Most AI in community health is still stuck in pilots.
Later this week at #SkollWF, CHIC is convening a session to focus on what it would take to move beyond pilots and into systems.
For CHWs, that line is not abstract. It shapes whether new tools add complexity or support care in practice.
2025 demanded more from CHWs than many noticed.
When systems are fragile, they absorb the shock.
Carmen Vargas, a lead CHW in Peru, shares how CHWs are organizing—not just to be heard, but to shape policies that define their work in CHIC's annual report: sbee.link/kv6tjawd78
AI is reaching CHWs. But not through the systems they work in.
Right now, most tools are introduced from the outside—without being set up to integrate into national programs.
That’s what determines whether they become part of care, or something separate from it.
🔗 https://sbee.link/bexpqk3nug
CHIC’s goal is to see professional CHW policy in 95+ countries. In 2025, we reached the halfway
50 countries now recognize CHWs as accredited, salaried professionals in national policy.
Our 2025 Annual Report explores how we got here + what it takes to keep moving: sbee.link/h36pwrcvye
CHIC at Skoll World Forum.
On April 23, we’re facilitating: 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗣𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆: 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀
Drawing on lessons from the #proCHW movement—where CHWs have moved from pilots to national programs across 60+ countries.
📍 Oxford | #SWF2026
In a year defined by fiscal contraction, progress on professional CHWs didn’t stall—it accelerated.
50 countries now recognize CHWs as accredited, salaried professionals in national policy.
Our 2025 Annual Report explores what’s driving that shift: sbee.link/k6r3cftdap
CHWs aren’t a "nice-to-have." They’re core health system infrastructure. Integrated CHW programs can deliver care across entire communities for ~$0.59 per person per year.
This #WHWWeek, we’re focusing on what it takes to sustain the workforce we celebrate. ➡️ sbee.link/efkwn8muvt
Investing in CHWs means investing in #HealthForAll today and resilient health systems for years to come.
#proCHWs are low-cost and high-impact: our best bet in achieving UHC.
This #WHWWeek, we call on partners & policymakers to support what works: paid, professional CHWs.
HIV treatment levels held after aid cuts. But the system didn’t.
An NPR story shows why: a CHW in Uganda kept supporting patients after losing his salary.
The system didn’t absorb the shock. People did.
This is why proCHWs matter. Read his story: www.npr.org/2026/03/20/nx-s...
AI is already part of how CHWs deliver care.
Training hasn’t kept up.
A free AI Literacy Course, co-created with CHWs by CHIC and members, focuses on safe, critical, real-world use.
Explore: https://sbee.link/dyxuk6qbng
Most of the nearly 5 million CHWs globally are still unpaid.
But that’s starting to change—50+ countries are moving toward paid, accredited programs.
What’s driving that shift? Collective action.
New piece in Stanford Social Innovation Review: sbee.link/my96vubacx
When global standards shift, so do expectations.
WHO’s Curriculum Guide makes it harder to justify undertrained, unsupervised, unpaid CHWs.
The path forward is clearer: invest in a professional, supported workforce. 🔗 https://sbee.link/pwaq3rydct
Not all CHW programs deliver the same results.
Integrated CHW programs consistently outperform fragmented, single-disease models.
When we invest in integrated CHWs we don’t just save money. We save lives. We stretch resources. We strengthen systems.
↪️ sbee.link/k7qaejv8pr
What’s shaping the future of community health?
Not just technology — but how we support, protect, and invest in the people delivering care.
Latest evidence from CHIC’s Research Roundup: sbee.link/dpqb739ytk
What do we actually know about how CHW programs are financed across sub-Saharan Africa?
Join this webinar with Financing Alliance for Health and CHIC to explore what current data reveals about CHW investments +why stronger visibility matters for policy and financing decisions.
➡️ bit.ly/4l6xf2N
When community health work is treated as voluntary labor, it shapes who ends up doing it. As CHW Blanca Flor Rosales Borrego of Peru’s Ministry of Health observes, many men believe unpaid work isn’t worth doing. The result: women often carry the responsibility for community health.
Too often, the responsibility for community health falls on women.
CHW Kapinga Rebecca of the DRC MOH describes a reality seen in many communities: women are expected to carry the work of community health yet the work continues with limited resources, training, equipment, and recognition.
Peru just awarded its highest recognition for advancing women’s equality to a CHW, Carmen Rosa Vilela Vargas.
Yet the workforce she represents still lacks formal recognition.
Across the movement, CHWs like Carmen are advocating to turn recognition into the policies their work demands.
For #IWD2026, Margaret Odera, a lead CHW and advocate from Kenya, shares a simple truth: many women stepped into community health work even when education systems didn’t create pathways for them.
They’re still showing up. It’s time to pay and support the workforce behind community health.
“This is a call for change. Enough of volunteer work.” Carmen Vilela Vargas, CHW from Peru.
As we mark #IWD2026, her message reflects a reality across global health: millions of women continue to work unpaid or underpaid in CHW roles.
“Recognizing our work is not an expense. It is an investment.”
Too often, decisions about CHWs happen without CHWs in the room.
As CHW Aboubakare Djariyétou of Togo’s MOH reminds us: realizing health as a human right requires CHWs advocating with leaders to remove financial barriers to care.
More about CHW Advocates ➡️ joinchic.org/resources/chw-...
Declaring health a human right is the easy part.
Delivering it is harder.
As Aaron Jameni, a CHW with Kenya’s Ministry of Health, notes, realizing that right requires strong primary care and proCHWs.
As #IWD approaches, conversations are sharping around gender. Beyond celebration lies a hard question: who carries the cost of care?
In our March newsletter, we unpack the gendered economics of community health and the shift from unpaid labor to professional status➡️ https://sbee.link/ktanxj4m96
Once standards are clear, expectations shift. WHO’s Global Curriculum Guide sets a baseline for what CHWs need to deliver safe, effective care—and what systems must put in place to support them.
Policy and financing now need to keep pace. 🔗 https://sbee.link/vxqnhdpm4w
Liberia reduced the cost of treating NTDs by up to tenfold. How?
Integrated community health worker programs.
When CHWs are salaried and trained to deliver care across conditions, they don’t just match alternative delivery models. They outperform them.
→ sbee.link/v63gqwp9fh
CHIC is hiring a Director of Development to build and lead a bold, scalable fundraising function.
Remote. $127–167k (Cost of Living Adjusted).
Benefits: medical (incl. child coverage), 16 wks paid leave, 401k match + more.
Apply by March 15: sbee.link/gy7nvqe9mt
When health budgets tighten, “cost-effective” is only part of the story.
In a special edition of CHIC's Research Roundup we unpack findings of five new scoping reviews from 10 years of research on the costs, cost-effectiveness, and affordability of CHW programs.
➡️ lnkd.in/epiaMchQ
Reaching children who still miss lifesaving vaccines requires stronger immunization systems — and strong immunization systems rely on CHWs.
A new op-ed from @lastmilehealth.bsky.social + @villagereach.bsky.social explores their role in immunization, surveillance, and trust: bit.ly/4rClDGQ
As budgets tighten and risks rise, countries face hard choices about what to protect.
In a TIME op-ed, Madeleine Ballard and Davidson Polyte argue that investing in professional community health workers is one of the clearest ways to safeguard care and health security.
time.com/7336627/comm...
A strong and lasting health system pays and equips its frontline workforce.
In Kenya & Mozambique, governments are integrating and financing community health workers as core health infrastructure—building delivery capacity that holds even under pressure.
Explore why: sbee.link/ce8rvnx4tg
