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This Programme aims to contribute to the development of sustainable interventions that will mitigate the effects of the human resource deficit in healthcare and contribute to the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by identifying and utilising existing community resources in poor communities in Uganda to spread health information, encourage health promoting behaviours and bring vulnerable community members into better contact with existing health services. It also aims to develop local capacity for applied public heath related social science research.
It has been argued that practical knowledge and effective interventions that could reduce many priority health problems in low-income countries are already available, but that the relevant client populations are not being brought adequately into contact with these. Concerns about slow progress toward the achievement of the MDGs and the 30th anniversary of Alma-Ata have led to a renewed interest in revitalising community health workers (CHW). Getting available health knowledge and interventions to the most vulnerable requires sustainable resources in the community and the empowerment of the poorest and most vulnerable to access and utilise what is already there. However, the main problem with the traditional CHW model is the failure to develop a sustainable reward system.
The United Nations description of what needs to be done to achieve the MDGs reminds us that the answers are as much social as they are medical; and that an increased focus on social and behavioural prevention-oriented activities in the community, rather than facility-based treatment activities, could contribute substantially toward the achievement of the MDGs without any increase in existing medical resources.
This project aims to link leading Dutch and Ugandan research institutions with local stakeholders in order to identify and develop sustainable interventions in poor communities in Uganda based on existing knowledge and services and using the natural characteristics of social groups, networks, and roles, including communication processes and motivational systems.