The Supporting and Strengthening the Role of Community Health Workers in Health System Development Thematic Working Group (CHWs TWG) promotes evidence research production, synthesis and knowledge-sharing from differing contexts on the work of CHWs. It raises awareness of the crucial role of CHWs within the health system and firmly positions learning from networks and TWGs as a health systems issue.
If you would like to find out more about the Community Health Worker TWG, the activities we will be involved in at the Symposium, or engage in this important area of research, why not:
- Visit us at the HSG stall in the Exhibition space
- Follow us on Twitter @CHWTWG1 and using the hashtags #CHWs #CommunityHealthWorkers
- Join us at one of the exciting sessions listed below.
Official TWG sessions
Session Type | Title | Short description | Date & time | Location |
Business Meeting | TWG business meeting: Supporting and Strengthening the Role of Community Health Workers in Health System Development | Monday, October 8, 12:30 – 13:45 | ACC room 1C | |
Participatory session | Sharing experiences from CHW research and practice to strengthen leadership and management of community health worker programmes | This participatory world café focuses on sharing experiences from CHW research and practice to strengthen leadership and management of community health worker programmes. It aims to provide a platform to share experience on latest challenges and opportunities in CHW programmes, including new health challenges, quality, fragility, interface role and scale-up. | Wednesday, October 10, 14:00 – 15:30 | Hall 2E |
Supporting documents for TWG sessions
TWG member sessions
Session Type | Title of Session | Short description of session/presentation | Date & time | Location |
Satellite Skills building session | Introducing Tools and Resources to advance Community health Policy and planning | Monday, October 8, 10.00 – 12.00 | Exhibition center room 17 | |
Satellite Skills building session | eHealth/mHealth solutions for community health workers in Bangladesh to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) | Participants will learn how community health workers (CHWs) in rural Bangladesh are learning to implement digital technology to automate their work. CHWs use tablets to collect population and health services data, optimizing continuity of care and enabling better targeting of services to communities, thus contributing to achieving Bangladesh’s health related SDGs. | Monday, October 8, 15.00 – 17.00 | Suite 3,4,5, Jurys Inn Hotel |
skills-building session | Community health service package costing (UNICEF) | Tuesday, October 9, 15.30-17.30 | Exhibition Centre Room 17 | |
Plenary | Placing community health systems at the heart of service delivery | It has been 40yrs since the Declaration of the Alma Ata and health systems strengthening still struggles to incorporate the role of communities. Discussions will consider challenges of delivering services to communities whilst considering the role of the CHW. | Wednesday, October 10, 08:30 – 10:00 | ACC Main Auditorium |
Lightning Oral Session | Engaging communities: approaches, successes and challenges | By better understanding communities, health systems can support community-led and participatory governance to achieve immediate health outcomes. Drawing on studies from LMIC and HIC, this session explores the areas of community engagement, ownership and accountability. | Wednesday, October 10, 11:00 – 12:30 | ACC room 4A |
Oral Session | mHealth: Does it deliver on the promise of improving access to health services | Session will explore the individual, community, health system and implementation factors that influence the impact of a range of m-health interventions. | Wednesday, October 10, 11:00 – 12:30 | ACC room 11A |
Oral Session | Sustaining community health systems | Four presentations and a short film explore the challenges of sustaining and supporting those who work at the interface of the health system and the community. | Wednesday, October 10, 11:00 – 12:30 | ACC room 11B |
Poster | A cost-effectiveness and cost savings analysis of community-based seasonal malaria chemoprevention in seven countries in the Sahel region of Africa | Wednesday, October 10, 12:45 | ACC Hall 2M, Galleria and Level 3 areas | |
Poster | Measuring Quality in Malawi’s Community Health System: Barriers and Challenges | Wednesday, October 10, 12:45 | ACC Hall 2M, Galleria and Level 3 | |
Lightning Oral Session | Community participation: advocacy, accountability and change agents | Approaches to community participation are explored drawing on experiences in Chile, SA, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nepal, Ghana and DRC. Methods such as community scorecards, health information interventions, photovoice and equity monitoring are discussed. | Wednesday, October 10, 14:00 – 15:30 | ACC room 4B |
Oral Session | Attracting, retaining and sustaining the health workforce | Ensuring a health workforce that is fit for purpose is crucial for the achievement of UHC. This session draws on examples from South Africa, Thailand, Kenya and China to explore planning the attraction, retention of health workers and motivations to provide quality care. | Wednesday, October 10, 14:00 – 15:30 | ACC room 11B |
Poster | Reflecting strategic and conforming gendered experiences of Community Health Workers using photovoice in rural Wakiso district, Uganda | Presenters: David Musoke, Charles Ssemugabo, Rawlance Ndejjo, Elizabeth Ekirapa Kiracho, Asha S George | Wednesday, October 10, 15:30 | ACC Hall 2M, Galleria and Level 3 areas |
