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Background There is now rapidly growing global awareness of the potential of large-scale community health worker (CHW) programmes not only for improving population health but, even more importantly, for accelerating the achievement of universal health coverage and eliminating readily preventable child and maternal deaths. However, these programmes face many challenges that must be overcome in order for them to reach their full potential. Findings This editorial introduces a series of 11 articles that provide an overview highlighting a broad range of issues facing large-scale CHW programmes. The series addresses many of them: planning, coordination and partnerships; governance, financing, roles and tasks, training, supervision, incentives and remuneration; relationships with the health system and communities; and programme performance and its assessment. Above all, CHW programmes need stronger political and financial support, and this can occur only if the potential of these programmes is more broadly recognized. The authors of the papers in this series believe that these challenges can and will be overcome—but not overnight. For this reason, the series bears the title “Community Health Workers at the Dawn of a New Era”. The scientific evidence regarding the ability of CHWs to improve population health is incontrovertible, and the favourable experience with these programmes at scale when they are properly designed, implemented, and supported is compelling. CHW programmes were once seen as a second-class solution to a temporary problem, meaning that once the burden of disease from maternal and child conditions and from communicable diseases in low-income countries had been appropriately reduced, there would be no further need for CHWs. That perspective no longer holds. CHW programmes are now seen as an essential component of a high-performing healthcare system even in developed countries. Their use is growing rapidly in the United States, for instance. And CHWs are also now recognized as having a critically important role in the control of noncommunicable diseases as well as in the response to pandemics of today and tomorrow in all low-, middle-, and high-income countries throughout the world. Conclusion The promise of CHW programmes is too great not to provide them with the support they need to achieve their full potential. This series helps to point the way for how this support can be provided.

Background Zambia is experiencing high prevalence of childhood cancer. However, very few children access and complete treatment for cancer. This study aimed to document the challenges for health care providers, parents and patients who face a child hood cancer diagnosis in Zambia, and their coping strategies. Methods This was an exploratory health facility-based qualitative study that was conducted at a Paediatric oncology ward at referral hospital in Zambia. In-depth individual interviews conducted with fifteen (15) caregivers and seven (7) key informants were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Several challenges related to managing the childhood cancer diagnosis were recorded. Individual and family challenges were inadequate knowledge on childhood cancer, lack of finances to meet treatment and transport costs as well as long period of hospitalisation that affected women’s ability to perform multiple responsibilities. Whereas challenges at community level were inadequate support to address emotional and physical distress and social stigmatisation experienced by caregivers. Health systems issues included inadequate specialised health workers, poor communication among health workers, limited space and beds as well as insufficient supplies such as blood. Cultural related factors were the belief that cancer is a product of witchcraft as well as religious beliefs regarding the role of faith healing in childhood cancer treatment. Coping strategies used by parents/ caregivers included praying to God, material support from organisations and church as well as delaying having another child. Conclusion Addressing the challenges for health care providers, parents and patients who face a childhood cancer diagnosis may require adopting a systems or an ecological approach that allows developing strategies that simultaneously address challenges related to the individual, family, community, health system and cultural aspects.

Background Despite evidence that most child malaria deaths occur at home shortly after symptom onset, receiving timely malaria treatment remains a significant challenge. Timely malaria treatment, defined as early diagnosis and prompt administration of appropriate anti-malarial medication within 24 h of symptom onset, is crucial for reducing mortality. However, factors influencing timely treatment among under-five children in resource-limited settings remain inadequately explored. This study aimed to assess the determinants of timely malaria treatment among under-five children, who receive care at public health facilities in Kisumu East sub-county, Kenya. Methods A health facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Kisumu East sub-county, Kenya, between 5th April and 26th May 2023. The study employed a two-stage stratified-cluster sampling method, first selecting hospitals and then using systematic sampling to select caregivers. Data collection was done electronically using structured questionnaires. Associations at bivariable level were assessed using either the Chi-square or Fisher's exact test based on assumptions. Multiple logistic regression with robust standard errors was applied at a 5% significance level to establish determinants of timely malaria treatment among under-five children. STATA version 16 (College Station, TX 77845 USA) was used for all analyses. Results The sample included a total of 434 caregivers of under-five children. The study revealed that caregivers' ability to recognize malaria symptoms was associated with higher odds of seeking timely malaria treatment for their children (AOR = 2.9; 95% CI 1.4–6.3; p = 0.006). Belief in use of appropriate malaria drugs was associated with higher odds of timely treatment (AOR = 6.9, 95% CI 2.5–18.9, p < 0.0001). Additionally, having health insurance cover was associated with higher odds of timely treatment (AOR = 2.1; 95% CI 1.3–3.6; p = 0.005). Those who visited herbalists before seeking care were less likely to receive timely treatment (AOR = 0.1; 95% CI 0.1–0.3; p < 0.0001). Fear of drugs' side effects reduced the odds of timely treatment (AOR = 0.5; 95% CI 0.3–0.9; p = 0.013). Conclusion Timely malaria treatment was linked to the ability to tell symptoms and having health insurance, while delayed malaria treatment was related to herbalist visits and fear of malaria, among others. There is need for relevant stakeholders to implement strategies that address misconceptions about drug side effects, offer affordable insurance, integrate the informal health sector, and educate caregivers about under-five malaria symptoms in order to promote timely malaria treatment.

