What is Community Ownership? - Public Health Notes

Table of Contents

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