Community Health Worker Requirements to Accelerate Progress Towards Universal Health Coverage in Africa
An Overview of Contemporary Estimates and Implications of Full-Time Versus Part-Time Working Arrangements
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13776099 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James Avoka Asamani (0000-0003-0620-6010, World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, corresponding author), Sunny C Okoroafor (0000-0003-4690-485X, World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo), Kasonde Mwinga (0000-0002-2765-3672, World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Pages | 469580251323381-469580251323381 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | INQUIRY The Journal of Health Care Organization Provision and Financing (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0046-9580 • E-ISSN: 1945-7243 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00469580251323381 |
| PMID | 39991889 |
| OpenAlex | W4407878456 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
Primary health care is the most effective approach to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) and ensuring health security. In this approach, community health workers play a crucial role by delivering a comprehensive array of preventive, promotive, and curative services. Their contributions are vital in addressing health inequities, ensuring that all individuals have access to essential health services. By empowering these workers, we can foster a more equitable health system that meets the diverse needs of communities. African leaders are pursuing a 2 million community health worker agenda, but there are lingering questions about how to set targets of the density of community health workers needed in countries to achieve the sustainable development goals. By examining the implications of empirical estimates and incorporating nuances of working hours of community health workers, we find a wide range of density from 11.2 to 59.5 community health workers per 10 000 population depending on country context and the community health worker's working arrangements. If community health workers are not full-time workers and work between 30% and 65% of their time, the current shortage of community health workers is between 580 000 and 954 500. However, if all the existing community health workers were to be employed full-time, the needs-based shortage of community health workers would shrink significantly to just 210 000. These should be considered ordered guesses and not planning targets for countries. Countries are encouraged to use the available health workforce planning tools to estimate its context-appropriate requirements for community health workers as part of the broader health workforce planning
Business · Community health · Context (archaeology · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Health care · HRHIS · Workforce · Global Health Care Issues · Global Maternal and Child Health · Healthcare Systems and Reforms · Medicine · Health Policy
Revisiting Alma-Ata
Costs and cost-effectiveness of community health workers
What do we know about community-based health worker programs? A systematic review of existing reviews on community health workers
Community health workers for universal health-care coverage
Projected health workforce requirements and shortage for addressing the disease burden in the WHO Africa Region, 2022–2030
Estimating the threshold of health workforce densities towards universal health coverage in Africa
Cost-effectiveness of Lifestyle Africa
Hypertension education and adherence in South Africa
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |