About Us

WHO WE ARE?

COPASAH is a community where practitioners who share an interest and passion for the field of community monitoring for accountability in health interact regularly and engage in exchanging experiences and lessons; sharing resources, capacities and methods; in the production and dissemination of conceptual, methodological and practical outputs towards strengthening the field; and in networking and capacity building among member organizations. This Community of practitioners was established as result of a three day ‘Practitioners Convening on Community Monitoring for Accountability in Health‘ organised by the Accountability and Monitoring in Health Initiative (AMHI) of the Open Society’s Public Health Program in July 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

What Do We Do?

OUR VISION

Communities are actively engaged in promoting accountability and transforming health systems towards the realization of social justice.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to nurture, strengthen and promote collective knowledge, skills and capacity of community-oriented organisations and health activists – primarily from Africa, Asia and Latin America – working in the field of accountability and social action in health, for promoting active citizenship to make health systems responsive, equitable and people-centred.

VALUES

COPASAH believes that in order to make our vision a reality, community monitoring for accountability in health must

Enable communities facing inequities to assert their rights and to participate in concrete actions to bring about changes in health services and equitable distribution of resources
Give voice to peoples’ perspectives
Be an empowering process where actors related to the health system are encouraged to address power imbalances that affect people’s health
Be linked to an action or advocacy plan which aims to influence or change health policies and programs.

STRATEGIES

Nurturing a community of practitioners will be done through the cross pollination of ideas, experiences and resources
Facilitate systematic exchange of knowledge and practice
Create opportunities for interaction between practitioners
Collection, collation and production of appropriate conceptual and operational
Inform and influence others
Building strategic alliances
Knowledge building
Collaborative action

STEERING COMMITTEE

The COPASAH Steering Committee (SC) includes representatives from each of the three geographical regions represented in the convening (Africa, India and Latin America) and a representative from AMHI. The SC is composed of the following members: