At the Coalition our vision is quality care for all, including those who provide it. But how do we get there? By making professional community health workers (proCHWs) the norm worldwide. We do this with three interconnected tactics to drive systems change. We research to equip international norm setters with evidence to create proCHW guidelines. We advocate to influence global financing institutions to increase proCHW funding. And we activate in-country CHW networks to win national proCHW policy.
Ahead of our upcoming Annual Report we explore where we won in 2023 and what we hope to achieve together in the new year.
- In 2023 we launched the proCHW Policy Dashboard, the largest-ever public-facing dashboard on proCHW policies. So far, 36 countries have proCHW policies, and we celebrated major policy wins in Kenya and Zanzibar last year. In 2024 we hope to see more countries adopt proCHW policy. We’re focussing on countries with an active policy review window or who are showing proCHW momentum, including Burkina Faso, Cambodia, and Rwanda. Let’s turn the map purple!
- We continued to add to the proCHW evidence base with our paper ‘Labour conditions in dual-cadre community health worker programmes: a systematic review’ in Lancet Global Health. This paper, which got thousands of reads in the first month of publication, highlighted the potential risks to healthcare provision with current systems design. Several operational questions are still unresolved by the current academic evidence. At the Coalition we tackle fundamental questions that couldn’t be answered alone. And in 2024 we want to see CHWs involved at every stage of the research process.
- The Global Fund reported a $583 million investment in CHWs in the 2021-2023 period, more than double the investments made in the previous period. They project a significant increase in CHW investments over the next three years, with an anticipated nearly $1 billion in the next grant round. This is a big win for our movement as we face barriers of fragmented and insufficient funding for community health. This year, driven by the CHIC advocate financing squad and partners like Africa Frontline First we’re ready to track, affect, and increase investments in proCHWs.
- For too long, discussions about CHWs have been happening without CHWs. Embracing ‘nothing about us without us’ in 2023 we saw 23 CHW Advocates taking their place at events and high-level meetings across the world including at UNGA78, CHW Symposium and the World Health Assembly!! CHW Advocates were also involved in the World Health Organization (WHO) CHW Curricula design. Securing this co-creation was a result of, and testament to, radical collaboration at the Coalition. This year we will continue to shift the spotlight.
- To close the healthcare delivery gap, we need to do things differently. Not just with medical innovation, but with radical collaboration for better design. And how do we ensure decision-makers are receptive to these instrumental changes? By putting CHWs and their vital role in health for all on the agenda. In 2023 we contributed to articles in The New York Times, Foreign Policy and Project Syndicate that did just this.
We’re building a movement of CHWs and health organisations committed to making proCHWs the norm and achieving quality care for all. Are you ready to join us this year?
