Health policy and system support to optimise community health worker programmes: an abridged WHO guideline

Technology and rehabilitation training for community health workers: Strengthening health systems in Malawi

“…These main considerations included embedding systems of feedback and processes for organised communication within training programmes (Vital Wave Consulting, ), considering material needs such as transportation (Huang et al, ; Knettel et al, ; Oliver et al, ; Rachlis et al, ) and building capacity through training programmes and supervisory structures (Abdel‐All et al, ; Knettel et al, ; Vijay & Mincy, ). Moreover, this study provided an example of how a training programme that included use of technology to facilitate communication with hospital resources is consistent with the new WHO health policy guidelines for supporting integration of community health workers into health systems (Asweto, Alzain, Andrea, Alexander, & Wang, ; Cometto et al, ). Furthermore, this study aligns with the Malawi National Community Health Strategy 2017–2022 strategic objectives for delivery of essential health services (Government of the Republic of Malawi, Ministry of Health, ).…”

Performance of volunteer community health workers in implementing home-fortification interventions in Bangladesh: A qualitative investigation

“…Ensuring community support and addressing organisational and programme-level constraints would support the BRAC's CHWs to work more effectively at the community level. Moreover, BRAC could collaborate with WHO to strengthen its CHW model by implementing WHO guidelines to optimise CHW based programmes and financing decisions to support human capital and health workforce development [46]. Supporting information S1 Checklist.…”

The status of Ghanaian community health workers’ supervision and service delivery: descriptive analyses from the 2017 Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 survey

“…The variability in the frequency of supervision interactions between CHWs and their supervisors is notable, in light of national 9 and global 5,12 guidelines that aspire to consistent, frequent supervision systems for CHWs to ensure quality service delivery. The variability seems to be agnostic of facility type or supervisor type, and over 80% of the CHWs described here were reported to be interacting with their supervisors at least monthly, which is much more frequently than the quarterly goals set forth in the National CHW Program guidelines 9 .…”

“…Community healthcare systems serve critical roles within strong primary healthcare delivery [2][3][4] . The World Health Organization's recent guidelines 5 for best practices of community health workers (CHWs) offer important guidance to policy makers and program implementers about how to develop strong community health service delivery and support low-and middle-income countries along the path towards universal health coverage. Among other key recommendations, these guidelines highlight the importance of professionally-trained CHWs with clear roles and responsibilities, supported by strong supervision systems to ensure quality service delivery 5 .…”