How effective are community health workers? An Overview of Current Evidence with Recommendations for Strengthening Community Health Worker Programs to Accelerate Progress in Achieving the Health-related Millennium Development Goals.

Community Health Workers (CHWs) provide a critical and essential link with health systems and are a powerful force for promoting healthy behaviors in resource-constrained settings. During the past decade there has been an explosion of evidence and interest concerning community health workers and their potential for improving the health of populations where health workforce resources are limited. Given the massive shortage of health workers in Africa and Asia -recently estimated to be 4.25 million workers -the inequitable distribution of health workers within countries and the need to accelerate progress in achieving the MDGS for health it is essential to take stock of the current body of evidence. This document serves to provide an update and supplement to the extensive review carried out by Bhutta and colleagues under the auspices of the World Health Organization and the Global Health Workforce Alliance in 2010.

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