District Chanduali, Uttar Pradesh, India: December 17 – 19, 2013
Community of Practitioners on Accountability and Social Action in Health (COPASAH) is a global network of practitioners that places a strong emphasis on the role of civil society to promote access to equitable, quality and accountable health services. South Asia region workshops were conducted in Mumbai in February, 2013 and in Delhi in September, 2013 to promote this perspective. Subsequent to these workshops COPASAH plans to organise three facilitated learning exchange visits in different parts of India. These visits are envisaged to facilitate peer learning and to enable strengthening of the practitioners’ forum. These learning exchange visits aim to provide practitioners an opportunity to visit a relevant organisation’s work and learn from their social accountability practice using a common set of principles. The visits are an extension of the principles and concepts discussed during the south Asian region COPASAH workshop in September, 2013.
The first facilitated learning exchange visit under COPASAH was organised from December 17-19, 2013 in district Chandauli, Naugarh Block, Uttar Pradesh with Gramya Sansthan as the host organisation. The participants visited three villages- Karwaniya, Majhgai and Dumariya; and got an exposure to the functioning of the Mahila Swasthya Adhikar Manch (MSAM). They learnt from the women’s struggle for community monitoring of maternal health rights. As per the participants the learning visit was an enriching experience and they got an opportunity to observe the various principles of community monitoring and accountability in practice. The group also visited a village (Nainvat) where MSAM is not active. Discussions with residents of this village revealed a stark contrast vis a vis the status of essential health services.
On the third day of this exposure visit, the participants shared their observations, learning and future plans to implement the learning in their own practice. The group comprised of 13 participants from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
A few glimpses from the visit can be seen in the attached photo story of the visit.