Maryse Kok

TL;DR: A mix of financial and non-financial incentives, predictable for the CHWs, was found to be an effective strategy to enhance performance, especially of those CHWs with multiple tasks.

TL;DR: This synthesis situates and discusses the influence of context on CHW and programme performance, and can help policy makers and programme managers to develop CHW interventions that adequately address and respond to context to optimise performance.

TL;DR: These are the first evidence-based global guidelines for health policy and system support to optimise community health worker programmes and key considerations for implementation include the need to define the role of CHWs in relation to other health workers and plan for the health workforce as a whole rather than by specific occupational groups.

TL;DR: Notwithstanding important caveats about the heterogeneity of the studies and their methodological limitations, findings reinforce the hypothesis that CHWs may represent, in some settings, a cost-effective approach for the delivery of essential health services.

TL;DR: Policy-makers and programme managers should take into account the broader context and adjust CHW programmes so that they trigger mechanisms that generate trusting relationships between CHWs, communities and other actors in the health system to contribute to enabling CHWs to perform well and responding to the opportunities offered by their unique intermediary position.