UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- A special adviser to the United Nations on Monday called for the expansion of professionalized community health workers to achieve one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Jeffrey Sachs, the special adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the SDGs and former director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, said that the rise of professionalized community health workers is the greatest revolution in public health today, and they can greatly improve health delivery at low cost in countries at all income levels.
"It is a remarkable bargain, costing 7 U.S. dollars annually per person covered and approximately 3,750 dollars annually per community health worker," said Sachs.
In high-income countries, especially among poor and marginalized communities, community health workers can reach marginalized individuals, who often suffer severe disease burdens such as mental illness or obesity, and to help them to interact more effectively with neighborhood clinics, hospitals, and social service agencies, he said.
The expansion of professionalized community health workers is therefore vital to realizing universal health coverage, a target of the SDG 3, which aims to ensure healthy lives and to promote wellbeing for all at all ages, said Sachs.
Sachs called on all parties to endorse plans for their respective organizations to channel increased funds towards the rapid scale up of community health worker systems, and he also urged the African Union to establish a special funding mechanism, such as a new AU-supervised trust fund for African health systems, to partner with international donors and UN agencies in this effort.
