Authors: Reajul Chowdhury, Kevin McKague, Heather Krause
The use of CHWs has emerged as a cost-effective approach to extend the reach of health systems. Although it is assumed that low levels of compensation contribute to high drop-out rates among CHWs, a field experiment from Uganda found that the offer of greater financial incentives attracted less socially motivated people to apply to CHW jobs and resulted in high drop-out rates. This study investigated the effect of a non-financial incentive—a competitive annual award—on CHWs performance, and found that motivational incentives may need to be customized for higher- and lower-performing CHWs.
Link: How workers respond to social rewards: evidence from community health workers in Uganda
Resource Topic: CHW Role, Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Financial incentive, Incentive, Motivation/incentives, Non-financial incentive, health systems
Resource Type: Research
Year: 2020
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
Country: Uganda
Publisher May Restrict Access: No