What is Community Ownership?

What is Community Ownership (CO)?

  • Community ownership is the act or degree of ownership and responsibility taken by the community towards any programs or activities running in the community.
  • It is also an act of owning control and accountability towards any projects/programs which shall ultimately allow the communities to empower.

Note: Community is a group of people living together and practicing mutual ownership while ownership is an act, state or right of owning or possessing something

What do you mean by Community Ownership in health?

It means community participation in health through legal or authorized right to focus on:

  • Local health issues
  • Delivering equity and equality in health
  • Improving quality health care services and facilities
  • Promoting community health projects
  • Promoting community health education and training
  • Providing employment opportunities to community people

Why is Community Ownership necessary?

It is necessary because:

  • Community ownership encourages responsibility and accountability among the community people
  • Promotes co-operation, coordination and collaboration between the stakeholders and the community people
  • Raise community leadership and empowerment
  • Promotes new ideas and strategies through the bottom- up approach
  • It responds to the needs of people of respective communities
  • Increases community participation

Benefits:

  • Economic benefits/ financial sustainability of the programs
  • Provides physical base for provision of services
  • Increase in public acceptability
  • Empowerment of local community
  • Sustainability of the programs
  • Active community participation, engagement and mobilization at all levels of program implementation
  • Community awareness on various diseases prevention and control
  • Capacity building/skill enhancement of community people
  • Active people participation
  • Better stewardship towards local assets
  • Increase in pride and confidence among community people
  • Strong government support
  • CO also promotes leadership and democratic decision

Challenges:

  • Level of involvement of community people
  • Limited community participation
  • Lack of trust to external agents by the community people
  • Unavailability of resources
  • Conflicts between different stakeholders of the community
  • Ineffective leadership
  • Limited time
  • Socio-cultural barriers
  • Lack of clear authority and responsibility among the community people
  • Ensuring unity of command
  • Maintaining and fostering equity

How Can We Ensure CO During The Planning and Implementation of Programs?

We can ensure CO during planning and implementation of the program through following approaches:

  • Involving community people/community leaders from the idea generation and planning phase of the program
  • Identifying the felt need and real need of the community and acting accordingly
  • Appreciate and prioritize community culture, values and beliefs
  • Conduct regular stakeholders meeting and discussions
  • Give leadership roles to the community people
  • Mobilize local resources for the program
  • Encourage community people to actively participate in monitoring and evaluation of the program

Consequences of Lack of Community Ownership:

  • Delay in completion of projects
  • Absence of community mobilization
  • Limited attraction of donors/government agencies for implementing programs in those areas
  • Lack of accountability and responsibility among the community stakeholders
  • Lack of opportunities and resources in the community
  • Less focus by the government on community issues
  • Lack of coordination and collaboration among community members causing huge gap between projects and their activities
  • Unclear vision and priorities
  • Lack of planning and control

References and For More Information:

http://www.aho.afro.who.int/profiles_information/index.php/Zambia:Community_ownership_and_participation_-_The_Health_System

https://healthcommcapacity.org/building-community-ownership-local-health-facilities-sierra-leone/

http://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/english/asia/resource/apdrj/z13fm0100/z13fm0108.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22833683

https://www.concernusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Concern-Knowledge-Sierra-Leone-Brief-2013.pdf

https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/19/1/51/782099

https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/54964/

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2668264

https://www.angus.gov.uk/community_support/community_ownership/benefits_of_community_ownership

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269094211401491?journalCode=leca

https://dtascommunityownership.org.uk/sites/default/files/COSS_Involving_Community_WEB.pdf

https://timecommunications.biz/5-ways-encourage-community-involvement-workplace/

https://www.i-scoop.eu/community-engagement-6-tips-engage-community/

https://dtascommunityownership.org.uk/community/community-asset-transfer/asset-transfer-policy-benefits/benefits-community-ownership

https://www.who.int/apoc/sustainability/ownership/en/

 

About Kusum Wagle 215 Articles
Hello and greetings everyone! I am Kusum Wagle, MPH, WHO-TDR Scholar, BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health, Bangladesh. I have gained profound experiences in public health sector under different thematic areas of health, nutrition, sexual and reproductive health, maternal and newborn health, research etc., targeting diverse audience of different age groups. I have performed diverse roles ranging from lecturer in the public health department of colleges, nutrition coordinator, research coordinator and consultant, in different programs, projects and academic institutions of Nepal. I also hold immense experience in working closely and persistently with government organizations, non-government organizations, UN agencies, CSOs and other stakeholders at the national and sub-national level. I have successfully led and coordinated different projects involving multi-sector participation and engagement. Moreover, I am also regularly involved in the development of different national health related programs and its guidelines.