North America (U.S. and Canada)

In July of 2012, CARE partnered with other organizations to provide 120 million women and girls with family planning information and services by the year 2020.  This report reflects on the first half of the initiative, evaluating what has been accomplished thus far.  The evaluation shows that many barriers to providing women and girls with more family planning support remain.

 Dr. Palazuelos, Partners in Health, and Dr.

This article explains the current state and focus of the U.S. healthcare system and describes it’s shortcomings.  The authors propose a widening of definitions in regards to product, place, and provider in an effort to allow for cheaper health interventions such as community health worker programs.  This article also evaluates the different ways in which healthcare in the U.S.

The focus of this report is on the financial sustainability of Community Health Worker (CHW) programs in the state of Connecticut.  The goal of this research is to find a way in which Connecticut can develop an effective program that utilizes CHWs to improve patient health outcomes and achieve a level of positive financial return.  This report worked within the boundaries of Connecticut’s State Innovation Model (SIM), a federally funded grant to aid in transforming healthcare systems from state to state, in order to ensure a possible funding source for the resulting new programs.  The repor

This article synthesizes the qualitative evidence of the effectiveness of lay health workers (LHWs) as well as the factors affecting implementation of LHW programs for maternal and child health. 53 studies were included primarily describing the experiences of LHWs, program recipients, and other health workers. Results from the review suggest that rather than being seen as a lesser trained health worker, LHWs may represent a different and sometimes preferred type of health worker. The close relationship between LHWs and recipients is a program strength.

Research has demonstrated that task shifting, including the use of CHWs to deliver care, can improve population health. This systematic review examines whether task shifting in LMICs results in efficiency improvements by achieving cost savings. The authors identified 794 articles, and included 34 in the study. They found that substantial evidence exists for achieving cost savings and efficiency improvements from task shifting activities related to tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

This systematic review examines the effectiveness of interventions aimed at increasing access to health services for children aged 5 years and below in LMIC. Fifty-seven studies were included in the review, and approximately half of studies (49%) were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa. The studies evaluated a diverse range of interventions and various outcomes. Supply side interventions included: delivery of services at or closer to home (by CHWs, nurses, or school programs) and service level improvements (e.g. integration of services).

SPRING works to strengthen human resources for nutrition with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of formally-trained professional and frontline workers in nutrition, as prioritized by USAID’s Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy 2014-15. This collection of resources includes the latest news, activities, publications, media, and events on strengthening human resources for nutrition. 

This review explores the current evidence available to assess if increased levels of integration of community health resources in CHW programs leads to higher program effectiveness and sustainability. 32 articles were chosen for an extensive review, complemented by analysis of the results of 15 other review studies. Analysis found no quantitative data and minimal inclusion of even basic community level indicators.

This review article explores the various definitions and descriptions of CHWs in the literature. It also identifies common themes in these definitions to better understand the essential characteristics of health workers classified as CHWs and to distinguish them from other healthcare providers. By describing the various categories of CHWs, this resource helps to clarify the use of the term to ultimately aid key stakeholders in community health program planning, policy, and research.