Abstract submission for the CHW Symposium is now closed. Thank you to all who submitted abstracts. 

 

GUIDELINES FOR ABSTRACT STRUCTURE and SUBMISSION

The CHW Symposium is pleased to invite abstract submissions to the 3rd International Community Health Worker Symposium (CHW2023), to be held in Monrovia, Liberia 22 March to 24 March 2023. Read below for theme details, additional considerations, and submission guidelines.

Theme: Advancing Community Health Worker Programs to build resilient and equitable health systems that accelerate expansion of Primary Health Care for Universal Health Coverage

The 3rd CHW Symposium aims to facilitate the global exchange of knowledge and solutions to scale and sustain Community Health Programs in order to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The Symposium has a blended approach that prioritizes and fosters country learning and exchange and amplifies CHW voices and CHW-led advocacy. It aims to elevate country progress on, and accelerate political momentum for, professionalizing and institutionalizing CHWs. It will spotlight country examples of financing, accountability and governance models that show best practice for community health programming.

Symposium objectives:

  1. Foster cross-country learning, exchange and action through engagement with country delegations 
  2. Showcase country experiences with integrating, adapting, scaling and optimizing community health workers (CHW) and community-based and -led outreach programs for high quality, equitable community-based PHC
  3. Amplify CHW and other community-based and -led voices and feature examples, led by them, of advocacy, organizing and mobilizing and opportunities for partners to support them in these efforts
  4. Elevate country progress on and accelerate political momentum for professionalizing and institutionalizing CHWs and other community-based and -led workers as a part of a broader, enabled, fit-for-purpose health workforce and examine the bottlenecks that impede progress
  5. Spotlight country examples of financing models that demonstrate sustained financing for CHWs and other community-based and community-led workers galvanize coordinated commitments for increased domestic and external financing for community health programming
  6. Enhance accountability and governance by prioritizing measurement and harmonization of existing metrics to monitor progress toward institutionalizing CHW and other community-based and community-led programming and the system that supports them
  7. Leverage new and emerging evidence, best practices and partnerships to share innovations that strengthen CHW and other community-based and community-led workers’ skills and the system that support them
  8.  Produce a high-level symposium report that summarizes the current state-of-play and achievements, and articulates priorities and next steps with measurable targets

Symposium agenda tracks:

Abstracts will be considered primarily for the marketplace sessions and some abstracts may be positioned to complement and diversify perspectives for specific concurrent sessions/thematic tracks. Within the overarching Symposium theme and objectives as guidance, we invite abstracts linked to the following Symposium agenda tracks:

  1. Institutionalizing and financing at-scale, sustainable community health worker programs for PHC
  2. Professionalizing, compensating and protecting CHWs and other community-based and community-led workforce
  3. Enhancing quality of care
  4. Strengthening access to and use of data for evidence-based decision making to optimize performance and track progress of CHW and other community-based and -led workforce programs
  5. Expanding the reach of CHWs and other community-based and -led workforce in complex settings (including in humanitarian and fragile settings; adaptation to changing contexts, climates & epidemiology)
  6. Community engagement, mobilization and leadership 
  7. Digital health solutions to enhance CHW and other community-based and -led workforce programs
  8. Gender dimensions in community health and CHW programming
  9. New and emerging evidence, research, and innovations

Abstracts must be related to community health workers and/or other community-based and community-led service providers and should include one or more of the following dimensions :

  • Cutting-edge or original conceptual, empirical, and/or synthesis research, policy or programmatic approaches
  • Successful and/or novel strategies related to policy, program design and implementation, service delivery, monitoring and evaluation, and research 
  • Consideration for gender and equity 
  • Platforms and mechanisms to share and translate knowledge

Abstract Submission Guidelines: How to Apply

Abstracts may be submitted as a pitch, poster or oral presentation. Abstracts should ensure to address some of the following areas: background, purpose, content, significance to the track area, target audience, key messages, new evidence and/or innovations, data, results, methods, conclusions/findings. Pitches will be presented in the Marketplace and a session highlighting new evidence, products, or innovations.

  • A “pitch” or “elevator speech” is a presentation, not to exceed 5 minutes, to spur decision makers to action about an innovation or new product/service/evidence/learning related to community health workers and/or other community-based and community-led service providers. 
  • A poster is a physical display that is prepared in advance. 
  • An oral presentation can be supplemented with PowerPoint, video, pictures, however it is up to the submitter to provide all materials required. It should be no longer than 15 minutes in total presentation time.

The following information will be required for submissions:

  • Title (maximum 25 words)
  • Speaker contact details
  • Track relevance
  • An abstract of 350 words
  • Abstracts in French and English will be accepted

The Symposium committee strongly encourages submissions from CHWs and Government Ministries.

Apply Now

Submit Abstracts here. [Now closed]

Please note, the call for abstracts is extended to end on the 8th February 2023 (18:00 pm Eastern Standard Time), and abstracts will be reviewed on a rolling basis.