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Introduction
The idea of accountability has been accepted within the reproductive health within the overall framework of evidence based practice and the need for data for monitoring progress is acknowledged. However the importance of involving the citizens or the communities who experience the services is still not universally seen as important. There is much greater emphasis on ‘fixing’ the inputs- eg. human resources and technological options etc. Even when acknowledging poor quality and disrespect, the idea of involving citizens as the main stakeholders of this process is not being considered. Considering the existing work of COPASAH in this field it is important that COPASAH engage more vigorously in promoting the practice of social accountability in different ways. Key players who have been promoting social accountability in the maternal health field and in the development domain like Lynn Freedman and Jonathan Fox are already active members of COPASAH and keen to work with us to take this issue forward. Similarly members from other global civil society alliances like People’s Health Movement (PHM), International Initiative of Maternal Health and Human Rights (IIHMMR), Equinet etc. are already members of COPASAH. This will enable COPASAH to pull together and contribute to an effective call to incorporate Social Accountability into existing MH and FP related policies and programming.
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