CHPS Seminar Report: Best Practices and Innovations Powering CHPS Scale Up

The initiative has been implemented over the last decade, with significant contributions to the provision of services, including 30% of family planning, 36% of Polio-3 immunizations, and 10% of Outpatient Department (OPD) services in 2015. Despite a gap of 2,539 CHPS Zones needed to achieve the ambitious goal of 5,487 CHPS Zones across the 10 regions of the country, CHPS is making a significant contribution to the provision of services. The CHPS Seminar, held on 20-21 May 2015, brought together over 130 national-, regional-, and district-level stakeholders to discuss critical issues related to CHPS scale up. The seminar aimed to share best practices, discuss key issues related to scale up, and agree on the establishment of a CHPS Technical Coordination Team. Presentations addressed a range of topics, including the current state of CHPS and plans for scale up, best practices in CHPS implementation across the health system, and CHPS financing. Key themes that emerged from the seminar included the importance of community leadership and ownership, the need for standardization and harmonization of efforts, and the challenges of implementing CHPS in areas with limited resources. Participants also highlighted the importance of community health officers (CHOs) and the need for a mix of staff, including CHOs, midwives, and clinical nurses. The seminar also focused on best practices and innovations in CHPS implementation, including community participation and ownership, engaging local political systems and district assemblies, and using smartphones to support CHOs. The "world café" model was used to facilitate group work, with participants organized by health systems areas and working on strengths and weaknesses, innovations, and recommendations. The revised CHPS policy, presented in the annex, addresses five main elements to strengthen and improve CHPS and enable it to become the Ministry of Health's main methodology for achieving UHC in Ghana. The policy emphasizes the importance of community leadership and ownership, standardization and harmonization of efforts, and the need for a mix of staff, including CHOs, midwives, and clinical nurses. Implementation of the revised CHPS policy will require the establishment of a CHPS Technical Coordination Team, which will be responsible for coordinating and harmonizing efforts across the health system. The team will also be responsible for developing and implementing a common fund for CHPS, which will provide financial support for CHPS implementation and scale up. The CHPS initiative has made significant contributions to the provision of services in Ghana, and the revised CHPS policy provides a framework for strengthening and improving CHPS implementation and scale up. The establishment of a CHPS Technical Coordination Team and the development of a common fund for CHPS will be critical to achieving the ambitious goal of 5,487 CHPS Zones across the 10 regions of the country.