TY - JOUR
T1 - Female Community Health Workers and Health System Navigation in a Conflict Zone
T2 - The Case of Afghanistan
AU - Parray, Ateeb Ahmad
AU - Dash, Sambit
AU - Ullah, Md Imtiaz Khalil
AU - Inam, Zuhrat Mahfuza
AU - Kaufman, Sophia
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the CHWs of BRAC Afghanistan for providing their time during the interviews, based on which the manuscript has been written. We would also like to thank Saha Naseri, WHO Country Office, Afghanistan for her feedback on the manuscript, which has been extremely beneficial. The authors are indebted to the support provided by Gender and COVID-19 academic group for their guidance that helped strengthen the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Parray, Dash, Ullah, Inam and Kaufman.
PY - 2021/8/11
Y1 - 2021/8/11
N2 - Afghanistan ranked 171st among 188 countries in the Gender Inequality Index of 2011 and has only 16% of its women participating in the labor force. The country has been mired in violence for decades which has resulted in the destruction of the social infrastructure including the health sector. Recently, Afghanistan has deployed community health workers (CHW) who make up majority of the health workforce in the remote areas of this country. This paper aims to bring the plight of the CHWs to the forefront of discussion and shed light on the challenges they face as they attempt to bring basic healthcare to people living in a conflict zone. The paper discusses the motivations of Afghani women to become CHWs, their status in the community and within the health system, the threatening situations under which they operate, and the challenges they face as working women in a deeply patriarchal society within a conflict zone. The paper argues that female CHWs should be provided proper accreditation for their work, should be allowed and encouraged to progress in their careers, and should be instilled at the heart of healthcare program planning because they have the field experience to make the most effective and community oriented programmatic decisions.
AB - Afghanistan ranked 171st among 188 countries in the Gender Inequality Index of 2011 and has only 16% of its women participating in the labor force. The country has been mired in violence for decades which has resulted in the destruction of the social infrastructure including the health sector. Recently, Afghanistan has deployed community health workers (CHW) who make up majority of the health workforce in the remote areas of this country. This paper aims to bring the plight of the CHWs to the forefront of discussion and shed light on the challenges they face as they attempt to bring basic healthcare to people living in a conflict zone. The paper discusses the motivations of Afghani women to become CHWs, their status in the community and within the health system, the threatening situations under which they operate, and the challenges they face as working women in a deeply patriarchal society within a conflict zone. The paper argues that female CHWs should be provided proper accreditation for their work, should be allowed and encouraged to progress in their careers, and should be instilled at the heart of healthcare program planning because they have the field experience to make the most effective and community oriented programmatic decisions.
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U2 - 10.3389/fpubh.2021.704811
DO - 10.3389/fpubh.2021.704811
M3 - Article
C2 - 34458226
AN - SCOPUS:85113455559
SN - 2296-2565
VL - 9
JO - Frontiers in Public Health
JF - Frontiers in Public Health
M1 - 704811
ER -
