Impact
Our guiding star is to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health at the last mile. We do this by professionalizing community health workers, who represent the most cost-effective means of delivering primary care to women and children, particularly in the hardest-to-reach areas. We use data to evaluate our impact, strengthen our programming, and drive progress towards realizing our strategy and mission.
Impact
Our guiding star is to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health at the last mile. We do this by professionalizing community health workers, who represent the most cost-effective means of delivering primary care to women and children, particularly in the hardest-to-reach areas. We use data to evaluate our impact, strengthen our programming, and drive progress towards realizing our strategy and mission.
5,991
Estimated lives saved of children under five due to interventions provided by Last Mile Health–supported community health workers since July 2023 1
2.46M
Women with improved access to modern family planning services due to interventions provided by Last Mile Health–supported community health workers since July 2023
COVERAGE AND REACH
Last Mile Health supports more than 23,000 community health workers who extend primary healthcare to almost 37 million people across Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone
Africa Frontline First, a joint venture co-founded by Last Mile Health working across 17 countries, has directly supported more than 85,000 community health workers and indirectly supported more than 600,000 community health workers, serving more than 70 million people and 300 million people, respectively
GLOBAL INFLUENCE
$XXX,XXX,XXX
Total funding provided to 17 countries to strengthen national community health programs via Africa Frontline First
$240M+
Of funding has been unlocked for community health programs in Africa from multilaterals and philanthropy through Africa Frontline First
50
countries have professional community health worker policies in place, driven by evidence and advocacy from the Community Health Impact Coalition (co-founded by Last Mile Health)
WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Last Mile Health’s programming prioritizes women and children living at the last mile. Our research demonstrates that professional community health workers can improve maternal and child health outcomes. Click to learn more about two interventions that are making a difference >
SPOTLIGHT
High-quality, cost-effective training and supervision for community health workers
SPOTLIGHT
High-quality, cost-effective training and supervision for community health workers
Investing in a skilled community health workforce is the foundation of lasting health impact. Last Mile Health leverages technology and evidence to support community health worker capacity building, pioneering cost-effective and scalable training and supervision models.
Equipping community health workers to prioritize women and children: Strong, standardized training provides community health workers with the knowledge and skills they need to improve maternal and child health outcomes. Alongside our government partners, we develop and implement quality training that equips community health workers to diagnose, treat, and refer childhood illnesses as well as to support women of reproductive age with access to family planning, prenatal and postnatal care, and education on healthy practices for pregnancy, childbirth (with a focus on increasing facility-based delivery, the WHO’s key strategy for reducing maternal mortality), and care for children under five.
- 84% of all births in our managed counties in Liberia took place in health facilities last year
- 473,356 total treatments provided for children under-five by community health workers in Liberia since July 2023
- 3,724 community health workers in Ethiopia and Malawi have received quality refresher training on reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health since July 2023
Strengthening supervision: Routine, structured supervision of community health workers promotes problem-solving, strengthens quality of service provision, and fosters motivation. Last Mile Health partners with Ministries of Health to develop supervision tools as well as national supervision guidelines.
- Four countries have strengthened supervision systems through support from Last Mile Health.
- 86% of community health workers supervised with the digital supervision tool in Sierra Leone have personalized action plans focused on child or adolescent health.
- 83% of community health workers in Liberia received at least 2 supervision visits in the previous 4 weeks, according to national surveys.
AFRICA FRONTLINE FIRST
Africa Frontline First was co-founded by Last Mile Health, Community Health Impact Coalition, and Financing Alliance for Health to drive smarter, more effective financing for community health. In our role as lead implementer of Project BIRCH, we provided technical assistance to strengthen national community health programs across 17 countries.
In addition, Africa Frontline First has unlocked over $240 million in total funding from multilaterals and philanthropy toward community health programs in Africa – underscoring the power of leveraging seed capital from philanthropy into more money for healthcare, and more healthcare for the money.
$475M
in domestic funding has been allocated to community health annually among Africa Frontline First countries, with 10 countries publicly commiting to increasing funding for community health – signalling that national governments are taking on increasing responsibility to integrate and finance community health worker programs as part of their national health systems
THREE
countries conducted national geomapping of their national community health worker programs, facilitating critical understanding of coverage gaps and enabling the integration of this data into a national community health worker registry, an important component of institutionalization.
$29.4%
of Africa Frontline First countries have costed national community health strategies and resource mapping validated by the Ministry of Health.
$23.5%
of Africa Frontline First countries have shown improvement in two or more key community health system components since 2023.
Global Evidence
Last Mile Health co-founded the Community Health Impact Coalition, which works collectively to make professional community health workers the norm worldwide.
A recent analysis of 255 studies shows that community health workers are cost-effective in more than 80% of cases across conditions from maternal health to HIV to mental health, delivering care at a median cost of just $0.59 per person per year.
Well-trained, well-equipped, and well-supervised community health workers – as part of integrated primary health care teams – can have significant impact on nutrition, under-five mortality, and maternal mortality by delivering evidence-based interventions.
Community health worker programs consistently deliver strong health outcomes more cost-effectively than facility-based care or other modalities, making them the most cost-effective means of delivering primary care.
Decades of evidence show community health is one of the most cost-effective service delivery platforms.
Footnotes
- Currently data only reflects 8 countries
- System Maturity Model for CHW Delivery Guide and Assessment Tool, 2025
All data is cumulative from July 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025 as aligned with our Closing the Distance strategic plan.