IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i18p10083-d631826.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards Sustainable Community-Based Systems for Infectious Disease and Disaster Response; Lessons from Local Initiatives in Four African Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Harro Maat

    (Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, 6700 HB Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Dina Balabanova

    (Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HU, UK)

  • Esther Mokuwa

    (Development Economics Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, 6700 HB Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Paul Richards

    (School of Environmental Sciences, Njala University, Njala, Sierra Leone)

  • Vik Mohan

    (Blue Ventures Conservation, Bristol BS2 0NW, UK)

  • Freddie Ssengooba

    (Policy Planning & Management Department, School of Public Health, Makerere University, Kampala P.O. Box 7062, Uganda)

  • Revocatus Twinomuhangi

    (Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Climatic Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala P.O. Box 7062, Uganda)

  • Mirkuzie Woldie

    (Department of Health Policy and Management, Jimma University, Jimma P.O. Box 378, Ethiopia)

  • Susannah Mayhew

    (Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HU, UK)

Abstract

This paper explores the role of decentralised community-based care systems in achieving sustainable healthcare in resource-poor areas. Based on case studies from Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Uganda and Ethiopia, the paper argues that a community-based system of healthcare is more effective in the prevention, early diagnosis, and primary care in response to the zoonotic and infectious diseases associated with extreme weather events as well as their direct health impacts. Community-based systems of care have a more holistic view of the determinants of health and can integrate responses to health challenges, social wellbeing, ecological and economic viability. The case studies profiled in this paper reveal the importance of expanding notions of health to encompass the whole environment (physical and social, across time and space) in which people live, including the explicit recognition of ecological interests and their interconnections with health. While much work still needs to be done in defining and measuring successful community responses to health and other crises, we identify two potentially core criteria: the inclusion and integration of local knowledge in response planning and actions, and the involvement of researchers and practitioners, e.g., community-embedded health workers and NGO staff, as trusted key interlocuters in brokering knowledge and devising sustainable community systems of care.

