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Table 1 Three priority areas for harmonization of CHW programs

From: Harmonizing community-based health worker programs for HIV: a narrative review and analytic framework

1. Coordination: Activities undertaken to ensure that inputs into the health sector enable the health system to function more effectively and in accordance with local priorities over time [61]. Among CHW programs, coordination efforts seek to reduce duplication, fragmentation, confusion created by competing models, and overlap of responsibilities of differently trained CHWs in the same geographic areas [22, 26].

 

2. Integration: Absorption of CHW programs into existing networks of larger health systems such as the Ministries of Health or large private providers. Integration is defined as the extent, pattern, and rate of adoption and eventual assimilation of health interventions into each of the critical functions of the health system [26].

 

3. Sustainability: Continued use of program activities for the long-term achievement of desirable program outcomes [18]. Sustainability is a key element of CHW-led HIV services which are transitioning out of vertically funded sources [33,34,35].

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