Submission ID 118572
| Issue/Objective | Community health workers (CHWs) play a critical role in improving health outcomes by bridging gaps in access to care, particularly in underserved and fragile health system settings. However, their contributions are often constrained by fragile health systems, limited resources, and overlapping challenges such as pandemics, climate change, and conflict. These factors underscore the urgent need for resilient, community-based health systems and stronger global health security. While policy interventions offer valuable insights, there remains a significant evidence gap in translating these lessons into effective and equitable health policies. This study analyzes lessons from International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and National Societies (NSs) CHW programs to address this policy gap and examine the role of CHWs in advancing global health security and primary health access. |
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| Methodology/Approach | Using the READ (Review, Engage, Analyze, Disseminate) framework, we conducted a document review of community-based health programs implemented by IFRC and NSs across Africa over the past decade We applied descriptive and thematic analyses to extract and synthesize key findings. |
| Results | Findings highlight the expanding and multifaceted role of CHWs, particularly through task shifting-the delegation of specific health tasks from professionals to CHWs with targeted training. CHWs contributed significantly across areas including health promotion, community care, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Protection, Gender and Inclusion (PGI), community-based surveillance, and climate-responsive health interventions. However, long-term effectiveness remains hindered by limited sustainable funding and insufficient empowerment of CHWs. |
| Discussion/Conclusion | Efforts to strengthen global health security, particularly in climate-affected and fragile contexts, must align task shifting with broader community health strategies and prioritize CHW empowerment. CHWs are vital to expanding equitable health access and emergency preparedness. While the benefits of task shifting and CHW engagement are well documented individually, their integrated application remains underexplored. Addressing this evidence gap is critical to building resilient, equitable, and decolonized health systems. Our findings suggest that public health actors should build global health security capacity by aligning task-shifting strategies with structured empowerment, sustainable funding, and systematic integration of CHWs into national health policies and systems. |
| Presenters and affiliations | Akalewold T. Gebremeskel Canadian Red Cross; University of Ottawa Bhanu Pratap Maurya IFRC(International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) Ilja Ormel Candian Red cross Jocelyne Labonté University of Ottawa Lillian Nyamuda IFRC ( International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) Mekdes Assefa Canadian Red Cross Salim Sohani Canadian Red Cross Josephine Etowa University of Ottawa |
