BMC Health Services Research publishes supplement on UCC

Communities are more than a geographic location; they are a site of struggle and also a dynamic engine of change. Unlocking their capabilities to strengthen health systems requires understanding and adapting to local context, engaging a diversity of actors and working with the productive tensions inherent to collective action.

BMC Health Services Research has recently published a Supplement on Unlocking community capabilities across health systems across low and middle income countries - edited by Asha S. George, Kerry Scott, Eric Sarriot, Barun Kanjilal and David H. Peters. This supplement draws on extensive Future Health Systems research and experience in unlocking community capabilities to strengthen health systems in low- and middle-income countries.

Articles in the suplpement inlcude:

• Unlocking community capabilities across health systems in low- and middle-income countries: lessons learned from research and reflective practice Asha S. George, Kerry Scott, Eric Sarriot, Barun Kanjilal and David H. Peters

• Synergies, strengths and challenges: findings on community capability from a systematic health systems research literature review Asha S. George, Kerry Scott, Vrinda Mehra and Veena Sriram

• What is the role of community capabilities for maternal health? An exploration of community capabilities as determinants to institutional deliveries in Bangladesh, India, and Uganda Ligia Paina, Lalitha Vadrevu, S. M. Manzoor Ahmed Hanifi, Joseph Akuze, Rachel Rieder, Kitty S. Chan and David H. Peters

• How is perceived community cohesion and membership in community groups associated with children’s dietary adequacy in disadvantaged communities? A case of the Indian Sundarbans Debjani Barman and Lalitha Vadrevu

• Identifying community healthcare supports for the elderly and the factors affecting their aging care model preference: evidence from three districts of Beijing Tianyang Liu, Xiaoning Hao and Zhenzhong Zhang

• Unlocking community capabilities for improving maternal and newborn health: participatory action research to improve birth preparedness, health facility access, and newborn care in rural Uganda Elizabeth Ekirapa-Kiracho, Gertrude Namazzi, Moses Tetui, Aloysius Mutebi, Peter Waiswa, Htet Oo, David H. Peters and Asha S. George

• Unlocking community capability through promotion of self-help for health: experience from Chakaria, Bangladesh Abbas Bhuiya, Syed Manzoor Ahmed Hanifi and Shahidul Hoque

• Expressing collective voices on children’s health: photovoice exploration with mothers of young children from the Indian Sundarbans Upasona Ghosh, Shibaji Bose, Rittika Bramhachari and Sabyasachi Mandal

• Exploring pathways for building trust in vaccination and strengthening health system resilience Sachiko Ozawa, Ligia Paina and Mary Qiu

• How can health systems research reach the worst-off? A conceptual exploration Bridget Pratt and Adnan A. Hyder

Future Health Systems Young Researcher Awards

Future Health Systems (FHS) offers a number of small grants ($7,000 to $10,000) for research projects submitted by junior staff or postgraduate students from FHS or Africa Hub partner institutions.

The awards aim to:

• Support the development and implementation of innovative new research proposals that address research questions closely related to the themes of FHS;
• Support the career development of particularly promising young faculty and post-graduate students across FHS partners;
• Strengthen links between FHS partners;
• Act as seed money stimulating further grant applications and the development of larger programmes of work.

In 2014, four young researchers were selected for these awards.

Mrs. Jackline Chepchirchir Sitinei is an Assistant Lecturer in the Health Policy and Management Department at Moi University’s School of Public Health in Kenya, as well as a Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa PhD Fellow.  Her research project, based in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya, will explore the determinants of community participation in the governance of health facilities, including community perceptions of participation and the role of power dynamics.

Mr. Francis Nzakimuena Zola is Academic Assistant in the Department of Management at University of Kinshasa’s School of Public Health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  His research project will draw from local experience with prepaid phone services in Kinshasa, in order to explore the feasibility of a prepaid scheme for community financing of health care services.

Mr. Mohammed Shahnawaz is a Research Fellow at Indian Institute of Health Management Research in Jaipur, India.  He will assess whether a “near field communication” chip-based mobile phone application for the remote, real-time monitoring of immunisation progress contributes to immunisation adherence, coverage, and resource conservation in rural Udaipur, Rajastan.  This new technology comes in the form of a pendant, worn by children, and is designed to record vaccinations visually for mothers and electronically for health care providers.

Mrs. Liu Tianyang is a Research Associate at the China National Health Development Research Center, in Beijing, China. Through this award, she will conduct a qualitative evaluation of the E-Health Disease Management System Model for elderly community residents, in cooperation with Sino Health Care, an NGO currently launching the “Care for the Elderly” project in Harbin and Beijing, China.