MEDiCAM thanks DFID for its support to the 3-year partnership project on engaging communities. This partnership is made between Healthlink Worldwide and MEDiCAM, the membership organization for NGOs active in Cambodia’s Health Sector. Through the course of the project, Healthlink Worldwide will provide technical support to build capacity of MEDiCAM as well as its members on advocacy, participatory approach, organizational development, Information and Knowledge Sharing, information management, KAP design and survey, and community health forums.
The purpose of the project is to develop processes and skills that will foster the empowerment of local communities to engage with decisions that determine their health. In doing so, dialogue on health concerns will improve between civil society and government officials and policy influencers in Cambodia.
MEDiCAM, which is the umbrella organisation for local and international NGOs active in the health sector in Cambodia, will work with Healthlink Worldwide to increase the capacity of civil society organisations to create space for the inclusion of marginalised groups around health, strengthen the interaction between the most marginalised and the local operational health system and ensure that local evidence and knowledge and community and civil society voice are brought to the attention of policy makers.
Among the expected outcomes are: increased participation of particular marginalised groups in civil society organisations; clearer inclusion of communities at the operational district level, and at the national level; greater awareness of and progress towards achieving specific health rights and increased engagement and resource allocation of civil society organisations with community led advocacy.
The project aims to forge stronger links between poor and disadvantaged communities in Cambodia and Health Centre Management Committees representing community interests at higher levels of government. An understanding of rights-based approaches to health and development, and strengthened channels of communication between the villages, the Operational Districts (ODs) and the Provincial Health Departments (PHDs) will enable communities to engage with decisions that determine their health, and ultimately to access and claim better health care. Sensitising community members about their right to health is a way of advocating for improved access to health care.
Communities have tended to lack the space and structures within which to apply skills and learning. By working within existing health structures and through networks of VHSGs, the “Engaging Communities” project will open up such spaces.
