Title:
A Critical Look at the Community Participation Strategy for Health in Ghana: The Case of Birim North District in the Eastern Region of Ghana
Authors:
Nyarko, Daniel Atta
Place:
Amsterdam
Publisher:
KIT - Royal Tropical Institute [etc.]
Year:
2017
PAGE:
vii, 35
Language:
En
Subject:
Health and Poverty
Keywords:
community participation; community involvement; empowerment; leadership; planning
Abstract:
Community participation gained popularity in the health sector after the Alma Alta Conference. The Ghana government has adopted the CHPS strategy of health delivery, which has its main principles on community participation. Few studies exist to explain how the community participation processes have been done in CHPS communities in Ghana. This study sought to explore how communities in the Birim North District of the Eastern Region experienced their involvement in CHPS so as to inform policy makers on how community participation in the CHPS concept must be conducted towards community ownership and sustainability. Sherry Arnstein’s ladder of participation was used as a framework to judge how the communities experienced various elements of the CHPS programme design, using a qualitative study design where 22 key informants and 4 focus groups were interviewed within a period of two weeks. The study revealed that there was a high degree of non-participation in deciding on CHPS as a preferred facility by the communities. There were some forms of participation in Leadership, planning resource mobilization and the management of the CHPS concept. Politics is gaining root in the current CHPS implementation paradigm. The study concludes that generally the level of community participation was not encouraging and that more needs to be done to ensure the active involvement of the community. It is recommended that political leadership should collaborate with the District Health Management T eam (DHMT) to actively engage the community for them to own the CHPS programme. Conscious efforts must be made to include women in leadership positions to contribute to decision making.
Organization:
KIT - Royal Tropical Institute
,
VU - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Institute:
KIT (Royal Tropical Institute)
Country:
Ghana
Region:
West Africa
Training:
Master of Public Health
Category:
Research
Right:
© 2017 Nyarko
Document type:
Thesis/dissertation
File:
rPKHNuozXm_20180404104842765.pdf