Join us and the award-winning Community Health Impact Coalition at LSE to discuss the impact of community health workers (CHWs). Acknowledging that despite decades of investments, half of the world still lacks access to healthcare, the panel will explore the renewed momentum for CHWs, the impact of their life-saving work, and what change is needed to set them up for success.

About the speakers: 

Tine Hanrieder is Associate Professor in Health and International Development. She works on the politics of global health institutions such as the World Health Organization and consulting firms, health worker migration, and the (de)valuation of labour in health economies.

Prossie Muyingo, hailing from the Kiboga district, has dedicated her life to serving as a community health worker (CHW) in the Mityana district of central Uganda. Since 2019, Prossie has been at the forefront of providing essential reproductive, maternal, and child health services to 186 households. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prossie emerged as a pivotal figure in her community, offering dependable information about the virus and safeguarding the health and well-being of those around her. Prossie passionately champions the professionalization of CHWs. In her role as a CHIC CHW Organiser, she fervently advocates for the implementation of legislation by governments, policymakers, and funders and is founding a National Association of CHWs in Uganda. Prossie's advocacy focuses on ensuring that Community Health Workers are skilled, supervised, supplied, and salaried, emphasizing the critical importance of these pillars in enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of community health services. She was recognized as a "Heroine of Health" in 2023. 

Dickson Mbewe is a community health worker. Dickson was motivated to become a CHW by immunization teams who came to his village. Dickson is active in advocating for support for CHWs who are on the frontlines including in the formation of the National Association of CHWs in Malawi. 

Dr. Madeleine Ballard serves as CEO of Community Health Impact Coalition, a global movement making professional community health workers the norm by changing guidelines, funding and policy. Her work alongside the Coalition has been featured in the New York Times, Foreign Policy, and Lancet Global Health. Through research, advocacy, and organizing with community health workers, she's driven policy changes that ensure quality care for millions—including those who provide it. Dr. Ballard earned her PhD from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She is the recipient of the Roux Prize and the Harvard Women’s Leadership Award, and co-founded of the Anti-Racism Task Force at the Arnhold Institute for Global Health of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she is on faculty.  

James O'Donovan is Director of Research at the Community Health Impact Coalition (CHIC), and leads a team of global health experts making professional Community Health Workers (CHWs) the norm worldwide. He also serves as a Technical Advisory Group Member at the World Health Organization, contributing to the development of a prototype CHW curricula guide and remains clinically active within the NHS.  He holds a PhD in Digital Education from the University of Oxford, an MBBS with Merit, and an MRes with Distinction in Ageing and Health from Newcastle University. 

About the chair: 

Philipa Mladovsky is Associate Professor in International Development. Her work examines the politics of financing and providing health care for socially excluded populations in diverse contexts, ranging from community-based health insurance in Senegal, to mental health services for asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.