Background The co-occurrence of HIV and tuberculosis (TB) presents significant challenges for effective healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. Integrating HIV and TB services has been recognised as a key strategy to optimise care and improve health outcomes. However, the factors that shape the optimal integration of these services remain unclear in many settings. This study aimed to explore the factors that influence the integration of HIV and TB services. Methods A purposive sampling technique was used to select study participants from 3 selected health facilities in Zomba, Malawi. This study used an exploratory qualitative case study and was performed from February to March 2024. A total ( n  = 31) of semistructured interviews were conducted. Healthcare providers ( n  = 12), program coordinators ( n  = 4), and recipients of care ( n  = 15) involved in the delivery of HIV and TB services were purposefully included. Thematic analysis using the Atun framework, which groups factors shaping integration around the problem, intervention, adoption system, health system characteristics and broad context, was employed. Results Increased workload among health workers and side effects among patients were reported barriers given the nature of the problem. The benefits of integrating HIV/TB services and compatibility with one’s job shaped HIV/TB integration. The adoption system-related factors included the role of volunteers and nongovernmental organisations. Health system characteristics facilitating HIV/TB integration included strong positive relationships among stakeholders, the provision of incentives and the availability of demand-generating activities. Structural challenges, a lack of financial support and shortages of commodities and supplies were health system-related barriers. Broad contextual factors facilitating HIV/TB integration included strong political will, whereas barriers included the impact of religious, sociocultural and economic factors, including the impact of natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion The effective integration of HIV and TB services is contingent upon addressing systemic and contextual barriers while leveraging facilitating factors. Enhancing health worker capacity, ensuring consistent supply chains, and fostering strong stakeholder relationships are vital steps. Additionally, comprehensive strategies that address these multifaceted issues are key to achieving successful integration and better health outcomes.

Legitimacy is necessary for resilience and trust helps to legitimize health systems. Providing services during Covid has relied on both the private and public sectors but there is little information on differences in trust between these sectors during shocks like Covid and how it may impact the health system’s legitimacy. The purpose of this study was to explore community trust in the public and private sectors of the Zambian health system during Covid, to generate understanding on how trust in the different sectors may influence the system’s legitimacy. Twelve focus groups discussions and 22 key informant interviews were conducted in 2022 with community members who used public, private, and faith-based services during Covid and service providers, and thematic analysis identified perceptions of trust between the different sectors. The themes ‘Humane, patient-centred treatment’ and ‘Communicating the truth’ describe the desire for humane interactions and truthfulness during Covid, compromised by fear, uncertainty, and suspicions of the motives of the sectors, and alleviated by support, security, and shared identity. The legitimacy of the public sector was influenced by shared spaces, values, and identities with communities. The private sector maintained its legitimacy through service quality and its identity as a non-governmental business. Interpersonal trust was important, but identity played a larger role than high-quality interactions for legitimacy in Zambia during the pandemic. To enhance legitimacy and resilience during shocks, potential strategies include strengthening the quality of public sector interactions to meet private sector standards, emphasizing the public sector as a public good, and clarifying the public sector’s role vis-à-vis the government during crises.

