title: Participatory decision-making through the Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases: the Sri Lankan experience.
abstract: The paper describes how the Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases (ACCD) in Sri Lanka addresses new challenges by ensuring participatory, collective and transparent decision-making through a broad representation of stakeholders. The Committee, which is more than 40 years old, differs from many other national immunization advisory committees, since it has a broad mandate to deal with all communicable diseases, including those for which there are no vaccines, and addresses such areas as disease surveillance and health system improvements, in addition to vaccination-related issues. The Committee has 38 members. Unlike in some countries, ACCD recommendations are legally binding for all public sector health providers. The paper provides several examples of recent recommendations and factors that influenced the Committee's decision-making, and concludes with ways the Committee can be improved.
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology Unit, 231 De Saram Place, Colombo 10, Sri Lanka. ranjanwijesinghe@gmail.com
authors.forename: Pushpa Ranjan
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Wijesinghe
authors.forename: Paba
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Palihawadana
authors.forename: Thelge Sudath Rohana
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Peiris
mesh_terms: D026683:Advisory Committees / Q000458:organization & administration*; D032802:Committee Membership; D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D003657:Decision Making; D006287:Health Planning Guidelines; D007114:Immunization / Q000592:standards; D011159:Population Surveillance; D013188:Sri Lanka; D014612:Vaccines / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D014612:Vaccines