Recorded presentation

William Brieger, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 Wolfe St, Room E-8141, Baltimore, MD 21205, 443-287-4042, bbbrieger@yahoo.com

In 1994, the BASICS I Project of USAID adapted its child survival interventions to the reality that US Government agencies were not allowed to work with any Nigerian Government agency. This resulted in an innovative program called Community partners for Health (CPH) which organized Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and private Health Care Facilities (HCFs) into coalitions to improve access to basic care and preventive services for children in low income neighborhoods of Lagos, Kano and Aba, located in southwester, northern and southeastern parts of the country respectively. Two assessments were conducted to document the process of CPH formation and function at two points in time, first in 1997 when the CPH concept was fully off the ground in Lagos, the commercial capital of the country, and again in 2001 when 16 CPHs had been established in ten local government areas (LGAs) of the three cities and the BASICS I Project was phasing out. The documentation was accomplished through indepth interviews, focus group discussions and review of records. This information was used to design the community participation component of BASICS II which began at a time when US government agencies were once again able to work with Nigerian counterparts. What is of interest in this presentation is the fact that although CPHs were established to promote child health, they evolved into broader based health and development organizations that experimented with micro-credit, environmental cleanup, HIV/AIDS community campaigns, literacy, skills training, advocacy and reproductive health issues, to name a few. These endeavors varied according to the unique cultural, economic and political settings in each of the three cities. In addition, the CPHs demonstrated variable abilities to seek funding for future sustainability in each city after the close of BASICS I. Based on the success of CPHs in mobilizing community support for child health interventions, BASICS II developed an approach that helped all public health facilities in 20 local government health departments institute a process of accountability. The original CPHs continue to function and encouragingly, the Kano State Ministry of Health has now adapted the BASICS II community involvement approach as its official policy in all 42 of its LGAs.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the presentation, participants will be able to (
• describe the processes involved in establishing an urban community health coalition in Africa; (2)Outline factors that enhance the likelihood of sustainability for an urban community health coalition; (
• Identify appropriate research methods for conducting a process documentation of urban community health interventions

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation