Community engagement and mobilisation of local resources to support integrated Community Case Management of childhood illnesses in Niger State, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Despite strong evidence of integrated community case management (iCCM) of childhood illnesses being a proven intervention for reducing childhood morbidity and mortality, sustainability remains a challenge in most settings. Community ownership and contribution are important factors in sustainability. The purpose of this study was to document the process and scale achieved for community engagement and mobilisation to foster ownership, service uptake and sustainability of iCCM activities. METHODS: A review of data collected by the RAcE project was conducted to describe the scale and achievement of leveraging community resources to support the community-oriented resource persons (CORPs). The Rapid Access Expansion (RAcE)-supported iCCM programme in Niger state (2014-2017), aimed at improving coverage of case management services for malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhoea, among children aged 2-59 months. Resources donated were documented and costed based on the market value of goods and services at the time of donation. These monetary valuations were validated at community dialogue meetings. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise quantitative variables. The mean of the number of CORPs in active service and the percentages of the mobilised resources received by CORPs were calculated. RESULTS: The community engagement activities included 143 engagement and advocacy visits, and meetings, 300 community dialogues, reactivation of 60 ward development committees, and 3000 radio messages in support of iCCM. 79.5% of 1659 trained CORPs were still in active iCCM service at the end of the project. We estimated the costs of all support provided by the community to CORPs in cash and kind as US$ 123 062. Types of support included cash; building materials; farming support; fuel for motorcycles, and transport fares. CONCLUSIONS: The achievements of community engagement, mobilisation, and the resources leveraged, demonstrated acceptability of the project to the beneficiaries and their willingness to contribute to uninterrupted service provision by CORPs.