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Community Support Systems

Community Support Systems. From Horizontal Initiative to Vertical Institution. Andreas Wagner University of Hildesheim, Germany a ndreas.wagner@uni-hildesheim.de. Background.

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Community Support Systems

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  1. Community Support Systems From Horizontal Initiative to Vertical Institution Andreas Wagner University of Hildesheim, Germany andreas.wagner@uni-hildesheim.de

  2. Background • Community support systems are effective horizontal structures to provide care and support. However, sustainability of such initiatives can be weak. • The purpose of this study was to get insight into sustainability issues of World Vision’s community based care and support programming in Eastern and Southern Africa.

  3. Method and Sample • A qualitative review has recently been conducted in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia. • 24 community initiatives and organizations • 13 key informant interviews and • 54 focus group discussions with community initiative members, non-governmental organization staff and government representatives

  4. Findings I • Sustainability of community based organizations depends on several issues. • One of the key factors being vertical linkages to government structures. • These links can take different shapes, from loose cooperation to government representatives as members of community organizations. • Cooperation can even lead to full adoption and institutionalization of community initiatives into regional or national government structures, including further roll-out.

  5. FindingsII • Any form of government structure cooperation with community support systems can improve the community organizations’ sustainability and increase the service delivery of both sides. • The stronger the link to government structures, the higher the community groups’ sustainability.

  6. Findings III • However, sustainability also depends on the quality and availability of resources and individual commitment within co-operations. • There are also pitfalls in government structure co-option, like • the loss of access to external NGO funding, • a politicization and • restructuring of community groups, • which can change their initial focus or even undermine and end volunteers’ efforts.

  7. Conclusion and Recommendations for Practitioners • Development agencies should support community level initiatives in order to improve care and support service delivery. • Government representatives should recognize positive effects of community groups work, cooperate and actively support them for mutual benefits. • NGOs should help building the capacity of community initiatives to better link them to government structures. • However, pitfalls in cooperation need to be considered and avoided and further research is needed.

  8. Thank you very much for your attention! Andreas Wagner University of Hildesheim, Germany andreas.wagner@uni-hildesheim.de

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