In the last few years, there has been growing interest and attention in the potential of various types of community-based health workers (CHWs) in reducing inequities in access to essential health services, particularly in under-served or excluded, vulnerable populations. The WHO Global Strategy on HRH: Workforce 2030 encourages countries to adopt a diverse, sustainable skills mix, harnessing the potential of community-based and mid-level health workers in inter-professional primary care teams.
WHO is in the process of developing guidelines to assist national governments, as well as national and international partners, to improve the design, implementation, performance and evaluation of CHW programmes, contributing to the attainment of universal health coverage and the health SDG targets.
The Guideline Development Group (GDG), which includes health workforce and CHW experts from the academia, civil society and research community, community health workers, as well as end-users of the guidelines, such as policy makers from Government, labour unions, professional associations and other constituencies, has the role of finalizing the scope of the guidelines.
The Guideline Development Group met with the primary objective of agreeing the scope of the guidelines by defining the research questions, structured according to the standard framework of population, intervention, control, outcomes (PICO). The proceedings of an online public hearing on the scope of these guidelines were presented. The inputs received through this process from over 60 individuals, institutions and networks informed the GDG deliberations, leading to the revision of some questions and the inclusion of additional research questions.
The finalization of the research questions provides the foundation to guide the subsequent technical work over the following months, through 2017.
The WHO Secretariat will explore further opportunities for engagement by various stakeholders in the next steps leading to the guideline development.