By

Saleh Ahmed
7th March, 2018
Introduction
 Community mobilization
 is one of fundamental concepts of primary health care
which requires participation of people living in a
community.
 is very important in achieving the noble goal of
healthcare approach system tags, “prevention is better
than cure”
 is good tool for nurses/midwives for helping
community to address health related problems
-
 It involves bringing together all resources in the
community for the purpose of addressing numerous
health related problem confronting people confined in
a geographical area
 is a concept to be imbibe in order to provide quality
health care services to the public in 21st century.
Learning objectives
At the end of this presentation participants should be
able to
 Define community mobilization
 Describe the importance of community mobilization
in PHC
 Outline the steps involved in community mobilization
 Describe advocacy in community mobilization
 State the composition and function of development
committees
community
 Community is a term derived from common in
unity-.
 it deals with group of people in an area having
something in common to share.
 is defined as a group of individual who are dependent
on each other and are bound in time and space
(Sridhar Rao, 2009).
 it involves sharing of values and norms.
The common things they share
 The common things they share are;
 religion,
 tribe,
 education,
 culture,
 profession,
 occupation,
 environment (healthy environment) and
 resources
Mobilization
 it is making people and resources ready to move or act.
 According to Online Cambridge Dictionary - is to bring or
to prepare something such as group of people for a
purpose.
 Oxford dictionary defined it as the action of organizing
and encouraging a group of people to take collective action
in pursuit of a particular objective.
 It is an action of bringing resources into use for a particular
purpose.
 Medical dictionary – defined it as assembling or
preparation of something in response to a need.
 It involves organizing people to act together for the
purpose addressing health related problems in a
community.
Community mobilization
 it is an act of bringing human and non-human
resources for a purpose.
 It is bringing people together to pursue common
interests by creating a sense of unity, ownership and
self-control.
 Tope-Ajayi (2004) viewed community mobilization as
a means of
 encouraging,
 influencing and
 arousing interest of people to make them actively
involved in finding solutions to some of their own
problems.
-
• For this, It is the process of getting people to
overcome their differences, to begin a dialogue on
an equal basis to determine issues that affect their
community.
 Community mobilization is goal oriented act or exercise.

 It facilitates the implementation of research, critical

thinking and evidenced based practice as well as
community participation.

 It is an indispensable concept in Primary healthcare

system globally and Nigeria.
 What type of community do we
have?
 The typical community in Nigeria is a
community that is having problem of
resources and facilities required for essential
healthcare.
 This imposes problems that are contributing
greatly to prevailing health problem in both
urban and rural communities.
 In fact, we (Nurses/Midwives) are practicing
community with numerous problems such
as;
-
. Lack of food supply and nutrition
 Lack of adequate clean water and basic
sanitation
 Lack of adequate maternal and child health
including family planning services
 Problem of immunization
 Lack of adequate preventive and controlled
measures for locally endemic diseases
 Lack of qualified healthcare providers
Yes, is a community of
 Inappropriate treatment of common diseases and
injuries
 Lack of essential drugs
 Lack of adequate viable healthcare facilities
 Lack of cohesion and organization
 Lack of roads, and electricity
 Social Malaise – hunger, poverty, discrimination,
Illiteracy, insecurity, and Lack of political will
 Erroneous Belief that the political leaders and
bureaucrats will alleviate their problems but always
disappointed and neglected by their elected political
leaders.
ooooooooooooooooooooh
 This calls for community mobilization
 Where will interact and arrive at solutions to
those affecting health of the people in our
community
The importance of community mobilization
 primary Healthcare and nursing practice
 It is important because it involves bringing
people together for the purpose of
-assisting them to become aware of their -
problems,
 assessing and identifying their felt needs
 participating in addressing identified health
problems
 Ensuring quality healthcare is provided to
public.
-
 it helps in meeting the main goals of
PHC and core responsibilities of a nurse
namely;
 Health promotion
 Diseases prevention
 Alleviation of suffering
 Restoration of health via appropriate,
screening, Treatment and Rehabilitation
 Policy development, planning, evaluation
and advocacy
 Roles of community mobilization to
PHC
. Identify and define their health problems and needs
 Plan how to proffer solutions to these problems with their
resources and support from healthcare providers
 Promote effective interaction among individuals in the
community
 Foster or encourage reliance in PHC
 Promote increased community members awareness and
rights to healthcare
 Facilitates changes in health behavior and increase access
to information and services for those who need them
 Mobilize the required human and material resources in
order to achieve the set objectives
 Utilize the health facilities provided.
Steps for community mobilization

