Methodology to Evaluate Community Participation in Health Actions

The Mali Health Organizing Project (MHOP) aims to provide basic healthcare to underserved communities of Sikoro and Bandiagara Coura. MHOP is currently developing a program called Actions for Health to engage community members to take control of their personal health. MHOP is recruiting and training local lead­ers to mobilize and create health­related actions within their community. The organ­ization has struggled to identify a system to promote and encourage participatory processes. To address this issue, the Capstone team conducted an intensive lit­erature review process on Community Based Participatory Research. Incorporating feedback from MHOP, the team modified a methodology of evaluation specific to Actions for Health. The methodology assesses community­based participation through four value indicators: information sharing, mobilization, collaboration, and empowerment, and is intended to be easy to implement and tailored to foster reflec­tion.