One Million Community Health Workers

On June 17, 2013, the One Million Community Health Workers Campaign together with UNICEF, Save the Children, the MDG Health Alliance, and frog design launched a blog to share updates from the Backpack PLUS project: http://chwplus.tumblr.com/.

The Backpack PLUS project is a multi-phase initiative intended to develop a set of solutions that empowers community health workers (CHWs) and enhances their ability to save lives. These solutions include creation of a physical prototype kit as well as an improved ‘operating system’ of better training, supervision, incentives, and supply chain management.

The blog includes reports and images from the team’s field work in Uganda and Senegal as well as updates from initial workshops in New York and Kampala.
Backpack PLUS is intended to become a symbol for the CHW community and is seeking to align partners and facilitate dialogue. The initiative is supported by a range of organizations from across the corporate, non-profit, and public sectors.

The innovative approach that the Backpack PLUS project is taking to develop optimal supply chain management solutions for CHWs is essential to the vision of professionalized CHW cadres that is endorsed by the One Million CHW Campaign. Additionally, the Campaign is collaborating with Backpack PLUS to collate a set of best practices for the scale up of CHW programs in low income countries.