Since the Alma Ata Declaration in 1978, community health volunteers (CHVs) have been at the forefront, providing health services, especially to underserved communities, in low-income countries. However, consolidation of CHVs position within formal h
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ealth systems has proved to be complex and continues to challenge countries, as they devise strategies to strengthen primary healthcare. Malawi’s community health strategy, launched in 2017, is a novel attempt to harmonise the multiple health
service structures at the community level and strengthen service delivery through a team-based approach. The core community health team (CHT) consists of health surveillance assistants (HSAs), clinicians, environmental health officers and CHVs. This paper reviews Malawi’s strategy, with particular focus on the interface between HSAs, volunteers in community-based programmes and
the community health team. Our analysis identified key challenges that may impede the strategy’s implementation:
(1) inadequate training, imbalance of skill sets within CHTs and unclear job descriptions for CHVs; (2) proposed community-level interventions require expansion of pre-existing roles for most CHT members; and (3) district authorities may face challenges meeting financial obligations and filling community-level positions. For effective implementation, attention and further deliberation is needed on the appropriate forms of CHV support, CHT composition with possibilities of co-opting trained CHVs
from existing volunteer programmes into CHTs, review of CHT competencies and workload, strengthening coordination and communication across all community actors, and financing mechanisms. Policy support through the development of an addendum to the strategy, outlining opportunities for task-shifting between CHT members, CHVs’ expected duties and interactions with paid CHT personnel is recommended.
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This paper has been commissioned by RedR to identify gaps in skills, technology, and knowledge in urban humanitarian response in order to inform RedR’s project Ready to Respond which is looking to address these gaps in two specific areas:
Wat
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er supply, sanitation, and hygiene; Shelter response to earthquakes
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WHO Secretariat Information paper July 2016
Providing community-based mental health services position paper
This paper aimed to demonstrate how participatory action research (PAR) within a Community-based Rehabilitation (CBR) project facilitated community participation to advocate for the rights of people with visual impairment. An advocacy campaign, led
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by the local people with and without disabilities, was launched for the construction of an accessible foot over- bridge (FOB) at Vangani railway station in Maharashtra, India.
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This working paper is a case study on South Sudan as an important refugee country of origin. The case study looks at issues of forced displacement in South Sudan and underscores the linkages between internally displaced persons and South Sudanese re
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fugees. The case study highlights the importance of understanding local contexts and root drivers of conflict and displacement. It reviews evaluations of programmes in South Sudan, including past efforts at state building and refugee resettlement to look at learning within the international community. The study was undertaken as part of a wider research project on learning from evaluations to improve responses to situations of forced displacement .
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Policy
July 2012
Working Paper No. 3
This article describes experiences in implementing a community mental health and development project in a rural district in southern India, including the position of persons with mental illness when the project was initiated, the challenges faced an
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d the strategies that were developed to overcome these challenges. The authors conclude that when services are locally available, persons with mental illness can be treated and rehabilitated within their own community. They can live with dignity and their rights are respected. There is a great need for inclusion of persons with mental illness in the existing developmental activities and in disabled persons’ organisations.
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The limitation of a single sector approach. HNP Discussion Paper
Migration & health position paper series
Cross-cutting health themes
Tuberculosis, Migration and human mobility
Germany's efforts to build diplomatic and scientific bridges in global health are especially important amid rising nationalism in the US, UK, Brazil, India, and elsewhere.
“With its growing economic power and increasing political inflünce, outside expectations are rising, but so is the skeptici
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sm,” he says, pointing to a recent position paper.
He argüs that Germany still needs to do much more to advance global health, by increasing support for multidisciplinary global health research and establishing more postgraduate global health programs
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This paper was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in 2015, and produced by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, in cooperation with German civil society acto
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rs and freelance psychologists working in the field of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) with refugees and internally displaced people (IDP) in both the Middle Eastern region and Germany. The commission arose from BMZ’s wish for guidance on the characteristics of good working practices in MHPSS and the desire expressed by GIZ’s civil society partners in the regional programme Psychosocial Support for Syrian and Iraqi Refugees and Internally Displaced People for more intensive dialogue to promote MHPSS in the context of the Syria and Iraq crises.
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Background paper 8
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
May 2021
Religion and Development 01/2019. Discussion Paper Series of the Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development
Demographic Health Survey Working Paper 2017 No. 130
This study, although not generalizable, builds up the literature on worker training needs in developing countries, and would be of benefit for speech-language pathologists and worker trainers. This paper aimed to investigate the training needs of Ma
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laysian workers in relation to people with communication disability. The primary aim was to investigate common self-perceived training needs in relation to communication disability and to find how important these needs are to workers. A secondary aim was to explore the relationship between selected worker variables and training needs.
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This paper examines how diaspora and local organisations have responded to the crisis in Syria, how they evolved and the challenges that they face - and how international aid organisations and disapora and local groups can better work together in a
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new aid model.
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White Paper from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Refugee Trauma Task Force
Background paper 11
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
May 2021
This paper is motivated by the global spread of the coronavirus referred to as COVID-19 and its efect on Sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has alluded to the COVID-19 not only afecting the global health but a
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lso trade and tourism, commodity prices, and fnancial conditions that calls for an additional policy response to support demand and ensure an adequate supply of credit
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