This year’s theme is ‘Potentials of Community Health Workers in Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the Context of Universal Health Coverage (UHC)’.
The Dhaka Symposium intends to bring academics, health experts, development partners and other relevant professionals to a common platform to discuss about the past successes and challenges with the CHWs.
These will enable formulation of better strategic pathways of how CHWs can help communities to win the new fight against NCDs further to attain UHC and SDGs targets.
The website (http://chwsymposium2019.icddrb.org) for the symposium is now live to enable participants from Bangladesh and other countries to register, submit poster and abstract, and seek scholarships, said cider,b on Thursday.
The website also highlights the historical importance of CHWs, information about past conference, thematic areas, important dates and events.
The CHWs are unsung heroes and have been a powerful workforce in promoting health services around the world, according to icddr,b.
Informally originated in China in the 1920s, they were initially engaged is birth and death registration, vaccination, providing basic health education and first-aid services.
Presently, the CHWs are considered as ‘second class’ service provider for ‘temporarily solutions’ and has received increased attention in many low-and-middle income countries, including Bangladesh.
The 1st International Symposium was held in 2017 in Kampala, Uganda and showcased the contribution of the CHW programmes across different areas of health related to sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), research institutions, universities, working with CHWs can leverage opportunities of global knowledge sharing, collaboration and networking on this platform.
icddr,b in partnership with the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), government of Bangladesh, James P. Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH), BRAC University and the Save the Children, Bangladesh is organising the event.