Community Ownership and Preparedness Index

Table 1 displays the alignment of the questions of the COPI with the Conceptual Model domain(s) and indicator(s). The table shows, from left to right, the aligned Conceptual Model domain(s) and indicator(s) and the individual questions from the COPI transcribed as they appear in the instrument (with minor formatting changes for clarity).

*Note that these questions are duplicated to reflect their alignment with multiple domains and/or indicators in the Conceptual Model.

Table 1 | Community Ownership and Preparedness Index questions and alignment with the domain(s) and indicator(s) of the Assessing Community Engagement Conceptual Model

ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT BACKGROUND

Context of instrument development/use

This article discusses COPI, which was developed to inform communities about progress in community organizational development and monitor the transition readiness of community-based groups. COPI assessed Avahan, the India AIDS Initiative, which is a 10-year, large-scale HIV prevention intervention. The Avahan community includes high-risk individuals such as “female sex workers, high-risk men who have sex with men, transgender [individuals], and injecting drug users” who engage with the program through informal and formal meetings and engagement activities.

The objectives of COPI were to assess the implementation and effectiveness of community mobilization to ensure the transition of program management and funding to the government; assist partners in the process of community mobilization; advance large-scale implementation through replicating lessons learned from community mobilization; and make inferences regarding community mobilization using data collected through information systems and other surveys, as well as improved HIV prevention outcomes.

Instrument description/purpose
COPI focuses on four essential dimensions needed to understand the transition readiness of community-based groups: “(1) leadership, governance and decision-making; (2) sustainability through resource mobilisation and networking; (3) project management; and (4) engagement with the state and wider society.”

The instrument assesses the dimensions above using eight broad parameters:

• Engagement with the state
• Engagement with other key influencers
• Project and risk management
• Resource mobilization
• Decision-making system
• Governance
• Leadership
• Community collective network

COPI has 23 questions that capture the essential eight dimensions and parameters above, as well as express practical and operational participatory concepts. The article states that “COPI assigns weights to different indicators and parameters reflecting their relative importance to transition readiness.” Additional details on the response options were not presented in the article.

COPI can be accessed here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2011-200590.

Engagement involved in developing, implementing, or evaluating the assessment instrument
COPI was developed using a participatory and iterative process. The process included the following stages: “a review of background material and theory as well as learning from the experiences of Indian [community-based groups] working in HIV prevention; design of the study framework and related indicators and parameters; weighting of indicators; and development and pilot testing of the survey tools.” Facilitated discussions and focus groups were held with high-risk communities, and insights were supplemented with input from statisticians, sociologists, anthropologists, demographers, and gender experts. Additionally, a process for sharing data, including data collection and analysis across six Indian states with the community-based groups was built into the survey design. This allowed community-based groups to use the data to make decisions about their organizations and activities, empowering and serving these groups directly.

Additional information on populations engaged in instrument use
Not specified.

Notes

• Potential limitations: Further evaluation is needed to understand the predictive validity of COPI.
• Important findings: The COPI “methodology is intended to make the process of monitoring part of the community mobilisation programme itself.” The instrument was also intended to empower the leaders of community-based groups. For example, through the use of intensive interviews with the members and leaders of community-based groups, the instrument content informed leaders of the “programme quality, rights and entitlements, and approaches to addressing stigma, and the survey process itself,” ultimately making discussion of critical issues possible. Additionally, during facilitated discussions on the COPI scores, community-based groups often reflected on the operational implications. Notably, “these discussions were designed to challenge power dynamics, expand the vision of [community-based groups] to opportunities beyond the programme, and build collective agency. The experience of implementing the survey validated the design’s effectiveness as a participatory action tool and demonstrated that monitoring can in effect be a useful intervention in itself.” Additionally, COPI “could be measured and aggregated at the level of individual [community-based groups] as well as state and national levels.”
• Supplemental information: Additional research has been conducted using COPI with other populations and HIV/AIDS programs. The findings from the research can be found in the following articles:
  • Narayanan, P., K. Moulasha, T. Wheeler, J. Baer, S. Bharadwaj, T. V. Ramanathan, and T. Thomas. 2012. Monitoring community mobilisation and organisational capacity among high-risk groups in a large-scale HIV prevention programme in India: selected findings using a Community Ownership and Preparedness Index. Journal of Epidemiolgical Community Health 66:ii34-eii41. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2012-201065.
  • Chakravarthy, J. B., S. V. Joseph, P. Pelto, and D. Kovvali. 2012. Community mobilisation programme for female sex workers in coastal Andhra Pradesh, India: processes and their effects. Journal of Epidemiological Community Health 66:ii78-86. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2011-200487.
  • Sadhu, S., A. R. Manukonda, A. R. Yeruva, S. K. Patel, and N. Saggurti. 2014. Role of a community-to-community learning strategy in the institutionalization of community mobilization among female sex workers in India. PLoS One 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090592.