The steps are grouped into 3

categories as follows;
Fact findings
Planning
Implementation and evaluation
The specific steps are
 Getting to know the community, provide information
& create interest
 Analysis, this involves Identification of resources,
Problem identification, Identification solutions &
projects
 Decision making &selection of leaders by community
 Identification stakeholders
 Planning & selection of implementing leaders
 Project implementation by community
 Follow -up & monitoring
 Evaluation
 Skills for community mobilization
 mobilization acronyms can be used;
 M- Maintain a sense of humour, and be patient,
 O- Open your mind and heart and you will receive on open
warm welcome;
 B- Build upon the positive aspects of the local culture,
religion, knowledge, and tradition; brick by brick, work with
the people to build up their lives with dignity and honour.
 I-Initiate but do not lead. You are a catalyst of inspiring
development activities; and not the boss.
 L- Learn from the men and women: the whats the whys, the
whens and the hows of their situation and poverty.
 I-Identify the people’s needs; or rather facilitate them to
identify their need. Remember awareness raising is the first
step towards mobilization.
-
 S- Sit together, share ideas and experiences
 A-Avoid talking in terms of money: rather talk in terms
of working together. Don’t be authoritative, and don’t
talk big.
 T-Talk simply- do not use complex language; your task
is to communicate effectively.
 I-Involve the community from the very beginning; don’t
start a project, and then start to bring in community
participation mid-way through.
 O- Organize the people to draw up their own plans for
their development
 N-Never assume that you are right and they are wrong;
in most cases you will discover that they are in fact right
but you had failed to listen!
People involved in the community
mobilization are

 Political leaders
 Traditional leaders
 Religious leaders
 Opinion leaders
 School teachers
 NGOs
 Health workers
 TBAs
 Advocacy in community mobilization
 For effective community mobilization advocacy is required
in order to give optimal public support for policy toward
addressing identified health problems in the community.
 Then what is advocacy?
 Advocacy is a set of actions undertaken by a group of
individuals or organizations working in partnership to build
consensus, gain support or create a favourable environment
for introducing or changing specific strategies, programmes,
laws or policies (N&MCN Module 2, n.d).
 in fact, in is an activity by an individual or group which
aims to influence decisions within political, economic and
social systems(Wikipedia.org).
 Steps in advocacy process
 Proper understanding of subject matter for which
advocacy is done
 Identify and clarify issue- why advocacy is needed and
expected result
 Build partnership
 Select audiences i.e. beneficiaries, partner, decision
makers and adversaries
 Develop messages centered on goal
 Determine communication channel
 Prepare carefully for meetings
 Monitor and evaluate
Composition of PHC committees
 What is PHC Committee?
 PHC committees are known as PHC
development committee.
 These committees are to be used for
effective community mobilization and
advocacy
 This is because they formed to support
the effective delivery of PHC.
 Types of PHC development
committees
 Health facility development committee

 Village PHC development committee

 District level committee

 L.G.A level committee

 Health facility development
committee composition
- representative of the staff of the facility
 representative of religious group
 representatives of occupational
group/association
 Representatives of NGOs
 Head of secondary or higher school
 Representative of formal leaders
Function
 Monitor and evaluate impact of PHC services
on the health status of the community
 Liaise with other official living in the
community
 Plan for health and welfare of the community
 Supervise PHC delivery services in the facility
 Provide adequate support to volunteer village
health worker/TBAs
 Forward facility health plan
Village PHC development committee
composition
Village head – Chairman
Primary Headmaster - Secretary
Representatives of religious groups
Representatives of Association
Representatives of NGOs
Function
 To plan for health and welfare of the community
 To set achievable local health targets
 Supervise the implementation of developed health plan
in the village
 To monitor and evaluate the progress of PHC activities in
the community
 Select appropriate persons within the community for
training as TBAs
 Supervise activities of VVHWs
 Mobilize community member for health action
 Remunerate VVHWs in cash or in kind
 Forward local health plan
 District development committee
composition
 District head - Chairman
 All village heads within the district
 Heads of all tertiary institutions within the district
 Heads of all associations in the district HQs
 District health supervisor
 District Agricultural Officer
 District development officer eg social & welfare officers
 Representatives of religious groups
 Representatives of NGOs
 Representatives of Police and security service
Functions
 Identify health and health-related needs in the district
 Identify local human and material resources in order to meet
those health needs
 Mobilize and stimulate active participation of community
members in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of
PHC programmes
 Source or raise fund for community health project when
necessary
 Liaise with government and other voluntary agencies in finding
solutions to health and other related problems in the district
 Monitor activities at both health facility and and village level
 Forward all health plans of village facility and district levels to
LGA authority
 LGA PHC management committee
composition
 LGA Chairman - Chairman
 Supervisory councilor for health
 LGA PHC Director/Coordinator (Secretary)
 LGA Secretary
 Coordinator of CHO training programme (where applicable)
 District head(s) within the LGA
 Heads of other departments in the LGA
 Representatives of religious groups
 Representative of NGOs
 Representatives of the International Health Organizations
in the LGA (where applicable)
 Function
 To provide overall directions for PHC
 To plan and manage PHC services in the
LGA
 To identify training needs of health
workers and send them for training
 To mobilize communities for effective
participation in PHC
 To supervise the activities of LGA PHC
Coordinator
Conclusion
 All of us here are living and practicing in
various communities
 We share so many things in common
 We know and indeed deeply concern with
health related problem in the community
 We are desirous and eager to help
 Why can we mobilize and advocate for our
communities?
 The answer is
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Thank you for listening