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.
Scaling Up Service Quality Assessments (SQA) for Community Health in Zambia
Despite the inclusion of Service Quality Assessment (SQA) tools in the Ministry of Health (MoH) Quality Improvement and Quality Assurance (QIQA) guidelines, their operational use to monitor compliance with service delivery standards has remained limited—particularly in Community Health. Recognizing this gap, the Community Health Unit, with support from the Financing Alliance for Health, is scaling up the use of SQA tools to strengthen monitoring and continuous quality improvement (CQI) in community-level health services. Purpose and Importance of SQAs SQA tools are essential for assessing whether health services are being delivered in accordance with national standards. They enable health workers and…
Senegal’s Leadership in Tackling Gender Inequalities Among Community Health Workers
Senegal is showing bold leadership in its commitment to building a more equitable and effective health system—by directly confronting gender inequalities faced by frontline community health workers. In a groundbreaking initiative, the Ministry of Health and Social Action (MSAS), with technical support from the Financing Alliance for Health (FAH), conducted a national gender analysis of its Community Health Workers (CHWs), or Acteurs Communautaires de Santé (ACS). This first-of-its-kind study was government-led and strongly supported with technical guidance from FAH to ensure that the study delivered actionable, field-grounded insights. This progressive move marks a new chapter in gender-responsive health system strengthening—one…
ABOLISHING USER FEES: A GENDER IMPERATIVE IN A CHANGING AID LANDSCAPE
At a rural clinic gate, a mother waits with her feverish child. She has walked for hours, but the nurse cannot admit them. The reason is not lack of compassion or clinical skill, but money: without user fees, there will be no consultation, no diagnosis, and no medicine. This scene is a recurring tragedy across many countries, and one that disproportionately hurts women and children. The Funding Squeeze and Its Gendered Risks Global health financing is at a crossroads. Official Development Assistance (ODA) is stagnating as donors reallocate funds toward climate change, humanitarian crises, and geopolitical security (OECD, 2024). Domestic…
From Our Partners
Why counties must invest in community health services
Africa Frontline First is an initiative to fund community health programs in sub-Saharan Africa. While this initiative aims to deploy 200,000 professional CHWs by 2030, existing community health volunteers lack essential resources and financial incentives. In this piece, two CHVs from Kenya discuss why county governments must invest in community health services.
–> read more at Nation Africa
How health workers are leading Africa’s COVID-19 response
Community health workers have long responded to disease outbreaks while maintaining lifesaving services. In this September 2021 opinion piece, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s president from 2006 to 2018, and Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, share their thoughts on investments that should be prioritized to end the COVID-19 pandemic and realize health for all.
–> read more at Devex
COVID-19 highlights the need for community health
Over recent years, the world has faced two Ebola outbreaks, the constant threat of pandemic influenza, and now the global spread of novel coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic. In developing countries, these threats risk exacerbating existing high burdens of communicable diseases associated with millions of preventable deaths. Community health is essential for pandemic preparedness (prevention, surveillance, response) and remains essential for achieving the World Health Organization’s Sustainable Development Goals. The global scale and impact of the current pandemic demonstrates that this cuts across geographies, levels of income, and types of health systems.
–> read more at Think Global Health
