Unveiling the WHO Guidelines to Optimize CHW Programs
October 31, 2018 Last week, I attended the Global Conference on Primary Health Care in Astana, Kazakhstan. I was there to represent my colleagues who work in the small West African nation of Togo to strengthen primary health care systems. Our model integrates professional community health workers (CHWs) with improved…
WHO Launches CHW Guideline
26 October 2018. Today the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the long-awaited WHO guideline on health policy and system support to optimize community health worker programs (CHW Guideline for short). WHO developed this guideline document to “assist national governments and national and international partners to improve the design, implementation, performance and evaluation…
1,000 Resources! Advancing knowledge and understanding about CHWs and CHW programs
August 30, 2018 marked an important milestone for CHW Central. We reached 1000 resources! That’s 1000 sources of information about how to make CHWs effective in their work to expand access to quality health services for the poorest and most underserved populations in the US and across the globe. These…
Webinar Resources and Recording – Integrating and scaling mobile community health data systems: Experience from India, Ethiopia and Madagascar.
Community health workers (CHWs) improve access to quality health services at the community level. Despite the critical role that CHWs play, governments often have limited insight into their activities, the quality of their services, the conditions of the communities that they serve, and how best to link these CHWs and…
ZIMBABWE’S VILLAGE HEALTH WORKER PROGRAM
Case Studies of Large-Scale Community Health Worker Programs was derived from the Developing and Strengthening Community Health Worker Programs at Scale: A Reference Guide and Case Studies for Program Managers and Policymakers, edited by Henry Perry, Lauren Crigler, and Steve Hodgins.
Originally published in May 2014 by USAID’s flagship Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP), it was created in response to the rapid increase in and expansion of CHW programs in low- and middle-income countries over the past decade. In January 2017, a companion document was prepared to provide guidance on 13 case studies, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Niger, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. CHW Central is serializing the case studies over time.
Summary
Background
The VHW program began in the 1980s as part of Zimbabwe’s transition toward PHC. VHWs focus on disease prevention and provide community care at the primary level in rural and peri-urban wards, where they serve as a key link from the community to the formal health system.
