Community Action for Health An Overview AGCA Secretariat Population Foundation of India

Outline 1.Community action under National Health Mission (NHM) 2.Mandate & contributions of the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) 3.Technical Assistance by AGCA

Accountability Framework Internal Monitoring External Surveys Community Monitoring National Health Mission (NHM)

Why Community Action Mechanisms to improve accountability and enable better delivery of services – Builds community awareness on health entitlements – Provides a platform for community feedback and dialogue with service providers – Initiates corrective action and planning with community engagement Leads to improved coverage and accessibility of health services In essence brings ‘public’ back into public health

Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) Group of civil society experts constituted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in 2005 with Population Foundation of India (PFI) as the Secretariat Mandate : – Advise on developing community partnership and ownership for the Mission – Provide feedback based on ground realities, to inform policy decisions – Develop new models of Community Action – Recommend adoption to the national / state governments

AGCA Contributions  First phase implemented in nine states covering 36 districts- external evaluation demonstrated positive outcomes  Guidelines, manuals, tools, communication materials, website and a film developed  Participation in Common Review Mission (CRM) to strengthen focus on community action  Fact-finding and recommendations on a case of denial of services in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh

Pilot phase ( ) Current phase ( ) 9 states 22 states Geographic coverage

Technical Assistance by AGCA i.Facilitate state level visioning and planning exercises ii.Develop capacities of state nodal officers and implementation institutions iii.Facilitate development of community action component for Programme Implementation Plan (PIP) iv.Facilitate development/adaptation of training manuals, tools, communication materials and v.Undertake programme implementation reviews

Objectives of National Consultation Share key experiences and processes from community action models in health, nutrition and livelihoods; Examine relevance of such community action models and applicability for health. Identify critical factors to facilitate effective scaling up. Generate recommendations to strengthen implementation and institutionalization

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