This webinar is the 7th of a series organised by the ‘Community Health’ CoP.

In Africa, several countries are exploring the potential of applying the Results-Based Financing approach to community health workers. In this webinar, we hear from The Gambia, one of the countries which is the most advanced with the development of this so-called ‘Community Results-Based Financing’ (cRBF)’ approach. Does it work? What is the required institutional setup? How does it relate to the rest of the health system? What are the pros and cons? The lessons from The Gambia throw light on whether and how cRFB can be integrated to institutionalize community health.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) and National Nutrition Agency (NaNA) in The Gambia, have been jointly implementing since 2014, World Bank-financed Maternal and Child Nutrition and Health Results Project (MCNHRP). The project uniquely combines a supply-side Performance Based Financing (PBF) with a community-based RBF (cRBF) mechanism to address challenges to maternal and child nutrition and health, including sanitation and hygiene. The institutional set-up is designed for the project to create demand and boost service utilization at individual and community level within the context of strengthening the community health system and fostering strong linkages between communities and health facilities.

The webinar discusses the Gambia’s experience (challenges and lessons learned) in implementing cRBF within the context of revitalizing and scaling up Primary Health Care (PHC). The presentation discusses on PBF: Why community PBF and its relevance in The Gambia in addressing community health issues and increasing service utilization? How does the cRBF design fit into the overall RBF institutional framework of the project? What is the role of the community health structures in this and challenges in institutionalizing community health workers?