The website for the next global CHW Symposium has just been announced by the Health Systems Global CHW Thematic Working Group (of which HIFA is a member).
Read all about it here: https://chwsymposium.org/about-the-conference/
This is relevant to HIFA Projects in several respects:
1. We have found from experience that HIFA thematic discussions work particularly well when they they are hosted in the run-up to an event or conference. HIFA helps to build momentum, visibility and awareness of the event, thereby promoting more registrations. HIFA discussions also allow a wider pool of experience and expertise than can be obtained by the in-person delegates alone. This is especially true of CHWs themselves, who are rarely able to travel internationally.
2. HIFA thematic discussions are routinely summarised and presented at upcoming conferences (and are sometimes published in peer-reviewed journals). HIFA also provides a platform for continued discussion after the event.
3. HIFA already has experience with the above. In 2017 we presented a dedicated HIFA thematic discussion at the 1st Global CHW Symposium in Kampala, supported by The Lancet, Reachout Project/Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, World Vision International and USAID Assist Project.
4. In 2018-2019 HIFA collaborated with WHO, Health Systems Global (CHW Thematic Working Group) icddr,b, and Frontline Health Project on a series of three major HIFA thematic discussions on CHWs. These discussions were designed to support the dissemination and uptake of the WHO Guideline on health policy and system support to optimize community health worker programmes (CHW Guideline), launched in October 2018.
5. In 2018 we published a blog: 'Using WhatsApp to connect Community Health Workers in Uganda with the global HIFA community'. It would be interesting to learn what is happening now in terms of local-global communications among CHWs and the international health community. (I remember many years ago an event dedicated to CHWs in Geneva, where I was surprised to find there was only one 'CHW' present, and she was in fact a highly-educated politician.)
6. We already have a working group of CHW experts on standby, who can be readily mobilised and expanded for a new Project to address current priorities:
https://www.hifa.org/projects/community-health-workers
The theme of the Bangkok Symposium is: - "On the Front Lines: Empowering Community Health Workers to Create Equitable Health Systems in Contexts of Conflict, Migration and Exclusion"
If you have an idea for a HIFA Project relating to CHWs, perhaps also relating to the theme of the symposium, please get in touch. HIFA can add value to your work and to the event.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
