A monitoring and evaluation gap for WHO’s community health worker guidelines, Botswana

A monitoring and evaluation gap for WHO’s community health worker guidelines, Botswana Stephanie Watson-Grant, Ratanang Balisi, Deborah Kaliel, Styn Jamu & James Thomas a MEASURE Evaluation, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 123 W Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516, United States of America (USA). b USAID Mission, Gaborone, Botswana. c USAID Office of HIV/AIDS, Washington, USA. d P/Bag 00421, Plot 21606, Phakalane, Gaborone, Botswana. Correspondence to Stephanie Watson-Grant (email: watsongr@unc.edu). (Submitted: 27 August 2019 – Revised version received: 3 March 2020 – Accepted: 4 March 2020 – Published online: 26 March 2020) Since the Alma-Alta Declaration in 1978, community health workers (CHWs) have been recognized as an important component of primary care. A World Health Organization (WHO) review found 71 publications providing evidence for the effectiveness of CHWs in areas such as maternal and child health, infectious diseases and noncommunicable diseases. The evidence came from publications and stakeholder interviews in both high and lowand middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Americas. Weak or no evidence for the effectiveness of CHWs was found only for diabetes and cancer care in lowand middle-income countries and for malaria in high-income countries.