Overview

Who: District Principal Nursing Officer, Medical Assistant and PH nurses may engage at different levels:

• Outer-island MA to engage with Island Council

• Tarawa DPNO to engage with Urban Council

• MA’s and PH nurses to engage with Local Councilor, VWG, Village Elder, opinion leaders (e.g. church leaders, businessmen), youth leaders

When: Once a month (Island/Urban council), Weekly (VWG meetings) As needed (others)

Supporting Tools: Community mapping, Community Dialogue, Planning for Community Engagement, Annex 3 Meeting Minutes

Often Community Engagement plans do not achieve intended results due to poor coordination with key stakeholders. To work effectively with the community, it is necessary to understand who holds the power in the community and how they influence community decisions. For the successful implementation of activities, everyone in a community network needs to be involved especially those with power (the decision makers in the community), as early and as often as possible. This can be done through coordination with key offices within the local government structures. When done this will support sustainable implementation and monitoring as well as creating a strong sense of ownership and accountability of community engagement activities amongst key stakeholders. The following steps aim to guide the MA and DPNO to engage with various local government offices.