Regional forum in Colombo advances efforts to institutionalize community health workforces (CHWs)—not only for emergencies, but as an integral part of public health systems.
COLOMBO, 28 August 2026 — When a public health emergency strikes, health needs emerge first and foremost among communities, to which the health system must respond rapidly.
CHWs, including community health workers, volunteers, and personnel of community-based and civil society organizations, are uniquely positioned to provide direct and immediate support at the grassroots level during these times even before the wider health system can respond. They understand local contexts, have established relationships with communities, and can help connect people with essential health services and reinforce public health interventions.
But their contribution should neither begin nor end with an emergency. CHWs need to be recognized and supported as an integral part of routine public health and primary health care, not simply as a workforce that can be mobilized during crises.
This is at the heart of the fourth Annual Regional Forum on Community Engagement and Resilience of the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region, which took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 26 to 28 August 2026. Co-organized by the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Centers of Excellence in Bangkok and Amman, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Asia Pacific Regional Office, the 2026 forum brought together representatives from ministries of health, the three levels of WHO, UNICEF, IFRC and other key regional and global partners, such as the World Bank and Resolve to Save Lives, to discuss and agree on the ways forward to strengthen and institutionalize the engagement of CHWs for localized public health emergency management and advance health system resilience.
Strengthening CHWs, advancing community resilience
A resilient health system is not built during a crisis. It is built through the systems, institutions, relationships, and capacities that are in place long before one occurs.
CHWs are an important part of that foundation.
The forum explored how CHWs could contribute to essential public health functions (EPHFs) at community level, including during emergencies, and what was required to make these roles sustainable. This meant looking beyond individual training and asking broader system-level questions: Are roles clearly defined? Are CHWs connected to primary health care and emergency management structures? Are there appropriate governance and accountability mechanisms? Is information flowing in both directions? Are sufficient resources and investments being made to sustain these functions?
These questions are particularly important because institutionalization requires health systems to create the conditions for CHWs to contribute effectively and consistently to public health. These include relevant policies and governance arrangements, sustainable financing, appropriate human resources for health strategies, competency frameworks and training mechanisms, information systems, supportive supervision and mutual accountability, as well as clear linkages with primary health care and emergency risk management systems.
Moving from ad hoc engagement towards sustained institutionalization requires investment across these systems. As Dr Rajesh Pandav, WHO Representative in Sri Lanka, told participants during the opening ceremony on behalf of Dr Nilesh Buddha, Officer-in-Charge of the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office: “True institutionalization requires investment. It requires us to standardize competency frameworks and establish accreditation mechanisms; to provide supportive supervision, and secure sustainable financing for community workforces. It means incorporating community health workers into national human resources for health planning, and into health information systems. Not fragmented, ad hoc, or project-based approaches, but embedded firmly within the health system.”
From regional guidance to country action
Participants were introduced to a newly developed regional package for CHW strengthening, comprising a situational assessment tool to support workforce mapping and system readiness; a consolidated guide on CHW roles, tasks and competencies; and an integrated training package covering essential public health functions. Ahead of the forum, ministries of health and country development partners worked as national teams to undertake a rapid situational assessment, providing a starting point for identifying system gaps, priorities and investment needs. In Colombo, teams built on these findings to identify immediate, medium- and long-term actions, as well as areas requiring partner support at country and regional levels.
CHWs in action: learning from Sri Lanka
A central feature of this year’s forum was a field visit on the second day. Participants visited two sites: the Plantation Human Development Trust (PHDT) and the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) Office in Gothatuwa, allowing them to move from discussion on frameworks to experience and observation. At these sites, they were introduced to two sets of CHWs. At PHDT, participants learned how the child development officers working in plantation communities had been supporting health information and education, mental health promotion, disaster response and broader socioeconomic initiatives. At MOH Gothatuwa, they met members of the Mother Support Group (MSG), which work alongside the local health unit on service referrals, health communication and misinformation management, among other functions.
The visits provided a practical reference point for the forum’s broader discussions on institutionalization. Participants heard directly from CHWs about their roles in routine health programmes and emergencies and explored how these functions were systematically connected to the health system. Back at the forum venue, participants reflected on three questions: What looked familiar? What was different? What could they take back to their own contexts? The visits illustrated a central message of the forum: community capacities built and sustained through routine public health work can become critical assets when emergencies occur.
A shared regional agenda for investment and action
Across three days, the participants shared country experiences, examined findings from their situational assessments, identified barriers and enabling factors, and developed priority actions for strengthening CHW engagement.
By the close of the forum, participants had agreed on six regional priorities for strengthening and institutionalizing CHW engagement:
- Map and define the CHWs
- Clarify roles, responsibilities and standard operating procedures for emergencies
- Establish multisectoral coordination mechanisms
- Institutionalize standardized, competency-based training
- Secure sustainable financing, incentives and recognition
- Strengthen data, reporting, monitoring and evaluation, and surge readiness
As an immediate next step, WHO, IFRC and UNICEF will continue working with Ministry of Health focal points to build high-level support and translate these regional priorities into country-level action.
The goal is not simply to ensure that CHWs are ready for the next emergency. It is to ensure they are recognized, supported and embedded within health systems before the next emergency occurs—strengthening public health every day while building resilience for times of crisis.