Collective Community Ownership of Health and Social Issues (CCOHSI) – A Pilot in Ba Province, Fiji

The CCOHSI project started in January 2016, and is funded by European Union (EU) and VSHC in partnership with Empower Pacific (EP). The project aims to strengthen VSHC to empower existing community structures and leaders to take ownership of and express their need to tackle health and social issues which impinge on human rights and socio economic productivity within their communities.  

The project objectives are:-

1. To establish an enabling environment for VSHC and EP to work with local authorities (LA) through inclusive making policy making, to address targeted health and social priorities in Reproductive Health (RH), Non Communicable Diseases (NCD), Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Child Protection (CP) in the Ba Province, Fiji.
2. To enhance the capacity of communities in Ba province to support sustainable improvements in specific, modifiable, lifestyle risk factors in health, and in social indicators, by empowering leaders and community structures.

These actions will enhance the capacity of community leaders such as the Ba Provincial Council (BPC), District Officer (DO), Turaga ni Koros (TnK), Advisory Councillors (ACs), Women and Youth leaders, Faith based organisations (FBO) and school teachers. Community Health Workers (CHW) will also be trained and existing CHWs will be revitalised. Wherever Health Committees (HC) do not exist, new ones will be established and all will be empowered with accurate information and knowledge so that they initiate a collective movement  for the betterment of their societies. The project area will cover 30 areas throughout the Ba province. The communities have been selected and a scoping exercise is currently being undertaken.