No one better understands the challenges to a community or the context necessary to address them than the people who live there. They play a pivotal role in making ideas applicable and improvements sustainable. That is why local voices take center stage in each of the programs the African Health Initiative funds. Supported as the primary owners of the solutions, government leaders at the national, regional and community level take the lead in these programs and their outcomes, so that improvements to the general system result in effects that long outlast our funding. These leaders directly engage the communities they serve to localize efforts to improve health, using approaches built with the context of the specific places and people in mind.
To see what this looks like in powerful practice, view our video about the Community Health-Based Planning and Services project (CHPS+) in Ghana. Visit www.healthsystemsfirst.org to learn more.