WHO guideline on health policy and system support to optimize community health worker programmes


Publication date 6 August 2018 Category
  • Health Systems
Tags
  • Community Based Rehabilitation
  • Community Suport Workers
  • Education
  • Health Systems
  • Universal Health Coverage
Publishing organisation World Health Organisation

This guideline discusses the health workforce shortage, maldistribution and performance challenges necessary for progress towards all health-related goals including universal health coverage.

Effective health workforce strategies include the education and deployment of a diverse and sustainable skills mix, harnessing in some contexts the potential of community health workers (CHWs) operating in interprofessional primary care teams.

However, the support for CHWs and their integration into health systems and communities are uneven across and within countries; good-practice examples are not necessarily replicated and policy options for which there is greater evidence of effectiveness are not uniformly adopted. Conversely, successful delivery of services through CHWs requires evidence-based models for education, deployment and management of these health workers.

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