Community health workers in humanitarian settings: Scoping review

Miller, Nathan P; Ardestani, Farid Bagheri; Dini, Hannah Sarah; Shafique, Fouzia; Zunong, Nureyan

doi:10.7189/jogh.10.020602

Cited by 26 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…We know that fragile states and areas with armed conflict have higher levels of collateral mortality (especially for mothers and children) [ 74 , 75 ] and that with adequate support, CHW programming is possible even when health facility functioning is compromised. We also know that CHWs can have important impacts in the midst of humanitarian disasters [ 76 , 77 ]. Our new reality now appears to be one in which the COVID-19 pandemic will likely be here for several years (just as the 1918 flu pandemic).…”

Section: How Can National Chw Programmes Be Strengthened?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 11. CHWs leading the way to “Health for All”

Perry

Chowdhury

Were

et al. 2021

Health Res Policy Sys

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Background This is the concluding paper of our 11-paper supplement, “Community health workers at the dawn of a new era”. Methods We relied on our collective experience, an extensive body of literature about community health workers (CHWs), and the other papers in this supplement to identify the most pressing challenges facing CHW programmes and approaches for strengthening CHW programmes. Results CHWs are increasingly being recognized as a critical resource for achieving national and global health goals. These goals include achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals of Universal Health Coverage, ending preventable child and maternal deaths, and making a major contribution to the control of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and noncommunicable diseases. CHWs can also play a critical role in responding to current and future pandemics. For these reasons, we argue that CHWs are now at the dawn of a new era. While CHW programmes have long been an underfunded afterthought, they are now front and centre as the emerging foundation of health systems. Despite this increased attention, CHW programmes continue to face the same pressing challenges: inadequate financing, lack of supplies and commodities, low compensation of CHWs, and inadequate supervision. We outline approaches for strengthening CHW programmes, arguing that their enormous potential will only be realized when investment and health system support matches rhetoric. Rigorous monitoring, evaluation, and implementation research are also needed to enable CHW programmes to continuously improve their quality and effectiveness. Conclusion A marked increase in sustainable funding for CHW programmes is needed, and this will require increased domestic political support for prioritizing CHW programmes as economies grow and additional health-related funding becomes available. The paradigm shift called for here will be an important step in accelerating progress in achieving current global health goals and in reaching the goal of Health for All.

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Section: How Can National Chw Programmes Be Strengthened?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 11. CHWs leading the way to “Health for All”

Perry

Chowdhury

Were

et al. 2021

Health Res Policy Sys

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Even though short-term programs are commonly prioritized when responding to crisis situations, negative consequences exist over time and therefore a long-term preventative is required to ensure program sustainability [ 35 ]. Local system capacity is critical to support community resilience, and engagement is necessary to ensure that emergency relief interventions can be delivered and target the right populations [ 59 ]. In this study, it is also important to consider the role of women in delivering nutrition intervention in the context of maternal and child health tasks [ 59 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Local system capacity is critical to support community resilience, and engagement is necessary to ensure that emergency relief interventions can be delivered and target the right populations [ 59 ]. In this study, it is also important to consider the role of women in delivering nutrition intervention in the context of maternal and child health tasks [ 59 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, engagement with community leaders is mainly based on trust [ 60 ]. As such, community-led selection is an important mechanism to identify the right persons to understand those community contexts, needs and priorities [ 59 ]. Furthermore, integrating nutrition interventions during emergency situations into the national health service plan can strengthen the effectiveness and sustainability of the program implementation [ 59 , 61 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, community-led selection is an important mechanism to identify the right persons to understand those community contexts, needs and priorities [ 59 ]. Furthermore, integrating nutrition interventions during emergency situations into the national health service plan can strengthen the effectiveness and sustainability of the program implementation [ 59 , 61 ]. This does not mean that communities need to rely on themselves alone without adhering to the official health standards.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence on Child Nutrition Recommendations and Challenges in Crisis Settings: A Scoping Review

Marshall

Lasco

Phaiyarom

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Adequate child nutrition is critical to child development, yet child malnutrition is prevalent in crisis settings. However, the intersection of malnutrition and disasters is sparse. This study reviews existing evidence on nutrition responses and outcomes for infants and young children during times of crisis. The scoping review was conducted via two approaches: a systematic search and a purposive search. For the systematic search, two key online databases, PubMed and Science Direct, were utilized. In total, data from 32 studies were extracted and included in the data extraction form. Additionally, seven guidelines and policy documents were included, based on relevance to this study. Overall, the existing evidence demonstrates the negative impacts of crises on nutritional status, diet intake, anthropometric failure, and long-term child development. On the other hand, crisis-related interventions positively affected nutrition-related knowledge and practices. Further studies should be carried out to explore the sustainability of the interventions and the success of existing guidelines. Since this study focuses only on nutrition among children under three, further studies should likewise consider an extended age range from three to five years.

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Implementing (and evaluating) peer support with people living with noncommunicable diseases in humanitarian settings

Schmid,

Njeim,

Vijayasingham

et al. 2024

Journal of Migration and Health

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Community health workers in humanitarian settings: Scoping review

Cited by 26 publications

References 83 publications

Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 11. CHWs leading the way to “Health for All”

Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 11. CHWs leading the way to “Health for All”

Evidence on Child Nutrition Recommendations and Challenges in Crisis Settings: A Scoping Review

Implementing (and evaluating) peer support with people living with noncommunicable diseases in humanitarian settings

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