Impact of Community Involvement on Infancy Vaccination Coverage in Rural Areas of Hodeidah, Republic of Yemen

Abstract

The key to attaining the goal of health for all is, in the view of the Alma­ Ala Conference, primary health care. The conference highlighted the relationship of PHC and socio-economic development and defined the main pillars for its implementation, mainly equity and equality, community involvement, intersectoral collaboration and the use of appropriate technology. To be successful, PHC needs individual and community self-reliance and the maximum community involvement or participation. In community involvement individuals and families assume responsibility for their, and the community's, health and welfare and develop the capacity to contribute to their own and the community's development.

Yemen has a history of effective community mobilization for development (through local development councils) during the 1970s and first half of the 1980s e.g. they built roads, schools, health clinics, water systems and numerous other local basic services. However, these councils lost their effectiveness in the late 1980s due to over-centralization and the loss of local funding.

Local health committees (LHCs) are a totally new phenomenon in the Yemeni health sector, but part of the current national policy. They tend to consist of high level officials and health staff only, not really representing the communities, which make use of the health services offered. Community participation in health is mainly limited to the payment of user fees, without involving communities in the management of their resources.

The success of national immunization days provides evidence regarding the impm1ance of community involvement for achieving the desired results. So, raising and sustaining Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) coverage requires the mobilization of Yemeni society on an ongoing and permanent basis.