The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa demonstrates key deficiencies in investment in health systems. Despite some modest investment in health systems, our field has instead largely chosen to pursue shorter-term, vertical efforts to more rapidly address key global health issues such as smallpox, polio, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. While those efforts have yielded … [Read more...] about It’s not Ebola…it’s the systems
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
A Community Health Worker “logic model”: towards a theory of enhanced performance in low- and middle-income countries
The purpose of this paper is to promote early and continuous causal thinking as decision makers design, implement, scale up, and evaluate CHW and other programs that are intended to positively affect the public’s health. The methods section describes how the generic CHW logic model was constructed, drawing explicitly on research … [Read more...] about A Community Health Worker “logic model”: towards a theory of enhanced performance in low- and middle-income countries
Taking knowledge for health the extra mile: participatory evaluation of a mobile phone intervention for community health workers in Malawi
In Malawi, where the majority of the population resides in rural areas, community health workers (CHWs) are the first, and often only, providers of health services. An assessment of health information needs, however, found that these frontline workers often lacked essential health information. A pilot project, implemented in 2 rural districts of Malawi between 2010 and 2011, … [Read more...] about Taking knowledge for health the extra mile: participatory evaluation of a mobile phone intervention for community health workers in Malawi
A Commitment to Community Health Workers: Improving Data for Decision Making
In a new policy report, the Frontline Health Workers Coalition and partners call for human resources for health (HRH) stakeholders to create a common definition for the “community health worker” along with an agreed-upon set of core tasks and competencies, using the International Labour Organization definition as a guiding framework. To enhance the quality and … [Read more...] about A Commitment to Community Health Workers: Improving Data for Decision Making
Learning to Pay the Price: The Need for Remuneration of Frontline Health Workers
This blog originally appeared Maternal Health Task Force blog page. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, clinics and hospitals are few and far between. A recent report by Save the Children estimates that every day approximately 22,000 children die before they reach their fifth birthday. This fact is augmented by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) … [Read more...] about Learning to Pay the Price: The Need for Remuneration of Frontline Health Workers