Helpdesk Report: Costings for community accountability interventions

Abstract

Query To compile value for money figures for community accountability interventions, based on programmes already implemented. Programmes should ideally come from the health sector and from Africa, but could come from other sectors that are likely to have similar activities/unit costs and other parts of the world. Summary There are a number of community accountability mechanisms in health interventions. These range from community health committees which aim to represent the community in planning, monitoring and evaluating health services to those in which community members are actively involved in the delivery of health services as volunteers or community health workers. Other models of community accountability mechanism include pre-existing community-based organisations which are contracted to verify the performance of health services under performance-based financing schemes. Section 2 reports on the costs related to the functioning of community health committees and other community accountability interventions and their cost-effectiveness. The data on the costs of the functioning of community accountability interventions covers a range of interventions in Burundi, Zimbabwe, DR Congo and Kenya. This is drawn from research papers, reports and data provided by experts in the field. Section 3 includes descriptions of the organisation of different community accountability interventions, their functioning in practice, their impact on health outcomes and challenges to their effectiveness