The effectiveness of community engagement and participation approaches in low and middle income countries
A review of systematic reviews with particular reference to the countries of South Asia
Abstract
The aim of this review was to identify, analyse and summarise the findings of existing systematic reviews that have examined the effectiveness of community engagement/participation approaches in improving health, service delivery and sustainability outcomes. The overarching research question of interest was:
- How effective are community engagement/participation approaches for delivering better health outcomes, improving service delivery and sustaining benefits?
Community engagement and participation may be considered the ‘direct or indirect process of involving communities in decision-making and/or in the planning, design, governance, and delivery of services using methods of consultation, collaboration, and/or community control’. Community engagement and participation approaches have been adopted in many Low Middle Income Countries (LMICs), including South Asia and Nepal, as a response to critical shortages of human resources for health. This evidence summary seeks to assess the effectiveness of community engagement and participation from the perspective of assisting policy-makers and researchers to assess the evidence within the context of their regional setting and conditions.
This report was commissioned under the Department for International Development’s DFID Systematic Review Programme for South Asia.
Citation
Pilkington G, Panday S, Khatib MN, Kotas E, Hill RA, Simkhada P, Jones L (2018) The effectiveness of community engagement and participation approaches in low and middle income countries: a review of systematic reviews with particular reference to the countries of South Asia. London: EPPI Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London