Kigali, Rwanda – June 2, 2025:
Dr. Josiah F. Joekai Jr., Chairman of the Health and Public Service Network of Africa (HaPSNA) and Director General of Liberia’s Civil Service Agency, has called for stronger efforts to integrate community health workers into national civil service systems across Africa.
Speaking at the opening of a two-day consultative meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, Dr. Joekai emphasized that recognizing and formalizing the role of frontline health workers is essential to building resilient and equitable healthcare systems.
“We are here to ensure that the unsung heroes of our health systems—community health workers—are no longer invisible in civil service planning and public policy execution,” he said.
The meeting, focused on integration and progress monitoring, builds on the momentum of a major regional conference held in Monrovia in March 2025. That event laid the foundation for HaPSNA’s coordinated approach to strengthening the health workforce across the continent.
Dr. Joekai said the Kigali gathering aims to produce a comprehensive policy framework to support the full integration of certified community health workers into national systems. He also highlighted the importance of finalizing a Delivery Maturity Index—a tool designed to measure how well countries are performing in delivering community health services.
According to Dr. Joekai, these tools will help governments make evidence-based decisions by analyzing workforce data on various categories of health workers, including supervisors, assistants, promoters, and traditional midwives.
He also shared Liberia’s progress, reporting that the Civil Service Agency and Ministry of Health have already begun transitioning community health workers and long-serving volunteers onto the national payroll as part of the country’s National Community Health Program. Full details, he said, would be presented in Liberia’s status report during the meeting.
Dr. Joekai urged African governments to prioritize intersectoral collaboration—especially between health and civil service ministries—to ensure fair wages, career development, and institutional recognition for community health workers.
“Health equity in Africa begins at the community level,” he said. “Let us proceed with the urgency this moment demands and the resolve our people deserve.”
The meeting, taking place from June 2–3 in Kigali, brings together health leaders, policymakers, and partners from across the region to discuss practical steps toward a more inclusive and effective healthcare system.