Background School-based sexuality education is instrumental in promoting health and well-being of adolescents and young people. While countries across sub-Saharan Africa have made significant progress in improving adolescents’ and young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, school-based sexuality education policy, curriculum development and implementation need further advancement. This paper aims to contribute to enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of sexuality education programmes, by sharing lessons learned from the mixed-methods evaluation of the ‘Our rights, Our lives, Our future’ programme across 33 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (2018–2022). Methods The evaluation employed mixed methods. It started with a review of 35 programme documents, after which ten qualitative country case studies and 15 regional and global-level interviews with key stakeholders were conducted. The case studies were conducted in Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Gabon, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia. They included a total of 34 focus groups discussions with adolescents, teachers and parents; 76 key informant interviews; and nine stakeholder learning sessions. Data from each method were triangulated and synthesised based on an evaluation framework. Results Findings show that the programme made a substantial contribution to keeping sexuality education on the political agenda in a context of growing opposition. The programme’s support to national governments also led to significant progress in the development and adoption of sexuality education curricula. In many settings, the delivery of sexuality education was hampered by limited competencies and sometimes negative attitudes of teachers, and a lack of support in the school and community environment, including a lack of support from parents. Conclusions Continued efforts are needed for supporting sexuality education policy processes and sustainable implementation in sub-Saharan Africa. There is a need for collaborative advocacy and countering opposition. Improving the quality of sexuality education delivered in schools also requires continuous attention. Such efforts need the engagement of multiple stakeholders, including adolescents and young people themselves. Plain English summary Sexuality education in schools promotes the health and well-being of adolescents and young people. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made significant progress in improving adolescents’ and young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. However, it is known that sexuality education in schools needs to be improved. This paper aims to contribute to more effective and sustainable sexuality education programmes, by sharing lessons learned from the evaluation of the ‘Our rights, Our lives, Our future’ programme (2018–2022). This programme supported 33 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the promotion of sexuality education in schools. Findings show that the programme made a substantial contribution to keeping sexuality education on the political agenda, in a context of growing opposition. The programme’s support to national governments also led to significant progress in the development and implementation of sexuality education curricula. In many countries, the delivery of sexuality education was hampered by limited competencies and sometimes negative attitudes of teachers. In addition, there was often a lack of support for sexuality education from parents and other community members. Continued efforts are needed for supporting sexuality education policy processes and sustainable implementation in sub-Saharan Africa.

BackgroundThe UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets, aimed at ending the AIDS pandemic by 2030, have increased ART initiation among people living with HIV (PLWH). However, retention in care remains a challenge in some settings due to the growing patient load on already overwhelmed health systems. Decentralizing HIV services to the community is critical to decongest facilities and improve access. This study explored the experiences of patients and healthcare workers (HCWs) with retention in care under Zambia’s Community Adherence Group (CAG) model.MethodThis qualitative study was nested within a community ART retention project that implemented three decentralized ART models across five communities in Zambia. Between September and December 2018, data were collected through audio-recorded focus group discussions (FGDs) with purposively selected PLWH (8 FGDs, n = 42) enrolled in the CAG model and interviews with healthcare providers (n = 6). Recordings were transcribed verbatim, translated into English, and analyzed thematically using the Social Ecological Model to explore participants’ experiences.ResultsPatient retention in CAGs was influenced by factors across different levels of the Social Ecological Model. At the individual level, participants noted increased free time and reduced opportunity costs, enabling them to access ART while continuing with livelihood activities. Interpersonal factors, such as peer support and shared knowledge during group meetings, further enhanced engagement. At the organizational level, reduced clinic-based stigma encouraged continued care. Although the CAG helped with patient retention in care, a few participants felt it didn’t address conflicts with patients’ livelihood activities, particularly business ventures, which required patients to travel outside the community for an extended period.ConclusionsCAG models were perceived as practical models for improving ART patient retention because they provided an important option for PLWH to access ART services as close as possible to their homes. For the models to be effective, it is important to consider the socio-economic context, including various livelihood situations for PLWH.

