Results: 3217
mHealth as a Tool for Integrated Systems Strengthening in Sexual and Reproductive Health Programming (2015)
The growth in capacity and geographic reach of mobile technology has important implications for health and development. While mobile technology is commonly used to address health systems challenges, Pathfinder International is exploring the application of mobile technology to improve implementation for sexual and reproductive health and rights, necessarily moving beyond strictly health system interventionsRead more…
Influence of community health volunteers on care seeking and treatment coverage for common childhood illnesses in the context of free health care in rural Sierra Leone (2016)
This study aimed to examine whether community health volunteers induced significant changes in care-seeking and treatment of ill children under five 2 years after their deployment in two underserved districts of Sierra Leone. The presence of community health volunteers was associated with a 105% increase in appropriate treatment for pneumonia and a 55% dropRead more…
A Mobile Phone-Based, Community Health Worker Program for Referral, Follow-Up, and Service Outreach in Rural Zambia: Outcomes and Overview (2014)
Mobile health (m-health) utilizes widespread access to mobile phone technologies to expand health services. Community health workers (CHWs) provide first-level contact with health facilities; combining CHW efforts with m-health may be an avenue for improving primary care services. As part of a primary care improvement project, a pilot CHW programRead more…
Cell phones and CHWs. a transformational marriage? (2014)
Mobile phones can be transformative for community health workers (CHWs) in enhancing their influence and status and helping to solve practical problems. While formal intervention research can help advance mHealth application, most progress will come through a “diffusion of innovation” process.
Care Groups II: A Summary of the Child Survival Outcomes Achieved using Volunteer Community Health Workers in Resource- Contstrained Settings (2016)
Care Group projects resulted in high levels of healthy behavior, including use of oral rehydration therapy, bed nets, and health care services. Accordingly, under-5 mortality in Care Groups areas declined by an estimated 32% compared with 11% in areas with child survival projects not using Core Groups.
Care Groups I: An Innovative Community-Based Strategy for Improving Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health in Resource-Constrained Settings (2015)
Care Groups use volunteers to motivate mothers to adopt key MCH behaviors. The volunteers meet as a group every 2-4 weeks with a paid facilitator to learn new health promotion messages. Key ingredients of the approach include: peer-to-peer health promotion, selection of volunteers by the mothers, a manageable workload forRead more…
Task Sharing Implant Insertion by Community Health Working: Not Just Can It Work, but How Might It Work Practically and With Impact in the Real World (2016)
Demonstrating that a health service, such as providing contraceptive implants, can be safely task shared to less highly trained workers is crucial but is only one step toward effective implementation at scale. Providers need dedicated time, enough clients, supplies, supervision, and other system support, allowing them to maintain their competency,Read more…
Use of Incentives in Health Supply Chains A Review of Results-Based Financing in Mozambique’s Central Medical Store (2014)
To work well, health supply chains require timeliness, accuracy, and reliability at all stages. Even one break in the supply chain—an hours’ delay in delivery—”can have repercussions throughout the system, ultimately determining if families can access life-saving medicines and commodities.” Thus it is crucial that all actors—from procurement specialists toRead more…
Mobile Money for Health Case Study Compendium (2016)
Globally, 2.5 billion people are “unbanked,” lacking access to formal financial services. As a result, roughly one third of the world’s population is forced to rely on cash transactions or informal financial systems, which can often be unsafe, inconvenient, and expensive. Among the unbanked, however, a billion have access toRead more…
Mobile Money for Health Case Study: Accredited Social Health Activists (India) (2015)
This case study is one of 14 case studies profiled in the Mobile Money for Health Case Study Compendium. The ASHA program was conceived and funded by the Indian National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) in an effort to promote public health awareness amongst local, rural populations, and increase the utilization andRead more…
A Rough Guide to Community Engagement in Performance-Based Incentive Programs: With Lessons from Burundi, Indonesia, and Mexico (2012)
This guide aims to help policymakers and program managers assess whether engaging communities makes sense in the context of the performance-based incentive (PBI) programs they support; determine what is the best approach or mechanism for such engagement; and how to mitigate the risks. PBI, as with bottom-up social accountability mechanisms,Read more…
Strengthening India’s Public Health Workforce: A Landscape Analysis of Initiatives and Challenges (2014)
For India’s public health system to deliver effectively, it is imperative that policymakers place a strategic focus on tackling persistent HRH issues such as chronic shortage of health workers, unbalanced skill mix in the existing health workforce, and inequitable urban-rural distribution of health workers. Taking optimal health care to theRead more…
Supporting the Scale-Up of HIV Care and Treatment through Human Resources for Health Interventions in Côte d’Ivoire (2016)
Although Côte d’Ivoire has seen an overall downward trend in HIV prevalence rates over the past decade thanks to more robust and effective HIV/AIDS prevention programming, over 50 percent of adults and children who are HIV-positive have yet to receive antiretroviral therapy, according to UNAIDS estimates. Inadequate numbers of healthRead more…
Expanding World Vision’s Impact Through Community Health Workers (2016)
Community health worker (CHW) programming is one of the largest portfolios in World Vision’s health; nutrition; and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector, with 48 countries operating a wide diversity of CHW initiatives. We continue to work and build partnerships towards strengthening community health systems and the community health workforce,Read more…
Acceptability and trust of community health workers offering material and newborn health education in rural Uganda (2015)
When trusted, Community Health Workers (CHWs) can contribute to improving maternal and newborn health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries through education. Issues of acceptability of CHWs by communities were explored through experiences gained in a qualitative study that is part of a cluster randomized trial in East Uganda. Initially,Read more…
Review of Community- based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) in the Post-emergency Context: Synthesis of Lessons on Integration of CMAM into National Health Systems (2007)
Humanitarian crises are often marked by large-scale, externally funded, and vertically managed responses. National health systems, already weak, are often bypassed by international organizations in the interest of rapid response to save lives. There is growing recognition, however, of the importance of employing more sustainable approaches through existing health systemRead more…
One million CHWs in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2015 (2013)
During the past 10 years, community health workers (CHWs) have emerged as a focal point of international discussions on primary health-care systems. Although lay community-based health workers have been active for at least 60 years, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 prompted new discussion of how these workers canRead more…
The current state of CHW training programs in SSA and South Asia (2014)
Although CHW programs are prevalent, little formal research has been conducted on CHW training programs or their effectiveness. To begin to address this a literature review was conducted to curate research regarding CHW training programs and curricula. This literature review identifies, synthesizes, and analyzes a wide body of literature relatedRead more…
What do we really know? An integrated analysis of current research on CHW training (2014)
CHWs provide critical health services to populations that lack access to services at health facilities. Well-trained and supplied CHWs can have positive impacts on health, but little is known about the adequacy, cost, or effectiveness of training models to prepare CHWs. This report analyzes key pieces of literature on CHWRead more…
2014 Annual Report: Building Healthy Communities by Bringing CHWs to Scale (2014)
The 1mCHW Campaign’s 2014 Annual Report provides a comprehensive overview of the Campaign’s work and identified next steps and key priorities for 2015.
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