Former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, says the government made the decision to institutionalize the community health worker as first response, and this was a critical investment then, as it is now, and the investment continues to bear fruit.
President Sirleaf said Liberian community health workers deliver close to half of all reported malaria treatments of children under 5, and during the COVID-19 there was no declaim of the provision of health services.
She said since then remarkable progress has been made, not only in Liberia but across Africa. “However we should not fall into the complacency for a work done; a long joining remains ahead of us.
“In many countries community health workers have been underpaid, therefore community health workers cannot be an afterthought during budget and policy discussions. Community health workers cannot be the last one to be prioritized,” she stated.
According to her, out of all community health workers in lower and neighboring countries, 1/3 continues to face essential medical struggles. “If CHW are always last how can we ask them to be the first doctor to respond when there is an outbreak?
“It makes population saver resilient and self-sufficient and gives women who are the bedrock of the healthcare systems a rightful recognition. When we provide our health workers with the right tool support and compensation they help us turn the tide against infectious diseases and poverty,” the ex-President disclosed.
Delivering the keynote speech at the official lunch of the CHW 2023 symposium, ex-President Sirleaf said the third international CHW symposium is to build bridges across ministries and agencies, and together build the health and workforce across Africa and the world.