Basic health care is a fundamental prerequisite of both personal well-being and people’s ability to thrive economically. Yet more than half of the world’s population lacks access to essential health services.¹ Partly as a result of that gap, nearly 9 million people die each year from preventable and treatable diseases.² In addition, high medical expenses—driven by a lack of affordable, accessible health care options—cause 100 million people each year to fall into extreme poverty.¹

Effective systems of primary health care can be a crucial aspect of alleviating extreme poverty in low-income countries. The building blocks of such a system include not only adequate hospital infrastructure and medical staffing, but also high-quality service delivery, access to medical equipment and products, a capable workforce, and strong leadership by a nation’s ministry of health.³ One compelling intervention that can bolster a primary care system involves the deployment of community health workers. With a modest level of training, these workers can deliver services such as prenatal care, vaccinations, and malaria treatment, and they can do so in an efficient and cost-effective way.

Strengthening primacy health care systems can yield significant benefits. According to one study, 73 countries account for 97% of the world’s preventable maternal and child deaths, and deploying networks of community health workers in those countries would save at least 2.5 million lives per year.⁴