In Zambia, where the healthcare system frequently faces resource constraints, it is common to experience shortages of healthcare workers, especially in remote areas. In light of this challenge, community health workers play an important role by filling the gap and increasing access to basic health services for rural communities.

Unfortunately, due to resource constraints, the Zambian Government is not always able to place and retain these valuable personnel on payroll.  The Community Health Assistant (CHA) Support Activity was designed to provide training and financial support to CHAs, while strengthening the health system for long-term sustainability. 

As a foundational activity, the project will recruit, hire, and deploy six hundred Community Health Assistants (CHAs) across the six target provinces. The CHAs will provide HIV prevention, care, and treatment services at the community level, while facilitating implementation of differentiated service delivery and strengthening community-facility linkages.  The following complementary interventions will  strengthen systems for long-term support of CHAs:

• build capacity of Ministry of Health (MoH) oversight and management of the CHA program;
• improve MoH supervision of CHAs; and
• improve the quality of teaching and curriculum at CHA training schools.

JOURNEY TO SELF-RELIANCE

USAID believes every person, every community, and every country wants to be empowered to lead their own future. We support self-reliance by walking alongside our friends on their development journey, as evolving but enduring partners.  As partners on this journey, we are empowering host-country governments and our partners to achieve locally-sustained results, helping countries mobilize public and private revenues, strengthening local capacities, and accelerating enterprise-driven development.  This approach fosters stable, resilient, and prosperous countries that are more self-reliant, and prioritizes enduring partnerships.