At the 72nd World Health Assembly, the International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) and World Vision jointly hosted the forum “Realizing Primary Health Care Through Enhanced Community Health Worker Support” on May 21 at the InterContinental Geneva. A total of 80 honorable guests from several international and domestic non-governmental organizations and medical and academic organizations took part in the forum to witness the achievements of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in international cooperation in public health and medicine.

Keynote speaker Dr. Maryse Kok, a senior public health scholar of Royal Tropical Institute, introduced the latest WHO guideline on community health workers (CHWs) optimization. Following were Mr. Dan Irvine, senior director for Sustainable Health of World Vision International and Mr. Magnus Conteh, executive director of Community Health Academy of Last Mile Health, who introduced how to enhance the role of CHWs to strengthen primary health care (PHC). Case studies on working with CHWs to conduct health promotion in communities were then presented by Dr. Pai-Po Lee, deputy secretary general of the TaiwanICDF, Ms. Yuan-Wei Lin, director of International Cooperation Center of Chai-Yi Christian Hospital (CYCH), and Ms. Albertha Freeman, community health services supervisor from Gbarpolu County, Liberia. Dr. Lee took the TaiwanICDF project “Capacity Building Project for the Prevention and Control of Chronic Renal Failure in Belize” as an example of empowering community health workers to raise awareness of the population on self-management of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and to achieve early prevention of CKD. Meanwhile, Ms. Lin took the “Maternal and Infant Health Care Improvement Project”, jointly implemented by the CYCH and the TaiwanICDF, to present how to support CHWs in encouraging pregnant women to accept prenatal and postnatal care, and in early identification of high-risk groups so they can receive suitable treatment on time. Finally, Dr. Simon M. Zwane, principle secretary of Ministry of Health in Eswaztini, concluded the forum by thanking the TaiwanICDF and the CYCH for their assistance in improving the maternal and children health care system in the country, especially as the proportion of pregnant women who receive postnatal care between seven to 14 days after delivery in the project area has significantly increased from 22 percent in 2016 to 91 percent in 2019. Moreover, he stressed that the government shall lead all the medical and health care personnel, including CHWs, to strengthen PHC and achieve universal coverage together.

TaiwanICDF is the professional development assistance agency set up by the government and public health and medicine is one of its operational priorities. Through this forum, the TaiwanICDF showcased how it integrates Taiwan’s experience in public health and medicine and cooperates with partner countries as well as the public and private sectors to strengthen support to community health workers to achieve universal health coverage. Moreover, the forum highlighted the achievements of TaiwanICDF projects in non-communicable diseases prevention and control and maternal and children health care improvement and demonstrated how the TaiwanICDF assists partner countries to integrate resources at the community level. The forum further emphasized the role of CHWs in public health promotion and enhanced acknowledgement by the international community of Taiwan’s efforts to support CHWs with partner countries.

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• Update: 2019/05/24
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