Report: Characteristics of Community Health Workers in Urban Primary Health Care: Lesson learnt from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and the United States of America

Abstract

Community Health Workers (CHWs) play a vital role in expanding the coverage of health services, particularly for the marginalized and poor. They are often the first point of contact for care seeking related to ill health. The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought CHWs to the spotlight in the health service system by emphasizing their importance as “Frontline health workers”. As the world continues to struggle with high costs, barriers to accessing appropriate health care, and disproportionate rates of morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 and chronic diseases, CHWs have played a critical role in increasing health services to urban poor communities (Wahl et al., 2020, Rahman et al., 2021).