Background Adolescent school-going mothers return to school in the rekindled hope of obtaining an education. However, their re-introduction into the school environment requires adequate support from teachers, fellow pupils, and the community. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of school-going mothers in Lusaka to understand their coping mechanism in the process of re-integration. Method This is a qualitative case study. We conducted in-depth interviews with 24 school going mothers between the ages of 16–19, purposively selected from 2 schools in Lusaka district. Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed, coded using Nvivo 10 software and analysed using thematic analysis. Results The girls reported experiencing stigmatization, discrimination, mockery and abuse from their teachers. Some community members labelled, humiliated, gossiped about and isolated the girls from their friends and classmates because of fear of ‘contamination’. Families forced some girls into early marriages making them feel rejected. These experiences resulted in low self-esteem, inferiority complex, poor performance in their academic work and identity crises in the young mothers. Therefore, because of the experiences the girls faced, they developed certain behaviours such as beer drinking, truancy and running away from home. They found it difficult to adjust to motherhood while doing their schoolwork. Conclusion There is a need for the teachers to undergo training on how to handle young mothers and have a flexible time-table to accommodate adolescent school going mothers when they miss lessons to attend to their babies. Non-parenting school girls should be counseled so that they do not stigmatize adolescent mothers. Parents need to be educated on how to deal with adolescent mothers in the community. The guidance office should have a qualified psychosocial counselor to help create a conducive learning environment for adolescent mothers, by helping them with missed lessons and seeing to it that they are not stigmatized.

Introduction Although large scale public sector community health worker programs have been key in providing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in low- and middle-income countries, their integration process into community health systems is not well understood. This study aimed to identify the conditions and strategies through which Community Health Assistants (CHAs) gained entry and acceptability into community health systems to provide SRH services to youth in Zambia. The country’s CHA program was launched in 2010. Methodology A phenomenological design was conducted in Nyimba district. All nine CHAs deployed in Nyimba district were interviewed in-depth on their experiences of navigating the introduction of SRH services for youth in community settings, and the data obtained analyzed thematically. Results In delivering SRH services targeting youth, CHAs worked with a range of community actors, including other health workers, safe motherhood action groups, community health workers, neighborhood health committees, teachers, as well as political, traditional and religious leaders. CHAs delivered SRH education and services in health facilities, schools, police stations, home settings, and community spaces. They used their health facility service delivery role to gain trust and entry into the community, and they also worked to build relationships with other community level actors by holding regular joint meetings, and acting as brokers between the volunteer health workers and the Ministry of Health. CHAs used their existing social networks to deliver SRH services to adolescents. By embedding the provision of information about SRH into general life skills at community level, the topic’s sensitivity was reduced and its acceptability was enhanced. Further, support from community leaders towards CHA-driven services promoted the legitimacy of providing SRH for youth. Factors limiting the acceptability of CHA services included the taboo of discussing sexuality issues, a gender discriminatory environment, competition with other providers, and challenges in conducting household visits. Conclusion Strengthening CHAs’ ability to negotiate and navigate and gain acceptability in the community health system as they deliver SRH, requires support from both the formal health system and community networks. Limitations to the acceptability of CHA-driven SRH services are a product of challenges both in the community and in the formal health system.

Background Despite global and regional policies that promote the reduction of adolescent fertility through ending early marriages and reducing early child-bearing, adolescent fertility remains high in most sub-Saharan countries. This study aimed to explore the competing discourses that shape adolescent fertility control in Zambia. Methods A qualitative case study design was adopted, involving 33 individual interviews and 9 focus group discussions with adolescents and other key-informants such as parents, teachers and policymakers. Thematic and critical discourse analysis were used to analyze the data. Results Adolescents’ age significantly reduced their access to Sexual and Reproductive Health, SRH services. Also, adolescent fertility discussions were influenced by marital norms and Christian beliefs, as well as health and rights values. While early marriage or child-bearing was discouraged, married adolescents and adolescents who had given birth before faced fewer challenges when accessing SRH information and services compared to their unmarried or nulliparous counterparts. Besides, the major influencers such as parents, teachers and health workers were also conflicted about how to package SRH information to young people, due to their varying roles in the community. Conclusion The pluralistic view of adolescent fertility is fueled by “multiple consciousnesses”. This is evidenced by the divergent discourses that shape adolescent fertility control in Zambia, compounded by the disempowered position of adolescents in their communities. We assert that the competing moral worlds, correct in their own right, viewed within the historical and social context unearth significant barriers to the success of interventions targeted towards adolescents’ fertility control in Zambia, thereby propagating the growing problem of high adolescent fertility. This suggests proactive consideration of these discourses when designing and implementing adolescent fertility interventions.