Kevin Croke

As attention on global health grows, along with mounting evidence showing weak links between public sector health spending and health outcomes, the problems of governance in the heath sector have gained new relevance for policymakers. This review summarizes the literature on one strategy to improve health sector governance: community-based monitoring programs. It presents prominent examples of community-based monitoring approaches, highlights common design features and parameters, discusses challenges faced by these programs, and outlines knowledge gaps and areas of future focus. In particular it focuses on two recent successful community-based health sector monitoring projects, in India and in Uganda, and suggests that they provide promising models for future programs.