author.
The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/14/191/prepub We acknowledge Bontle Sebate and Palesa Mothibedi who assisted with data collection, transcription and translation.
The strengths of the study are the vast number of stakeholders interviewed and the accuracy of verification process during data collection, transcription and translation to assure quality of the data and.
We also acknowledge Isaac Aturinda and Alexander Lankowski for their dedicated efforts in assisting with study design, data collection, and response translations.
