Self‐reliance or social accountability? The raison d'être of community health committees in Nigeria

Social justice requires that communities demand social accountability. We conducted this study to inform ongoing efforts to facilitate social accountability through community health committees in Nigeria. We theorised that committees may see themselves in two ways – as outwardly‐facing (‘social accountability’) and/or as inwardly‐facing (‘self‐reliance’). We analysed the minutes of their meetings, alongside interviews and group discussions with committee members, community members, health workers, and health managers in four states across Nigeria. The committees' raison d'être reflects a bias for self‐reliance in three ways. First, seen as a platform for the community to co‐finance health services, members tend to be the local elite who can make financial contributions. Second, in a one‐sided relationship, they function more to achieve the goals of governments (e.g. to improve the uptake of services), than of the community (e.g. rights‐based demands for government support). Third, their activities in the community reflect greater concern to ensure that their community makes the most of what the government has already provided (e.g. helping to drive the uptake of existing services) than asking for more. Optimising the committees for social accountability may require support by actors who do not have conflicts of interests in ensuring that they have the necessary information and strategies to demand social accountability.