Suggested Citation

  • Harro Maat & Dina Balabanova & Esther Mokuwa & Paul Richards & Vik Mohan & Freddie Ssengooba & Revocatus Twinomuhangi & Mirkuzie Woldie & Susannah Mayhew, 2021. "Towards Sustainable Community-Based Systems for Infectious Disease and Disaster Response; Lessons from Local Initiatives in Four African Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10083-:d:631826
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10083/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10083/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Asha S George & Vrinda Mehra & Kerry Scott & Veena Sriram, 2015. "Community Participation in Health Systems Research: A Systematic Review Assessing the State of Research, the Nature of Interventions Involved and the Features of Engagement with Communities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-25, October.
    2. Bossert, Thomas J., 1990. "Can they get along without us? Sustainability of donor-supported health projects in Central America and Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 30(9), pages 1015-1023, January.
    3. Johnson, Knowlton & Hays, Carol & Center, Hayden & Daley, Charlotte, 2004. "Building capacity and sustainable prevention innovations: a sustainability planning model," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 135-149, May.
    4. Rhodes, Tim & Lancaster, Kari, 2019. "Evidence-making interventions in health: A conceptual framing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Julio Frenk, 2010. "The Global Health System: Strengthening National Health Systems as the Next Step for Global Progress," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(1), pages 1-3, January.
    6. Godfrey Bwire & Aline Munier & Issaka Ouedraogo & Leonard Heyerdahl & Henry Komakech & Atek Kagirita & Richard Wood & Raymond Mhlanga & Berthe Njanpop-Lafourcade & Mugagga Malimbo & Issa Makumbi & Jen, 2017. "Epidemiology of cholera outbreaks and socio-economic characteristics of the communities in the fishing villages of Uganda: 2011-2015," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Thomas R. Raffel & John M. Romansic & Neal T. Halstead & Taegan A. McMahon & Matthew D. Venesky & Jason R. Rohr, 2013. "Disease and thermal acclimation in a more variable and unpredictable climate," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(2), pages 146-151, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Minyahil Tadesse Boltena & Ziad El-Khatib & Abraham Sahilemichael Kebede & Benedict Oppong Asamoah & Appiah Seth Christopher Yaw & Kassim Kamara & Phénix Constant Assogba & Andualem Tadesse Boltena & , 2022. "Malaria and Helminthic Co-Infection during Pregnancy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Meiling Yin & Hanna Choi & Eun-Ju Lee, 2022. "Can Climate Change Awaken Ecological Consciousness? A Neuroethical Approach to Green Consumption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-17, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rosenberg, Alana & Hartwig, Kari & Merson, Michael, 2008. "Government-NGO collaboration and sustainability of orphans and vulnerable children projects in southern Africa," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 51-60, February.
    2. Khan, Mishal S. & Pullan, Rachel & Okello, George & Nyikuri, Mary & McKee, Martin & Balabanova, Dina, 2019. "“For how long are we going to take the tablets?” Kenyan stakeholders’ views on priority investments to sustainably tackle soil-transmitted helminths," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 51-59.
    3. Carina Dantas & Juliana Louceiro & Joana Vieira & Willeke van Staalduinen & Oscar Zanutto & Karolina Mackiewicz, 2022. "SHAFE Mapping on Social Innovation Ecosystems," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. repec:hrv:hksfac:5341873 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Krishnadas Nanath & R Radhakrishna Pillai, 2021. "Towards a framework for sustaining Green IT initiatives: an empirical investigation," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 193-206, September.
    6. Toledo Romani, Maria E. & Vanlerberghe, Veerle & Perez, Dennis & Lefevre, Pierre & Ceballos, Enrique & Bandera, Digna & Baly Gil, Alberto & Van der Stuyft, Patrick, 2007. "Achieving sustainability of community-based dengue control in Santiago de Cuba," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 976-988, February.
    7. Davies-Colley, Christian & Smith, Willie, 2012. "Implementing environmental technologies in development situations: The example of ecological toilets," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-8.
    8. Alfonso, Moya L. & Nickelson, Jen & Hogeboom, David L. & French, Jennifer & Bryant, Carol A. & McDermott, Robert J. & Baldwin, Julie A., 2008. "Assessing local capacity for health intervention," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 145-159, May.
    9. Deribe Assefa Aga & N. Noorderhaven & B. Vallejo, 2018. "Project beneficiary participation and behavioural intentions promoting project sustainability: The mediating role of psychological ownership," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(5), pages 527-546, September.
    10. Kim, Hyerang & Shon, Soonyoung & Shin, Hyunsook, 2020. "Exploring the unmet needs for creating an enabling environment for nurturing care to promote migrant child health in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: A theory-guided community-based participatory action research," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    11. Velasco, Veronica & Griffin, Kenneth W. & Antichi, Mariella & Celata, Corrado, 2015. "A large-scale initiative to disseminate an evidence-based drug abuse prevention program in Italy: Lessons learned for practitioners and researchers," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 27-38.
    12. Riki Savaya & Gerald Elsworth & Patricia Rogers, 2009. "Projected Sustainability of Innovative Social Programs," Evaluation Review, , vol. 33(2), pages 189-205, April.
    13. Ghouwa Ismail & Ashley Van Niekerk, 2021. "Validation of an Assessment Tool to Measure Psycho-Social Factors Associated With Willingness to Participate in Child-Centered Initiatives," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, September.
    14. Ahmet Koç & Mert Bastas, 2019. "The Evaluation of the Project School Model in Terms of Organizational Sustainability and Its Effect on Teachers’ Organizational Commitment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-23, June.
    15. Cameron Estrich & Carla L. DeSisto & Ellen Pliska & Christine N. Mackie & Alisa Velonis & Keriann Uesugi & Lisa F. Waddell & Kristin M. Rankin, 2022. "Roles of Social Networking in Complex Multi-agency Implementation Efforts," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, September.
    16. Roberts-Gray, Cynthia & Gingiss, Phyllis M. & Boerm, Melynda, 2007. "Evaluating school capacity to implement new programs," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 247-257, August.
    17. Souha El Khanji, 2022. "Donors’ Interest in Water and Sanitation Subsectors," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(2), pages 611-654, April.
    18. Seye Abimbola & Dorothy Drabarek & Shola K. Molemodile, 2022. "Self‐reliance or social accountability? The raison d'être of community health committees in Nigeria," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 1722-1735, May.
    19. Yu Hao & Yujia Li & Zhiyang Shen, 2023. "Does carbon emission trading contribute to reducing infectious diseases? Evidence from China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 74-100, March.
    20. Sridharan, Sanjeev & Go, Sodam & Zinzow, Heidi & Gray, Aracelis & Gutierrez Barrett, Melissa, 2007. "Analysis of strategic plans to assess planning for sustainability of comprehensive community initiatives," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 105-113, February.
    21. Meyers, Duncan C. & Domitrovich, Celene E. & Dissi, Rawan & Trejo, Jordan & Greenberg, Mark T., 2019. "Supporting systemic social and emotional learning with a schoolwide implementation model," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 53-61.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10083-:d:631826. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.