Foro Salud- Foro de la Sociedad Civil en Salud

Context

Foro Salud is a coalition of civil society organizations working  in the health field that has been active since the year 2002.  The coalition promotes debate, diagnosis, socialization of studies and experiences, proposal writing and the collective construction of consensus and dialogue around key health issues in the country. Foro Salud encourages citizen surveillance and the social control of public policies and services. The activities of coalition member are carried-out  at national, regional and local level.
Website
www.forosalud.org.pe
Area of Work
Peru
Contact Person
Cesar Amaro

Approaches to implementing Community monitoring/ accountability

The approach involves monitoring, advocacy and social mobilization.  Examples of some of the activities are:
  • Local and Regional: Foro Salud promotes meetings with local and regional community leaders, health authorities, and the regional  ombudsman.
  • National: Press conferences and activities that focus on current and structural issues around access to health and health system reforms.
  • Social mobilization: Foro Salud has strong partnerships with networks of patients, health promoters, and groups of affected populations, NGOs, and others.
  • Advocacy: A representative of Foro Salud seats in the National Health Council. Also, the coalition organizes a bi-annual National Conference of Health. These conferences are attended by a wide range of actors that discuss and agree an agenda for action for the next two-year period. 

Results

  • Active participation (voluntary) of citizens and other stakeholders.
  • Active network of people and institutions.
  • Development of a capacity to engage in key issues and proposing policy initiatives.
  • Skills among citizens to interact with academics, policy-makers and other professionals.

Lessons

  • Volunteerism has limitations.
  • The influence of citizen carrying-out monitoring has limitations.
  • In some geographical regions, where monitoring projects are being implemented, there may be a phenomenon of dependency from external funders.