Advancing health, health security, and economic recovery across Africa
Community health programs save lives and create livelihoods.
Community health workers are trusted community members, skilled to prevent and treat diseases for their neighbors. Despite significant evidence of their impact - including a 10:1 return on investment - community health workers are often underpaid, undertrained, unequipped, unprotected and disconnected from the formal health system.
Africa faces a $4 billion annual financing gap for community health. Financing remains the largest systemic barrier to scaling and sustaining quality community health services. This is driven by fragmented funding, a focus on short-term outcomes, and political oversight.
Africa Frontline First is a collaborative initiative to fund, scale, and strengthen community health programs.
Our Goal:
200,000 Community Health Workers Deployed in 10 Countries by 2030
By catalyzing innovative financial solutions to expand the health workforce, Africa Frontline First will support national governments to build robust community health infrastructure that can deliver effective, efficient, and equitable health care.
Why Community Health Workers
Around the world, community health workers improve health outcomes by:
Delivering lifesaving care to people’s doorsteps
Detecting, preventing, and responding to epidemics like Ebola and COVID-19
Promoting healthy behaviors and practices
Connecting communities to the formal health system
[Community health workers] can truly be the nexus between universal health coverage and health security, as they can improve access and uptake of health services, sanitation and hygiene, and primary healthcare to the community and improve overall health outcomes.”
— DR. JOHN NKENGASONG, AFRICA CDC DIRECTOR