Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator (HSSA) – Community Health Workforce

Timeline: August 2022 – December 2022 | Status: Completed

Nigeria.

Project Overview

Community health workers are often the first point of contact between communities and the health system. They play a vital role in delivering essential health services, promoting healthy behaviours, and connecting underserved populations to care. Strengthening community health workforce systems is therefore critical to achieving equitable access to quality healthcare and advancing Universal Health Coverage.

In 2022, the Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF) participated in the Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator (HSSA) – Community Health Workforce initiative, implemented through the USAID-funded Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator and led by Results for Development (R4D).

The project formed part of a broader global effort to strengthen community health systems by generating evidence, facilitating learning, and supporting practical approaches to improving how community health workers are recruited, trained, supervised, supported, and integrated into national health systems.

Drawing on HSDF's experience in health systems strengthening and primary healthcare reform, the project contributed insights from the Nigerian context while engaging with broader conversations on how countries can build stronger and more resilient community health workforce systems.

Community health workers are essential to expanding access to healthcare, particularly in underserved and hard-to-reach communities. However, many countries continue to face challenges related to workforce planning, training, supervision, motivation, financing, and integration of community health workers into formal health systems.

Addressing these challenges requires evidence-based approaches that strengthen the systems supporting frontline health workers and ensure that they are equipped to deliver quality services at scale.

Through the Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator, HSDF contributed technical expertise and learning to support stronger community health workforce systems. The project focused on:

Examining opportunities to strengthen community health workforce performance.
Contributing evidence and practical lessons from health systems strengthening initiatives.
Supporting learning and knowledge exchange among stakeholders.
Promoting approaches that strengthen the integration of community health workers into health systems.
Exploring strategies for improving workforce effectiveness, sustainability, and accountability.
Supporting broader efforts to strengthen primary healthcare through community-based service delivery.

Strong community health workforce systems are fundamental to achieving better health outcomes and expanding access to essential services. Through its participation in the HSSA Community Health Workforce initiative, HSDF contributed to efforts aimed at strengthening the policies, systems, and practices that support frontline health workers.

The project reinforced the importance of investing in community health as a cornerstone of resilient health systems and highlighted the critical role community health workers play in delivering healthcare closer to the people who need it most.