Investing in health, particularly that of the poor, is central to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In support of this strategy WHO’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean is actively promoting in countries of the Region community-based initiatives like Basic Development Needs, Healthy Cities, Healthy Villages and Women in Health and Development. These approaches are based on the principle that good health status–an important goal in its own right–is central to creating and sustaining the capabilities of poor people to meet their basic needs and to escape from poverty. The Community-Based Initiatives Series is aimed at facilitating the management of such initiatives. Users of the series may include government authorities, community representatives, WHO and other international agencies and nongovernmental organizations.

This training manual follows a participatory training approach and provides support for the implementation of an effective follow-up and monitoring system. It will assist in program implementation and in capacity building of communities. It will also enable communities to identify and prioritize their needs and will help partners to develop more effective interaction and coordination by facilitating effective implementation of various development activities. This approach relies on the use of local resources to provide solutions to local problems to ensure program sustainability.

Supplementing this manual, the guidelines for master trainers have been prepared with the intention of assisting the facilitators in designing the program for capacity-building of communities and imparting them training in a systematic manner that follow the process and steps of the community-based initiatives implementation. The training manual for communities serves as a reference for master trainers.