Community engagement for maternal health: Lessons learned from southern Ethiopia
Elias M.Bunte, Daniel G.Datiko, Aschenak Z.Kea, Nega T.Metasha, Maryse C.Kok (2016) Community engagement for maternal health: Lessons learned from southern Ethiopia, poster given at the 2016 Global Symposium on Health Systems Research.
Ethiopia has a unique approach for community participation, embedded in its health policy. Within the Health Extension Program, two community participation structures have been established: the health development army (HDA) and the pregnant women forum (PWF). Health extension workers (HEWs) facilitate monthly HDA and PFW meetings. As part of a quality improvement intervention to enhance responsiveness and resilience of the health system, HEWs received trainings, guidance and supervision focused on facilitation of these community-based meeting. This study aimed to evaluate the intervention and explore the perceptions of involved stakeholders regarding efforts to enhance community participation.
This project is funded by the European Union.