In order to effectively use the community monitoring approach for improved health outcomes, organizations and practitioners need capacity strengthening. COPASAH initiatives helped to lay a good foundation for real practical social accountability and community monitoring. These have helped in bridging the knowledge and capacity gaps identified by members, besides generating interest in the learning strategies being promoted by COPASAH. The key activities include the following:
Workshops COPASAH member organizations vary in their experience and skills about implementing community monitoring for accountability. Formal training courses and workshops were organised with a view to generate collaboration between members and aimed at facilitation and capacity-building support to the organisations. These include two in South Asia region, one in East and Southern African region and two in Latin America.
Resource Pack on Community Monitoring A virtual learning platform, which is a collation of readings, guidelines, exercises, and examples which are intended to support a grassroots development or a human rights practitioner to adopt new methodologies or improve existing practices. It brings together and includes a vast array of conceptual and practical aspects of community monitoring. The learning resource has the potential to contribute to the overall knowledge building and sharing process and add to the process of capacity building of practitioners of community monitoring. The content generation and pooling of various experience based content under a framework for accountability practice for health rights from the practitioners’ perspective is a first time initiative globally. (www.copasah.org)