Authors: Karen Daniels, Marina Clarke and Karin C Ringsberg
Over the past half decade South Africa has been developing, implementing and redeveloping its Lay Health Worker (LHW) policies. Research during this period has highlighted challenges with LHW programme implementation. These challenges have included an increased burden of care for female LHWs. The aim of this study was to explore contemporary LHW policy development processes and the extent to which issues of gender are taken up within this process. From the interviews it seems that gender as an issue never reached the policy making agenda. Although there was strong recognition that the working conditions of LHWs needed to be improved, poor working conditions were not necessarily seen as a gender concern. Our data suggests that in the process of defining the problem which the redeveloped policy had to address, gender was not included.
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Resource Topic: Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Gender, Human Resources Management/Workforce Development, Policy
Resource Type: Journal articles, Research
Year: 2012
Region:
Country: South Africa
Publisher May Restrict Access: No