title: Community participation for transformative action on women's, children's and adolescents' health.
abstract: The Global strategy for women's, children's and adolescents' health (2016-2030) recognizes that people have a central role in improving their own health. We propose that community participation, particularly communities working together with health services (co-production in health care), will be central for achieving the objectives of the global strategy. Community participation specifically addresses the third of the key objectives: to transform societies so that women, children and adolescents can realize their rights to the highest attainable standards of health and well-being. In this paper, we examine what this implies in practice. We discuss three interdependent areas for action towards greater participation of the public in health: improving capabilities for individual and group participation; developing and sustaining people-centred health services; and social accountability. We outline challenges for implementation, and provide policy-makers, programme managers and practitioners with illustrative examples of the types of participatory approaches needed in each area to help achieve the health and development goals.
authors.affiliation: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, England .
authors.forename: Cicely
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marston
authors.affiliation: Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, Geneva, Switzerland .
authors.forename: Rachael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hinton
authors.affiliation: World Vision International, Milton Keynes, England .
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kean
authors.affiliation: Health Research and Social Development Forum (HERD), Kathmandu, Nepal .
authors.forename: Sushil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baral
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Odisha, Bhubaneswar, India .
authors.forename: Arti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahuja
authors.affiliation: World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland .
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Costello
authors.affiliation: World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland .
authors.forename: Anayda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Portela
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000067697:Adolescent Health; D002648:Child; D000067576:Child Health; D003256:Community Participation / Q000379:methods*; D003906:Developing Countries; D006262:Health; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D016387:Women's Health; D014944:World Health Organization; D055815:Young Adult