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Health & Nutrition Technical Brief: Community Health Committees (COMM) Project Model

Pays
Burundi
+ 13
Sources
World Vision
Date de publication
Origine
Voir l'original

The Issues

There is extensive literature advocating for and providing evidence to support the importance of community participation as a means of improving community health outcomes, and community participation is also understood as a vital element of a human rights-based approach to health. The 2008 World Health Report called for renewal of the Alma Ata Declaration, which “brings balance back to health care, and puts families and communities at the hub of the health system. With an emphasis on local ownership, it honours the resilience and ingenuity of the human spirit and makes space for solutions created by communities, owned by them, and sustained by them”.

Ministries of Health (MoH) and governments have acknowledged and acted on these principles, developing community health strategies that include varieties of local participation, to include processes of community mobilization, the work of Community Health Workers (CHWs), and the functions of community health groups.

The COMM model focuses efforts on two types of representative health groups: The Community Health Committee (CHC) and the Health Facility Management Committee (HFMC). While CHCs and/or HFMCs are backed by Ministries of Health around the world, the reality on the ground shows that these groups are often weak and poorly supported. COMM programming aims to work with MoH to improve this situation, and to strengthen the capacity of these groups to identify and respond to important health issues in their area - including those of the most vulnerable and marginalized - thereby contributing to overall community-health systems strengthening, community capacity and equity, and improved overall health outcomes.