Human Resources Management/Workforce Development

This report is the first National Community Health Strategy Malawi has produced, spanning from 2017 to 2022.  This strategy is intended to work towards achieving Millennium Development Goal number three: universal health care.  The main focus of this strategy include: integration of health services, community engagement, and sufficient and equitable distribution of well-trained community health workforce.  Efforts will also support maintaining sufficient supplies, transportation, and infrastructure.  This strategy provides a guide and framework to introduce community health into the pre-exi

This document provides a summary of the key points during the “Unlocking the community health workforce potential, post-Ebola: what models and strategies work” meeting.  This meeting was designed to develop strategies for countries affected by Ebola and to share lessons from countries with strong existing community health systems.  Needs of these countries were shared in an effort to align with global efforts to support effective CHW programs.  This meeting drew on both public and private sector leaders in an effort to share knowledge while keeping CHWs at the center of stakeholder thinking

In Zambia, the 2010 National Community Health Worker Strategy (NCHWS) created a cadre of salaried Community Health Assistants (CHAs) to work in rural and underserved areas providing access to health care and developing prevention measures.  The Ministry of Health (MOH) is currently in the process of creating a workforce of 5,000 CHAs.  After the first class of CHAs graduated, a process evaluation was conducted.  This study is the second evaluation of the program, which has since grown due to results of the first evaluation.  The goal of this study was to evaluate long-term needs of a large-

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 resource from USAID and MCHIP provides an overview of large-scale CHW programs from 13 countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Case studies address the historical context of CHWs, the health needs of the country, the scope of work of the CHWs, CHW training, support and supervision, and financing of CHW programs. The demonstrated impact and continuing challenges of the different programs are also addressed.

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.

The emerging field of mobile health (mHealth) consists of interventions that apply cellular phones and other mobile devices for healthcare purpose such as data collection, clinical decision support, self-care, and CHW management. This rapid expansion of mobile communications systems represents an opportunity to improve the productivity of community health workers in rural areas.

In Madagascar 83% of the country’s 22.9 million people live in rural areas that can be difficult to access. CHWs play a crucial role in providing access to healthcare in those parts of the country that are underserved. Over 34,000 CHWs work to extend basic health services such as maternal and child health, family planning and reproductive health, nutrition, TB, and sanitation services. This study seeks to examine the influence both financial and non-financial incentives have on CHW program performance and retention in Madagascar. 

In the past 36 months, Nigeria has suffered several healthcare workers’ strikes, resulting in decreased access to quality healthcare for Nigerians. The researchers in this study aimed to identify the root cause(s) for these strikes and determine potential solutions. 150 Nigerian healthcare workers participated in a cross-sectional survey and questionnaire to reveal reasons for the strikes. Findings concluded that increased salaries and wages were among the most common reasons for strikes, though other issues were discussed as well. 

Due to deficiencies in low- and middle-income countries, policy makers are suggesting different methods to achieving universal health coverage. One strategy is the expansion of cadres of close-to-community providers, which plays an important role for connecting communities with the formal health sector. This poster from the Reachout Consortium identifies some of the challenges with this strategy and how to address quality-related issues for universal health coverage.