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Article History

Received: 11 December 2024

Accepted: 10 June 2025

First Online: 19 July 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethical approval was obtained via the Bangor University College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering Ethics Committee (approval number: COESE2021SW01A; 19th March 2021) and covered all the research described in this study (full details provided in Lewis et al., ). All research was performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines/regulations applicable when human participants are involved. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

: All participants have been fully informed that their anonymity is assured, why the research is being conducted, how their data will be utilised, and if there are any risks to them of participating. Prior to the initiation of the projects (specifically, during the distribution of smartphones and SIM cards) trainers read through a consent script that introduced the purpose of the study, including the institutional affiliation of the principal investigator and all collaborating investigators, described the different components of the study (including publication), explained that participation is voluntary and that respondents have the right to withdraw from the study at any point during the course of the study, explained respondents’ right to privacy and confidentiality, and assured respondents that neither their identity nor their participation in the study will ever be revealed (). Participants signed a document indicating that they consented to participating in the project. This document served as a blanket consent covering participation in the entire 12-month survey and the data management process. The respondents could withdraw consent at any point during the 12-month survey, which included withdrawing from the survey and/or deletion of all data associated with them. This could be done by contacting the project manager in-country. Across the six field studies, informed consent was obtained between 2015 and 2023.