How Do We Know We Are Making A Difference? Challenges Before the Practitioner of Community Monitoring Processes in Assessing Progress and Evaluating Impacts
By Dr. Abhijit Das Community based monitoring is emerging as a promising practice for improving programme effectiveness and as a key component of rights-based implementation of health programmes. One of the challenges of this approach is to demonstrate that it is yielding results. Community based monitoring is often seen as a process intensive intervention, which […]
Ethical Issues in Community Based Monitoring of Health Programmes: Reflections from India
By Renu Khanna This paper explores the different sets of power relationships and resultant ethical dilemmas that arise when developing community monitoring systems. Community Based Monitoring and Planning, as part of the Government of India’s strategy to achieve quality health care within the National Rural Health Mission, is used as an exploratory case study. The […]
Who Are We To Care? Exploring The Relationship between Participation, Knowledge And Power in Health Systems
By Barbara Kaim This paper is dedicated to those many people who live in countries where health systems are failing to meet the needs of the majority, and where people with less power – whether health care providers, individuals, families or communities – have few structured opportunities to express their concerns openly and critically. It […]
Claiming Entitlements: The Story of Women Leaders’ Struggle for the Right to Health in Uttar Pradesh, India
By Dr. Abhijit Das and Ms. Jashodhara Dasgupta This is the story of the leaders of a women’s organisation, Mahila Swasthya Adhikar Manch (Women’s Health Rights Forum) in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It recounts how a group of women from the extremely marginalised sections of society have become empowered and are monitoring […]
Accountability and Social Action in Health – A Case Study on Solid Waste Management in Three Local Authority Areas of Zimbabwe
By Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC) with Civic Forum on Housing (CFH) Solid waste management is a major challenge to most urban local authorities in Zimbabwe. Rapid urbanisation in the last decade, coupled with economic decline and social disruption, placed considerable strain on local authorities’ resources, resulting in their failure to provide adequate services […]