Cross Country Synthesis: Community Health Workers
Overview
Exemplars in Global Health has identified community health worker (CHW) programs in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Liberia as Exemplars. While each of these national programs is unique, they all share certain strategies and approaches that have helped them achieve and sustain high impact. Our research has identified their common pathways to success.
Our evidence-based recommendations are intended to help other CHW programs achieve success at scale.
These recommendations do not aim to create a one-size-fits-all approach to designing CHW programs. Rather, they reflect our understanding that what makes CHW programming such a valuable tool is its flexibility to address the needs and context in which it is situated. There exist a variety of program models, each for a different setting, that optimize CHW effectiveness. But there are no ideal settings or programmatic models. In fact, our research indicates that adapting CHW programs to local contexts is critical. At the same time, there are certain policies and strategies that can help leaders design and develop effective CHW programs that suit specific context and address individual health priorities.
Leaders seeking to design or strengthen CHW programing to achieve optimal health outcomes should consider the following five universal recommendations. In this section, context-specific findings, which may – under certain circumstances – provide important guidance to improve program performance and health outcomes, can be found.