What Do We Know about Legal Empowerment? Mapping the Evidence

Community health worker programs have emerged as one of the most effective strategies to address human resources for health shortages while improving access to and quality of primary healthcare. Many developing countries have succeeded in deploying community health worker programs in recognition of the potential of community health workers to identify, refer, and in many cases treat illnesses at the household level. However, challenges in program design and sustainability are expanded when such programs are expanded at scale, particularly with regard to systems management and integration with primary health facilities. Several nongovernmental organizations provide cases of innovation on management of community health worker programs that could support a sustainable system that is capable of being expanded without being stressed in its functionality nor effectiveness--therefore, providing for stronger scalability. This paper explores community health worker programs that have been deployed at national scale, as well as scalable innovations found in successful nongovernmental organization-run community health worker programs. In exploration of strategies to ensure sustainable community health worker programs at scale, we reconcile scaling constraints and scalable innovations by mapping strengths of nongovernmental organizations' community health worker programs to the challenges faced by programs currently deployed at national scale. Show more

A lack of awareness about entitled health and social services may contribute to poor delivery of such services in developing countries, especially among individuals of low socioeconomic status. To determine the impact of informing resource-poor rural populations about entitled services. Community-based, cluster randomized controlled trial conducted from May 2004 to May 2005 in 105 randomly selected village clusters in Uttar Pradesh state in India. Households (548 intervention and 497 control) were selected by a systematic sampling design, including both low-caste and mid- to high-caste households. Four to 6 public meetings were held in each intervention village cluster to disseminate information on entitled health services, entitled education services, and village governance requirements. No intervention took place in control village clusters. Visits by nurse midwife; prenatal examinations, tetanus vaccinations, and prenatal supplements received by pregnant women; vaccinations received by infants; excess school fees charged; occurrence of village council meetings; and development work in villages. At baseline, there were no significant differences in self-reported delivery of health and social services. After 1 year, intervention villagers reported better delivery of several services compared with control villagers: in a multivariate analysis, 30% more prenatal examinations (95% confidence interval [CI], 17%-43%; P < .001), 27% more tetanus vaccinations (95% CI, 12%-41%; P < .001), 24% more prenatal supplements (95% CI, 8%-39%; P = .003), 25% more infant vaccinations (95% CI, 8%-42%; P = .004), and decreased excess school fees of 8 rupees (95% CI, 4-13 rupees; P < .001). In a difference-in-differences analysis, 21% more village council meetings were reported (95% CI, 5%-36%; P = .01). There were no improvements in visits by a nurse midwife or in development work in the villages. Both low-caste and mid- to high-caste intervention households reported significant improvements in service delivery. Informing resource-poor rural populations in India about entitled services enhanced the delivery of health and social services among both low- and mid- to high-caste households. Interventions that emphasize educating resource-poor populations about entitled services may improve the delivery of such services. clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00421291. Show more