Poster | “Do you trust that data?” – A mixed-methods study assessing the quality of data reported by Community Health Workers in Kenya and Malawi | The USAID SQALE Community Health Program is a three-year partnership to improve maternal and child health through a focus on quality community health systems. | Wednesday, October 10, 15:30 | ACC Hall 2M, Galleria and Level 3 areas |
Panel Session | Putting quality at the heart of community health services for maternal, newborn and child health | Wednesday, October 10, 16:00 – 17:30 | ACC Room 1B | |
Oral Session | Taking a gender lens to the health system | Drawing on experiences from Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, this session looks at approaches that address sexual harassment in health workplaces, understanding the influence of gender on career progression among health managers, participatory approaches with women and men’s groups to create change and understand male involvement in health facility maternity care. | Wednesday, October 10, 16:00 – 17:30 | ACC room 11C |
Oral | Systems thinking as a lens for analysing health and other sectors | This session will consider how systems thinking has been applied in both the health sector and other public service sectors such as education and infrastructure. | Thursday, October 11, 11:00 – 12:30 | ACC room 3A |
Poster | When and how do incentives help improve Community Health Workers’ performance? A qualitative multi-county study | Thursday, October 11, 13:15 | ACC Hall 2M, Galleria and Level 3 areas | |
Oral | Corruption and accountability in health systems | Session will consider drivers of corruption in health systems and local mechanisms used to improve accountability. | Thursday, October 11, 14:00 – 15:30 | ACC room 11A |
Participatory | CHWs provide “second class care” and are a temporary fix to the human resources crisis and health systems constraints | Debate on the role of CHWs regarding health promotion, disease screening, referral and palliative care. A provocative discussion to showcase whether investing CHWs is good for health system strengthening within the current global context and SDG era. | Thursday, October 11, 14:00 – 15:30 | ACC Hall 2E |
Oral presentation | Scaling up Community Health: Prioritization and Costing of the Community Health Service Packages in Madagascar and South Sudan | Thursday, October 11, 16:00 – 17:30 | ACC room 11A | |
Oral presentation | Acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of low-literate community health workers delivering treatment to children with severe acute malnutrition in Aweil South County, South Sudan | Thursday, October 11, 16:00 – 17:30 | ACC room 11C | |
Participatory session – world café style | Using data to improve the health systems for all in the area of RMNCH | Thursday, October 11, 16:00 – 17:30 | ACC Hall 2N | |
Speed | Improving access to health services through community approaches | Exploring a range of community approaches such as community maternity waiting homes, community health workers, mobile technology and client satisfaction surveys and how these affect access to health care. | Thursday, October 11, 16:00 – 17:30 | ACC room 11C |
Oral | Scaling-up health system interventions | Using experiences of scaling-up a range of public health intervention and programmes, common challenges will be identified including lessons learned through ART treatment, CHW programmes and district health management strengthening programme. | Thursday, October 11, 16:00 – 17:30 | ACC room 11A |
Oral | Governance and accountability for strong community health systems | This session will explore local governance actors and their relationships with national and global actors, accountability relationships and mechanisms, drawing on lessons from Zambia, Sierra Leone, Australia and Cuba. | Friday, October 12, 9:00 – 10:30 | ACC room 3A |
Poster | Quality improvement in community health: A novel approach to improve efficiency and outcomes of Community Health Worker programs in Kenya | The USAID SQALE Community Health Program is a three-year partnership to improve maternal and child health through a focus on quality community health systems. | Friday, October 12, 10.30 | ACC Hall 2M, Galleria and Level 3 areas |
Poster | Measuring quality from a community perspective: Using a community follow up tool to measure the quality of community health services at household level in Kenya | The USAID SQALE Community Health Program is a three-year partnership to improve maternal and child health through a focus on quality community health systems. | Friday, October 12, 12.45 | ACC Hall 2M, Galleria and Level 3 areas |
Poster | Creating a forum for shared learning and advocacy in strengthening community health systems: Lessons from community-based quality improvement teams in Kenya | The USAID SQALE Community Health Program is a three-year partnership to improve maternal and child health through a focus on quality community health systems. | Friday, October 12, 13.15 | ACC Hall 2M, Galleria and Level 3 areas |
Oral | Strengthening the capacity of community health systems | This session will explore a variety of approaches to strengthening the capacity of community and district health systems in diverse settings such as Uganda, Brazil and Madagascar. | Friday, October 12, 14:00 – 15:30 | ACC room 4B |