CHW Central

A global resource for and about Community Health Workers

Country Insights

Elevating Country Voices

Hear from the frontlines of community health. Find stories and interviews of community health workers and community health program managers that will deepen understanding of their crucial function delivering lifesaving care to communities.

Zambia: Mwango Mlenga

Mr. Mwango Mlenga is a District Health Promotion Officer in Zambia’s Ndola district. In this interview he shares his opinion on the successes and challenges facing the implementation of Zambia’s CHW program.

Read the full story.

Sierra Leone: Alpha Bangura

As the National Community Health Director at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Mr. Alpha Bangura works to ensure that Sierra Leone’s national CHW program is running as planned. In this story, he discusses the program’s successes and challenges, and the importance of integrated system design.

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Kenya: Kilala Health Centre

Kenya’s Kilala Model Health Centre has approximately 50 community health volunteers (CHVs). Hear from 5 CHVs and their supervisor as they talk about their experiences delivering community health services.

Read the full story.

Liberia: Bob Kaifa

Meet Mr. Anti-Big–Belly, Bob Kaifa, from Liberia, a passionate Community Health Assistant who works on educating young women on early pregnancy as well as reaching his local community on important health issues.

Read the full story.

Country Financing

Technical and practical resources to help community health program planners navigate the complex financing landscape and build well resourced health systems.

Strengthening Primary Health Care through CHWs: The Investment Case

This report, from 2015, presents the recommendations from a distinguished group of global health and government leaders making the case for investment in CHWs as a component of primary health care and options for financing.

–> Learn more and download this report.

Financing Compendium

The Financing Compendium is a one-stop shop for community health practitioners on financing options illustrating different financing instruments and approaches that might be applicable for a country.

–> Learn more and download this resource.

Country Community Health Systems Case Studies

A source for robust information on community health system profiles for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, taking a financing lens. Insights cover details on community health system context, structure and lessons on financing.

Ghana

Ghana’s national CHW program began with field experiments in Navrongo and Bonsasso, eventually growing to include 19,273 volunteers and 2,523 workers in 2019.

Key factors in the program’s success include:

  • Partnerships between political leaders and programs
  • Community health integration into the local health system
  • Community health assistants and volunteers as key actors
  • Adaptive leadership
  • Horizontal integration of community health systems
  • Innovative partnerships

–> Learn more and download this case study.

Kenya

Kenya’s community health program was introduced in 2006 and has undergone various evolutions to culminate in an effective and increasingly prominent health program.

Key factors in the program’s success include:

  • Mobilizing political will and commitment in a decentralized governance structure
  • Feedback loop between county and national government
  • Integration of community health into the broader health system
  • Mobilizing domestic and innovative financing sources
  • Ongoing adaptation and refinement of the community health system
  • Fostering coordination with partners for increased harmonization

–> Learn more and download this case study.

Find more FAH country case studies in the CHW Central Resources database. Search for “country case study.”

Community Health Strategies and Policies

A repository of current community health strategies and policies from sub-Saharan African countries.

Zambia’s National Community Health Strategy, 2019-2021

The overarching goal of the National Community Health Strategy (NHCS) is to contribute to the achievement of the Ministry of Health’s goals; this will be done by improving access to health services at the community level. The Zambian government (GRZ) is committed to providing universal, quality and equitable health care services to the people of Zambia. While Zambia has made significant strides in improving key health outcomes, significant challenges remain. The GRZ has made community health a key part of its strategy to continue to improve health outcomes for all Zambians.

The NCHS aims to reposition and expand the current cadre of frontline workers in the formal sector, and strengthen the link to the informal sector. It is designed to guide in the strengthening of community mechanisms to improve the provision of preventive, promotive and minor curative health services. Objectives include:

  • building a motivated, skilled, equitably distributed community health workforce
  • roll out formal community health structures to at least 110 districts
  • increased access to quality basic health services
  • resource mobilization
  • timely availability of community health data for decision making

–> Learn more and download the full Strategy document.