Community participation involves community members taking responsibility for their own health and development by being actively involved in planning, operating, and controlling health programs. It is a voluntary and ongoing process where community members share control over initiatives and resources. There are various degrees of participation from token involvement to full cooperation between community members and outsiders. Barriers to participation include lack of access to services, dependence on authorities rather than self-reliance, and resistance to empowering communities.

1. Prof Dr MONA ABOSEREA Zagazig University

2. CONTENTS
• Definition of community participation
• Importance of community participation
• Participation as amean and as an end
• Core features of community participation
• Factors that affect community participation
positively
• Archtypes of community participation

3. • Stages of community participation
• Proces s of community participation in health
programmes
• Possible partners in community participation
• community participation in different
approaches
• Obstacles to community participation

4. Definition of community
• A community is a set of people living together
with common interests. There are different
things that bind us together as occupation,
religion , launage, belifs ,culture ,values and
norms.
• Oxford dictionary defines participation as
• to have a share in or to take part in

5. Definition of community participation
• Community participation is a process by
which individuals and families assume
responsibility of their own health ,develop
their capacity to contribute to development
and enables them to be agents for their own
development instead of being passive
beneficiaries of development aid.

6. • Community engagement is a dynamic
relational process that facilitates
communication, interaction, involvement, and
exchange between an organization and a
community for a range of social and
organizational outcomes

7. • Community involvement The active involvement
of people living together in some form of social
organization and cohesion in the planning,
operation and control of primary health care,
using local, national and other resources. In
community involvement, individuals and families
assume responsibility for their and their
communities' health and welfare, and develop
the capacity to contribute to their own and their
communities’ development

8. • Community mobilization is a process through
which action is stimulated by
a community itself, or by others, that is
planned, carried out, and evaluated by a
community's individuals, groups, and
organizations on a participatory and sustained
basis to improve the health, hygiene and
education levels so as to enhance the
overall standard of living in the community.

9. Why participation is important ???
• provides an open forum for the community to
discuss its problems and find efficient and
economic solutions.
• making people aware of their needs
• results in better decisions
• people are more likely to implement the decision
that they made themselves rather than the
decisions imposed on them

10. CONT.
• participation improves communication and
cooperation
• develop local leaders who can further educate
and mobilise the people in the community
• people develop new skills through community
participation
• higher achievement at lower cost

12. Core features of participation
• It is a voluntary involvement of people .
• The people who participate affect and share
control over development initiatives, decisions
and resources .
• It is a process of involvement of people in
different stages of the program.
• The ultimate aim is to improve the wellbeing
of people who participate.

13. Factors that affect the degree of
community participation positively
• -locally available resources
• -relavance
• -education status of the community
• -community infrastrature
• -economic factors

14. • -social and cultural factors
• -political stability
• -motivated community
• -Good leadership
• -a sense of owenership

16. Stages of participation

17. Degrees of participation
1- Co-option
• -token involvement of local people
• -representatives are chosen but have no real power
2- compliance
• -tasks are assigned with incentives
• - outsiders decide the agenda and direct the people
3- consultation
• Local opinions are asked
• Outsiders analyze and decide

18. 4- cooperation
-local people work together with outsiders to
determine priorities
- responsibility remains with outsiders for directing
the process
5-co-learning
-local people and outsiders share their knowledge
to create new understanding
- local people and outsiders work together to form
action plans with outsider facilitation

21. • The process of involving “new” communities in
partnerships. It highlighted the need to:
• identify and define the community you seek to engage
• learn about the community’s culture and norms
• identify possible partners
• conduct interviews with key people in the community
• plan and conduct the first community meeting to gain community
feedback

22. Possible community partners or
stakeholders to consider
• Family members affected by the problem
• Health care providers
• Staff of community-based human services
organizations
• Local and state departments of health and
human services
• Community members, leaders, outreach
workers and concerned citizens

23. • Schools and educators
• Staff from federal government agencies
• Policy-makers, including elected officials
• Community health workers (CHWs) or health
promoters

24. Stakeholders analysis
• it is a useful tool to assess whom the program
will affect and who should have astake in the
program.
• The stakeholders include different people from
the affected population,local authorities and
agencies.

25. Participation matrix
• Participation matrix is a tool to identify how
stakeholders may be involved in different
stages of the program

26. Role of community participation in
finance generation
• Community participation can also include
finance generation activities and this may be a
key starting point in giving the communities
greater responsibilities and removing
dependence on external support and
promoting sustainability

27. Community participation in different
situations
• top-down approach
• -bottom-up approach

28. Top-down approach
• In traditional approach ,health care planning are
made by senior persons in health services the so
called experts .
• Research may be carried out through survey to
what the community thinks or believes to be the
problem . but in the end it is usually the health
workers who makes the decisions on what goes
into the program based on medically defined
needs .all the decision making and priorities are
set by the external agency

29. Bottom –up approach
• In this type of participation , members of the
community make decisions

30. Qualitative analysis of community
participation
• How much does the community know about
the program ?
• How much do they know about the
organization carrying out the program?
• What responsibility do they carry out on
behalf of the program?
• What kind of difficulities do they find in
undertaking their responsibility?

31. • How satisfied are they with the involvement?
• Do they have any suggestions to improve their
participation in the program?
• Are all sections of the community equally
involved in the program?

32. Obstacles to community participation
-inaccessible services in right quality and
quantity
-inadequate understanding of local abilities and
resources
-people dependence on the government and
not on their self
-resistance to empower people

33. -absence of confidence and ability of people in
the machinery of health administration.
- un equal domination of power relations in
favor of rich people and to the disadvantage
of poorer section of the community .
-heterogenesity of interests.
- sustained efforts missing .
- - legal obstacles.

34. Disadvantages of community
participation
-participation doesn’t occur automatically , it is
a process .it involves time ,hence it may lead
to delayed start of a project.
- participation leads to decentralization .people
at the top should be ready and willing to share
power with the people.
- sometimes develop dependancy syndrome.
- can result in shifting of th burden into poor