ABSTRACT
This article aims to discuss the role of community engagement, the action of social movements and civil society to face health emergencies. The guiding questions that guided the construction of this article were: what is the role of community engagement in confronting Covid-19? What can community engagement offer in the face of global health emergency events? What actions have been taken by civil society? This is a theoretical essay, built from the articulation of ideas from scientific literature and technical-operational documents on community engagement and governance and the health crisis arising from Covid-19. It appears that, in the international and national context, community governance subsidized by the strengthening of communication channels fostered by institutions and/or social influencers can contribute to expanding the engagement of organized collectives as rhetoric and ethical-political practice committed to citizenship. In the Brazilian scenario, it is observed that the necropolitical mechanism that has operated Covid-19’s coping policies, within the federal government, opposes the actions and response capacity of the populations. Still, the actions of social movements have mobilized efforts to mitigate inequities and protect the most vulnerable, even in the absence of national health leadership.
KEYWORDS
Community participation; Leadership and governance capacity; Coronavirus infections; Covid-19