Community health workers are crucial to Africa's health systems, particularly in areas where access to other forms of health care is limited. They are essential to building trust in health services and improving communities' overall health resilience.

Community health workers can provide support in people's homes and reach hard-to-reach communities who may otherwise not have access to medical advice or services. They can detect and monitor health outbreaks and advise communities on prevention measures, which can save lives and stop epidemics in their track. They can have a significant impact on vaccine uptake and identify gaps in immunization plans. And much more.

Through 'task-shifting', community health workers can take on tasks previously allocated to highly qualified health care workers. This frees up their time for more specialized work and makes more efficient use of available human resources.

REACH is a pan-Africa initiative which we are implementing in a phased approach to eventually cover all 55 African Union member states.

Ten countries are participating in phase one: Egypt, Morocco, Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia and Malawi. In phase two, an additional 10 countries will join. And in phase three, we will expand to the remaining 35 countries.

We are working with the national governments in each country to plan and tailor the support we provide depending on country-level health priorities. This includes setting up country support platforms, led by national Ministries of Health, to ensure effective cooperation and to make sure community health workers are properly integrated into national health workforces.

We are also setting up a coordination platform at the continental level to ensure collaboration and partnership for community health.

While the real costs may vary significantly per country context, an indicative budget to train and equip one community health worker in Africa is USD 1,000 over five years, or 1 USD per working day.

The estimated funding needed to scale up to two million community health workers in 55 member states in Africa is USD 2 billion.

Financing Alliance for Health analysis shows a 10:1 return on investments in community health, driven by increased productivity from a healthier population, rapid response to health emergencies, avoidance of future global health crises, and increased employment.

If your organization is interested in supporting the REACH initiative, please contact: [email protected]