Authors: Khurshid Alam, Sakiba Tasneem and Elizabeth Oliveras
Volunteer community health workers (CHWs) are one approach to addressing the health workforce shortage in developing countries. BRAC, a large NGO in Bangladesh, is a pioneer in using female volunteer CHWs as core workers in its successful health programmes. After 25 years of implementing the CHW model in rural areas, BRAC is now using CHWs in urban slums of Dhaka through Manoshi, a community-based maternal and child health project. However, high dropout rates among CHWs in the slums suggested a need to better understand factors associated with their retention, and consequently recommend strategies for increasing their retention. Financial incentives were the main factor linked to CHW retention and showed an inverse association between wealth quintile of the CHWs and retention. However, social prestige, community approval and household responsibilities were important non-financial factors associated with CHW retention. Restructuring and expansion of existing financial incentives to better compensate CHWs were recommended by CHWs to improve their retention.
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Resource Topic: Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Gender, Human Resources Management/Workforce Development, Motivation/incentives, Recruitment and Retention
Resource Type: Journal articles, Research
Year: 2011
Region:
Country: Bangladesh
Publisher May Restrict Access: No