TRAIN
HEALTH WORKERS

In partnership with governments, we upskill and grow the community health workforce to increase their performance and deliver high-quality primary healthcare.

Train
Health
Workers

In partnership with governments, we upskill and grow the community health workforce to increase their performance and deliver high-quality primary healthcare.

Skilled health professionals at every level of the health system are required to manage, deliver, and sustain community-based primary healthcare, which can transform access to care at the last mile.

We partner with governments to train and grow the community health workforce. As a result, community and frontline health workers acquire new knowledge and skills and apply them in the delivery of primary health services. Additionally, health systems leaders develop and supplement their expertise to manage community health programs.

Meet Jerome Gardiner

For those living in rural and remote communities around the world, community health workers like Jerome Gardiner are their primary point of contact with the health system.

Employed as part of Liberia’s National Community Health Program, Jerome serves the daily health needs of his neighbors. Over the course of a few months, Jerome was trained in basic skills to diagnose and treat preventable diseases—from treating children for malaria and pneumonia, to ensuring mothers have a birth plan to deliver in the clinic, to delivering contraceptives and screening for high blood pressure — and to deliver health promotion messages. Although the nearest clinic is more than five kilometers away, Jerome is able to team up with his supervisor and other frontline hvealth workers to create a strong referral link for patients who require additional care. Jerome and his peers are supported by health leaders and program managers at the local and national levels who monitor program outcomes and ensure consistency and sustainability.

jerome
community frontline health workers

Community & Frontline Health Workers

We work to ensure community and frontline health workers acquire and apply new knowledge and skills in primary care delivery in partnership with governments.

    • In Liberia, where we have worked for nearly 15 years, we helped design the first national curriculum, rolled it out to nearly 4,000 community and frontline health workers, and distributed smartphones equipped with digital educational materials on topics like malaria, pneumonia and COVID-19.  
    • In Ethiopia, we have digitized a module on reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health for community health workers employed by the National Health Extension Program, and we’ve piloted this blended learning module to over 4,000 community health workers across four regions.
    • In partnership with Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health, we’ve revised the curriculum and strengthened monitoring and evaluation for the training of a new cohort of over 8,000 community health workers  to provide a fully integrated package of primary care services to patients in remote communities.

Health Leaders

We also support health systems leaders to acquire and apply expertise to manage community health systems.

Our Community Health Academy produces open-source, online courses for health leaders on topics like designing, strengthening, and advocating for national community health worker programs, and financing for sustainability. These resources are tailored for the five countries where we work, and we design blended learning opportunities that combine in-person and virtual learning. These courses are also available for self-directed learning globally through our online platform. 

There is extraordinary demand for Community Health Academy content. Over 36,000 learners across 200 countries and regions have accessed Academy content, increasing these learners’ capacity to manage, sustain, and deliver high-quality community-based primary care and advance universal health coverage.

health leaders

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TO BRING A HEALTH WORKER
WITHIN REACH OF EVERYONE,
EVERYWHERE.

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