CHW Central

A global resource for and about Community Health Workers

Scale-up

The origins of Ethiopia’s primary health care expansion: The politics of state building and health system strengthening

Ethiopia received recognition as one of sub-Saharan Africa’s models of primary care, due in part to training and deploying over 30,000 Health Extension Workers since 2004. Kevin Croke discusses factors enabling the country to implement the program at scale. … [Read more...] about The origins of Ethiopia’s primary health care expansion: The politics of state building and health system strengthening

Learning from community health worker programs, big and small

CHW programs demonstrate the potential for great impacts on population health, but interventions sometimes fail as a result of poor transitioning from program piloting to full scale implementation. Stephen Hodgins outlines some of the reasons these programs fail or succeed. He recommends expansions of research conducted both during intervention piloting and also at broad … [Read more...] about Learning from community health worker programs, big and small

Surgical symptomatic knowledge among medical staff and community health workers in rural Cambodia: a descriptive study for workforce improvement

Researchers distributed a questionnaire in rural Cambodia to assess the level of surgical knowledge among physicians, CHWs, and community members. The median scores for surgical symptomatic knowledge was 8 for medical staff, 8 for CHWs, and 8.5 for villagers. The study’s authors concluded that medical staff in rural areas needed to be trained to improve knowledge and double the … [Read more...] about Surgical symptomatic knowledge among medical staff and community health workers in rural Cambodia: a descriptive study for workforce improvement

The National Village Health Guide Scheme in India: Lessons Four Decades Later for Community Health Worker Programs Today and Tomorrow

National CHW schemes are an increasingly important tool for achieving universal health coverage and ending maternal and child deaths by 2030. This article focuses on critical issues that face the effectiveness of large-scale CHW programs drawing on the experiences of India’s CHW scheme –the Village Health Guides. … [Read more...] about The National Village Health Guide Scheme in India: Lessons Four Decades Later for Community Health Worker Programs Today and Tomorrow

Community Health Worker Assessment and Improvement Matrix (CHW AIM): Updated Program Functionality Matrix for Optimizing Community Health Programs

To support quality CHW program design and implementation, USAID, UNICEF, the Community Health Impact Coalition, and Initiatives Inc. have updated and adapted the Community Health Worker Assessment and Improvement Matrix (CHW AIM) Program Functionality Matrix tool. This tool can be applied at district, regional, and national levels to identify and close gaps in design and … [Read more...] about Community Health Worker Assessment and Improvement Matrix (CHW AIM): Updated Program Functionality Matrix for Optimizing Community Health Programs