RU Community

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Browsing RU Community by Author "Abuga, Malkia Moraa"

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    Influence of Community Dialogues on Social Accountability in the Health System in Nairobi County, Kenya
    (International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, 2022-07-11) Abuga, Malkia Moraa; Tenambergen, Mwaura Wanja; Njoroge, Kezia Muthoni
    Background: Social accountability encompasses a variety of strategies that enable citizens to express their concerns about the performance of health-care services. Community dialogues provide a forum for community engagement and participation in the health care system. However, there is little documentation on how it is used to improve social accountability within government community health structures. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of community dialogues on social accountability in Nairobi County, Kenya. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted that included in-depth interviews with key stakeholders purposively selected. A total of three focus group discussions with 23 participants, eight key informant interviews and document review of minutes were conducted. Data analysis was done using thematic analysis. Results: Findings showed that community dialogues were held quarterly. The forums were mostly used for education purposes with little evidence on community engagement. Minutes showed what the community health assistant and community health volunteer said to the community with minimal input from the community members. Feedback was a challenge because the health management team hardly attended community dialogues due to logistic and workload issues. Conclusions: There is need of practical strengthening community dialogues through use of tools like chalk board and community scorecard as advocated in the community health policy. However, in practice, these tools were hardly used resulting to missed opportunity for the community to voice their opinions on health services.
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    Strengthening Social Accountability Process in Community Health Systems: Exploring the Role of Community Actors in Africa and South Asia: Systematic Review
    (International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 2022-05-02) Abuga, Malkia Moraa; Tenambergen, Mwaura Wanja; Njoroge, Kezia Muthoni
    Background: Despite a growing body of literature on social accountability in health systems, many questions remain unanswered about how community actors interact with health workers and demand accountability. Social accountability is viewed as an empowerment process and a social practice in which communities actively participate in changing the conditions that affect their health. Local factors, such as the role of community actors, influence the effectiveness of social accountability. The purpose of this research was to assess empirical evidence on the role of community actors in social accountability. Methods: Electronic searches were conducted for eligible studies within each of the Pubmed, Medline, Google Scholar and SciELO databases from 2012 to January 2022. Peer-reviewed English language publications describing a social accountability mechanism with a focus on the role of community actors in Africa and South Asia were eligible for inclusion. There were no restrictions on the research design. Results: The review included eleven relevant studies. According to the findings, community actors include Community Health Workers, Health Facility Committees, Community Elected Leaders, and the media, among others. Their responsibilities include monitoring services and health worker’s performance, gathering and sharing information, and resolving complaints. Some of the enablers to the role community health actors include diverse committee membership and the legitimacy of community leaders. On the other hand, knowledge and power asymmetry, the lack of a clear mandate, a lack of clarity on their roles and fear of reprisal are among the barriers to their role in Social Accountability. Conclusion: Community actors are part of the community health system, and understanding their role, strengths, and challenges has a practical impact on how they contribute to the overall health system's strength. The findings show that they can exert social pressure through their powerful coalitions, which is critical in Social Accountability activities. As a result, in order to maximize their potential, novel approaches to addressing the limitations identified in this review are required.
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    The Influence of Community Health Volunteers Practices on Advancing Social Accountability in Nairobi County, Kenya
    (Research Square, 2022-06-30) Abuga, Malkia Moraa; Tenambergen, Mwaura Wanja; Njoroge, Kezia Muthoni
    Abstract Background: Community Health Volunteers position in the health system allow them to act as community mouthpieces, fighting inequities and advocating for community rights and needs to government structures. However, questions about how they carry out this role, specifically how they present community concerns to the health system and vice versa, remain unanswered. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the practices of community health volunteers that promote social accountability. Methods: The study used a cross-sectional research design across two sub-counties that were purposefully chosen due to their health indicators status. The quantitative data sample size was 180 Community Health Volunteers (Embakasi North 90, Embakasi Central 90) who were sampled using stratified sampling. Focus group discussions, key informant interviews and document review were used to collect qualitative data. Results: In Embakasi North and Embakasi Central, respectively, the study found that 66 (73.3 %) and 64 (71.1 %) of Community Health Volunteers rarely recorded complaints, 68 (75.6 %) and 53 (58.9 %) of Community Health Volunteers always reported complaints to the Community Health Assistant, and 67 (74.4 %) and 47 (52.2 %) of Community Health Volunteers always provided feedback to clients on the complaints raised. Conclusion: There was sub-optimal and inconsistent implementation of social accountability practices by the Community Health Volunteers in the two sub-counties. This was influenced by inadequate information on their mandate in social accountability, a lack of reporting indicators targeting social accountability and a lack of awareness about formal channels of complaint handling mechanisms at community health systems.