Authors: Zulu JM, Kinsman J, Michelo C, Hurtig AK.
In 2010, the Ministry of Health in Zambia developed the National Community Health Assistant strategy, aiming to integrate community health workers (CHWs) into national health plans by creating a new group of workers, called community health assistants (CHAs). The aim of the paper is to analyse the CHA policy development process and the factors that influenced its evolution and content. A policy analysis approach was used to analyse the policy reform process. The strategy was developed in order to address the human resources for health shortage and the challenges facing the community-based health workforce in Zambia. Analysis of the process also showed that the strategy might create a new group of workers whose mandate is unclear to the existing group of health workers. This paper highlights the complex nature of policy-making processes for integrating CHWs into the health system. It reiterates the need for recognising the fact that actors’ power or position in the political hierarchy may, more than their knowledge and understanding of the issue, play a disproportionate role in shaping the process as well as content of health policy reform.
Download Resource
Resource Topic: CHW Role, Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Human Resources Management/Workforce Development, Policy, Scale-up
Resource Type: Frameworks, Issue papers
Year: 2013
Region:
Publisher May Restrict Access: No