IDRC Project - Second Progress Report

This project aims to identify, in two sites, one in South Africa and one in Uganda, opportunities for best practice in utilising community participation as a vehicle for realising health rights. The focus on developing models for community participation in health is intended to speak to strategies that advance health equity and strengthen governance systems for health. By testing approaches and sharing experience gained using rights-based approaches to health, we anticipate generating knowledge of relevance to other developing country contexts.
The focus of the second year has been on deepening our understanding of how community voice can be articulated with claims to health rights in participatory structures in both countries and using that understanding to develop and implement training for members of community participation structures. A set of participatory research activities in Kiboga and Kyankwanzi sub- counties in rural Uganda have formed the basis for training of local Village Health Teams (VHTs) and Health Unit Management Committees (HUMCs) in Uganda, while the findings of an audit of Health Committees in the Cape Metro were used in the development of a manual and instructor’s guide for training of Health Committees in a sub-district in Cape Town.