24.05.2018
Paying and investing in last-mile community health workers accelerates universal health coverage

thebmjopinion "llness is universal, access to healthcare is not. The 71st World Health Assembly will be the first since the World Bank and World Health Organization released new findings showing that over half of the world’s 7.3 billion people, including a billion in remote rural communities, lack access to essential health services.

(...) Investing in community health workers (CHWs), alongside more nurses and doctors, can help close this gap. (...)But, CHW programmes vary widely in quality. Many don’t reach full potential because they lack proper investment—especially payment. The majority of CHWs are either volunteers who receive no pay or semi-compensated cadres." (Photo: Trachoma Campaign in Touba, Senegal /RTI Fights NTDs/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)