1. Health Worker Incentives (IMCHA)
The Ministry of Health and BRAC Uganda (a non-governmental organization) are using the support of community health workers (CHWs) to help provide universal health coverage to underserved communities and meet the Sustainable Development Goals. The Ministry of Health aims to maintain 15,000 health workers (Voluntary Health Teams or VHTs) while BRAC has trained over 4,000 Community Health Promoters (CHPs).
Ensuring that government and NGO CHW programs are managed as efficiently and effectively as possible requires evidence-based policies. Effective CHP programs require appropriate selection, training, supervision, and incentives. The recent WHO guidelines on health policies and systems to support CHWs identified incentives and gender issues as two areas that require further research to fully optimize the potential of CHWs. Our research addresses both of these gaps with two independent but closely related studies.
In partnership with Cape Breton University, our first study is a randomized controlled trial of a sample of 1,048 of BRAC’s CHPs in Uganda to understand how various financial and non-financial incentives affect the performance of CHWs in providing maternal and child health care.
Our second study uses qualitative cases, interviews, focus groups and archival data to understand how health social enterprises in Uganda and Kenya can address gender issues in their organizations and with their CHWs, their partners and their communities to allow them to improve the health of communities and contribute toward greater gender equity.
In addition to these main studies, we are also exploring how South Sudanese refugees in Uganda can be supported through innovative community health worker initiatives that include training in mental health assessment and livelihood activities.
Our results will directly inform and strengthen community health-worker program efforts implemented by BRAC and the Ministry of Health in Uganda.
PROJECT LEADERS
Jenipher Musoke
Kevin McKague
INSTITUTIONS
BRAC International Cape Breton University
Website: http://www.bracinternational.nl