Svea Closser Lecture: Engaging Community Health Workers in Global Health Policymaking through Reality TV Competitions

Community Health Workers (CHWs), the majority of whom are women, are the bedrock of primary care provision across the world but are often employed at the bottom of health hierarchies where they have little voice. We developed a policymaking “Shark Tank” competition for female CHWs working on polio vaccination in Peshawar, Pakistan. Structured processes can allow the least powerful actors in global health structures to suggest innovations that work for them.
 
Svea Closser is a medical anthropologist who studies the social relations and political dynamics that shape Primary Health Care. She is Associate Professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her current work on Primary Health Care in India and Ethiopia is funded by the Government of Karnataka, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organization, among others. Dr. Closser was faculty in the Anthropology department at Middlebury for ten years.