SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY MONITORING
The focus in this sector is on training and capacity building, which aims to build capacity for communities and civil society organizations in Zimbabwe to improve budget monitoring and expenditure tracking for health services and to use evidence based research to influence policy makers in government, parliament and local authorities to effectively mobilize and utilize resources. Citizen engagement in monitoring and advocacy for improved health outcomes is strengthened, through capacitating community health cadres.
Community based monitoring is a promising practice for improving programme effectiveness and is a key component of the rights-based implementation of health programmes. It empowers communities and builds their capacities in engaging with service providers to negotiate better services for themselves. Social accountability monitoring is closely linked to advocacy, in that CWGH has carried out various community meetings on health, discussed and prepared policy inputs on health issues on health and carried out advocacy on those issues. This has helped to achieve increased community awareness and participation on health issues.
The CWGH has now grown more focused and informing in their health activities, and has become deeply rooted in the community where the people are, and is now a major voice of the voiceless on the health issues, and a resourceful partner of the State on National Health issues, The CWGH seeks to ensure that the health sector is rebuilt from the bottom up, not the top down, and that the lowest income communities are the first to see improvements, and not the last.