Authors: Joseph Mumba Zulu, Anna-Karin Hurtig, John Kinsman, and Charles Michelo
This paper explores the factors that shaped the acceptability and adoption of community health assistants (CHAs) into the health system at the district level in Zambia. Using thematic analysis, data was collected through a review of documents, 6 focus group discussions with community leaders, and 12 key informant interviews with CHA trainers, supervisors and members of the District Health Management Team. Results found a perceived relative advantage of CHAs over existing community-based health workers in terms of their quality of training and scope of responsibilities. However, limited integration of CHAs in the district health governance system created challenges at the district level. The authors concluded that implementation of policy guidelines for integrating community-based health workers in the health system may not automatically guarantee successful integration at the local or district level.
Link: Innovation in health service delivery: integrating community health assistants into the health system at district level in Zambi
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Resource Topic: CHW Role, Community Involvement, Monitoring and Evaluation, Performance management, Program Evaluation, Program Management
Resource Type: Journal articles
Year: 2017
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
Country: Zambia
Publisher May Restrict Access: No