The Challenge
Accelerating progress toward universal health coverage and achieving the health targets outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals will require dedicated investments in human resources for health. However, in many countries — particularly low- and middle-income countries — there are deficits in human resources, making it difficult to provide equitable and quality health care especially in hard-to-reach communities. To address this challenge, countries are increasingly finding the role of community health workers critical in the primary care continuum.
There is evidence of the effectiveness — and cost-effectiveness — of community health programs in delivering a wide range of essential health services especially to hard-to-reach communities and community health workers are increasingly seen by countries as having an integral, and no longer peripheral, role within the health care system.
Community health workers can deliver a range of preventive, promotive, curative, and rehabilitative services related to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health; infectious diseases; HIV; non-communicable diseases; and neglected tropical diseases — and therefore, contribute to the realization of universal health coverage.
