Factors influencing motivation of Community Health Workers: The Case of Ethiopia Health Extension Workers
Aschenaki Z. Kea, Daniel G. Datiko, Maryse C. Kok (2016) Factors influencing motivation of Community Health Workers: The Case of Ethiopia Health Extension Workers, poster given at the 2016 Global Symposium on Health Systems Research
The use of community health workers (CHWs) has been identified as a strategy to address the growing shortage of health workers, particularly in low-income countries. In 2004, Ethiopia introduced the health extension program (HEP), comprising a package of basic community health services to improve access to health care. The HEP is run by a cadre of female health extension workers (HEWs) recruited from the community and trained for one year. A perennial challenge in CHW programs is the question of how to motivate community members to engage in community health work, to remain in the position of being a CHW once trained, and to perform CHWs’ work effectively over time. This study explored factors that influence motivation and performance of the HEWs in Ethiopia in order to provide information for the introduction of quality improvement interventions.
This project is funded by the European Union.