Community Participation Approaches for Effective National COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness and Response: An Experience From Oman.

Chadia Wannous,Said Al Mukhaini,Salah T Al Awaidy,Huda Al Siyabi,Zahir Al Anqoudi,Ahmed Al Kalbani,Zakiya Al Bahri,Mohsen Kanaan,Sumaya Al Hatmi

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2020.616763

Abstract

Oman, like other countries in the world, was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the WHO's declaration of the pandemic, the Ministry of Health of Oman has initiated its preparedness and response to the pandemic, with community participation as one of the key components of the national preparedness and response plan. This paper is a descriptive study aims at describing the three community approaches that exist in Oman and reviewing their role in preparedness and response strategies to COVID-19 pandemic and discuss the lessons learned. Community participation approaches in Oman were translated into action during the pandemic through empowering community members, mobilizing resources, and strengthening the ownership among the local community to ensure effective advocacy, proper networking, and dissemination of information and, subsequently, actions at the level of the community. The first community participation approach is community organizations within the healthy cities and villages initiative, which facilitated networking and acted as a platform for community engagement, reviewing the health information and updating them accordingly to meet evloving demands. The second approach is Willayat (District) health committees, with their unique multi-sectoral structure, that enhanced collaboration at the state level with different community leaders and groups to develop pandemic action plans, which were implemented using available local resources. The third approach is community volunteers that remain the key information providers, particularly when physical access becomes limited due to physical distancing measures. Based on this review, we advocate to further strengthen these approaches and recommends that they are implemented for the protection and promotion of health and well-being, including for health emergencies.

Highlights

COVID-19 has affected most countries in the world, by 28 September 2020 an over 33 million confirmed cases and a case fatality ratio of around 3% [1]
Community participation is one of the main principles of primary health care (PHC), the strategy proposed in Almata in 1978 and adopted by member states and reaffirmed in 2018 by the Astana declaration [7, 8]
At the early stage of the pandemic face to face meetings, events and workshops were carried out by the volunteers, but later digital channels were used for communications and community engagement

Summary

INTRODUCTION

COVID-19 has affected most countries in the world, by 28 September 2020 an over 33 million confirmed cases and a case fatality ratio of around 3% [1]. CSG volunteers had 3 critical roles: (a) Health educators; disseminating knowledge on preventive measures (cough etiquette, hand washing, and physical distancing) and quarantine procedures, and the importance of adherence to the restriction of movements They assist in the response to public perceptions, worries, concerns, rumors, and mixed and confusing messages that can impact operational communications; (b) Data collectors; maintaining data records on individuals in the institutional quarantine, contact tracing, conducting situation analysis about affected families and identifying specific risks for various groups, and; (c) Social mobilizers; help with mobilizing the expatriate labor workers to approach the testing centers, and to seek medical advice when symptomatic, and conducting fundraising and blood donation campaigns. At the early stage (imported cases reported) of the pandemic face to face meetings, events and workshops were carried out by the volunteers, but later digital channels were used for communications and community engagement

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION

Findings

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT