Harare, (New Ziana) – Health and Child Care Minister, Douglas Mombeshora on Tuesday hailed the work and commitment of village health workers.
Mombeshora was speaking at an inaugural multi-stakeholder community health forum which was supported by the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other partners in Mazowe.
There are currently 22 000 village health workers in Zimbabwe.
“Today marks a milestone in Zimbabwe’s journey to strengthen its community health system. We convene here in Mazowe at a pivotal moment when both our nation and the world recognize that healthy communities form the foundation of a resilient health system. Without robust community health structures, our national strategies cannot succeed.
“In 1980, Zimbabwe shifted from a curative, urban-based system focused on a minority to a Primary Health Care (PHC) approach that emphasized prevention and health promotion for the largely rural population. The following year, Government formally launched the National Village Health Worker (VHW) Program with the ambitious target of training 15 000 village-based health workers to extend basic health services into communities that previously had no access.
“This has grown in leaps and bounds to the current level of 22 000 VHWs with a new Community Health Service Package which speaks to the changing needs of society and is instrumental in the achievement of universal health coverage. Community health workers have become part of the health system,” Mombeshora said.
He added that village health workers have driven major upticks in critical public health interventions, including higher immunization coverage among infants and young children, increased early antenatal clinic bookings and a drop in unassisted home deliveries, distribution and proper use of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) to prevent malaria, diagnosis and management of malaria with up to 40 percent of malaria cases diagnosed and treatment and/or referred by VHWs, community-led growth monitoring and disease surveillance, among others.
The inaugural multi-stakeholder dialogue to establish a Community Health Coordination Mechanism, develop a Joint Country Community Health Acceleration and Financial Sustainability Plan and accelerate progress toward Universal Health Coverage across Africa.
Mombeshora said: “This forum builds on the African Union’s 2017 commitment to scale up the Community Health Workforce and the Heads of State endorsement of the two million community health workers initiative.
“It also draws strength from the outcomes of the third High-Level Meeting on Community Health Systems held in Ethiopia last year and called for political commitment, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and coordinated action to enhance the capacity and sustainability of Community Health Worker programs.”
The Government now aims at having two VHWs per village, and integrate 22 000 CHWs into the civil service by the end of this year. It has also set a target of having 40 000 institutionalized CHWs by 2030, aligned with the Zimbabwe Health Sector Investment Compact 2024–2026.
“Strengthening community health demands coordination across finance, education, nutrition, local Government, social protection, civil society, communities and partners in the whole of government approach to ensure the attainment of our goals and Vision 2030.
“I call upon all departments in my ministry to work in synergy in our thrust to move the agenda of community health forward. We must all align our support, share responsibility for sustainable financing, and invest in the well-being of every Community Health Worker,” Mombeshora said.
New Ziana
