The implementation of the Community Based Monitoring programme was piloted by Soul City Institute and its partners from April 2013, covering 4 provinces and 12 Primary Health Care Centres (PHC’s) and Community Clinics. Provinces and Districts covered in the pilot phase include the Northern Cape – Francis Baard District, Kwa-Zulu Natal – Ugu District, Free State – Fezile Dabi District and Eastern Cape’s – Amathole District. The CBM programme is conceptualised around the model of social accountability in health services. The community-based monitoring teams were been set up, trained and supported in the development of a system to enable users of services to rate the services that they received. It is a Soul City institute initiative that aims to support the PHC re-engineering (R-PHC) initiative by the DoH. In addition, community members have been encouraged to participate more actively in understanding the limitations of the health services and how they can contribute to improving the quality of services delivered.
The CBM programme’s thrust also aims at building the capacity of communities, create an enabling environment for communities to monitor the quality of PHC (Primary Health Care) and particularly maternal and child health services and to increase accountability, promote local ownership of health care services. Its core function includes fostering a dialogue between the health care workers and the public on how the quality of services can be improved - enriching communication between clinic staff and patients and strengthens community demand for high quality health services.
In the past few weeks starting August 2015, Soul City Institute has conducted the Community Based Monitoring introductory Dialogues and to select CBM Teams. Current activities have seen the implementation of capacity building (training) activities of CBM teams in additional provinces and districts and those being Mpumalanga – Gert Sibande District, Limpopo – Mopani District and Western Cape – Cape Winelands. By mid-October, Soul City shall have covered all nine provinces with the implementation of the CBM programme as Gauteng and North West will conduct their teams Training in early to mid-October.
The programme is supported by European Union (EU) and by the National Department of Health (NDOH).
