Bridging the Gap between Communities and Service Providers: Developing Accountability through Community Mobilisation Approaches

Summary This article reviews Save the Children/US and Johns Hopkins University’s experience to date in two USAID?funded pilot projects that aim to increase community participation in improving health in rural areas of Latin America. In Puno, Peru, the MoH?led project is facilitating dialogue and action between service providers and community members to define and improve the quality of health care from a client and community perspective. In Oruro, Bolivia, communities and service providers developed and are using a community health information system that provides them with data upon which they can jointly make decisions, set priorities, plan activities and monitor their progress. Although both projects are in relatively early stages of development, they have achieved promising preliminary results and offer opportunities to learn about accountability through partnerships between communities and service providers.