Achieving Universal Health Coverage: State of Community Empowerment in Bangladesh

Initial attempts at Universal Health Coverage (UHC) meet with resistance from different quarters. Therefore, it is imperative to empower the community and generate demand for it. This paper argues that community empowerment can facilitate health equity either directly or indirectly through facilitating UHC. In order to empower the community, first it is important to know its status, which was the aim of this study. The mixed method research found that 90% of people had some source of information, but there was almost absolute lack of empowerment in terms of participation in decision making, demanding accountability, and local organizational capacity. The knowledge obtained by this research can help policy makers to make evidenceinformed decisions towards achieving health equity.