We Need More Community Health Workers, Not Just Coders

"When the roots are forgotten, the leaves wither." — Akan proverb

Look, we all love a good hackathon. Young, brilliant minds in co-working spaces coding like their lives depend on it, creating apps that promise to “revolutionise African healthcare.” There's always a pitch deck, a catchy slogan—“Uber for blood donations!”—and a sprinkle of AI to impress the funders.

But here’s the unvarnished truth: you can’t code your way out of a cholera outbreak.

In our rush to build the next Silicon Savannah, we risk forgetting the true frontline of health innovation in Africa—community health workers (CHWs).

Tech Is Sexy. CHWs Save Lives.

You see, coders get tech conferences, seed funding, and media features. Community health workers? They get plastic chairs, a bicycle (if lucky), and a badge. But let’s be honest—when malaria hits your village, you’re not looking for an app developer. You’re looking for Mama Grace, the CHW who knows every household from Mombasa to the end of the power line.

In Kenya alone, CHWs contribute to over 60% of health service delivery at the community level (Ministry of Health Kenya, 2020). They are the ones who track pregnancies, spot disease outbreaks, dispense medications, and dispense gossip that sometimes saves lives.

So, before you design an AI chatbot for maternal health, ask yourself: can it walk 5 km under the sun carrying vaccines in a cooler?

Code is Cool. Context is Crucial.

Let’s be clear—we’re not anti-tech. After all, this is The HealthPreneur, not The Anti-Tech Gazette. We love our developers. But what Africa needs is symbiosis, not substitution.

Imagine this: CHWs equipped with digital tools designed with them, for them. Imagine digital dashboards co-created in community centres, not just in glass-walled incubators in Cape Town. Imagine health apps in Hausa, Kiswahili, Zulu—and with options for voice-based navigation for low-literacy users.

This is how you scale solutions that stick.

Case Studies: CHWs + Tech = Magic

Living Goods (Uganda, Kenya)

This social enterprise empowers CHWs with smartphones loaded with decision-support tools, diagnostic guides, and medicine tracking apps. Result? A 27% drop in child mortality in their areas of operation (Living Goods, 2023).

🌍 https://livinggoods.org

Reach52 (Ghana, Uganda, Kenya)

Their mobile platform connects CHWs with affordable healthcare products and services. Think of it as Amazon for essential medicine—but through the hands of local health heroes.

📱 https://reach52.com

Medic (formerly Medic Mobile)

They provide open-source mobile tools for CHWs in underserved regions. With Medic’s app, a CHW in a remote Tanzanian village can register births, flag emergencies, and follow up on TB cases—all offline.

🌐 https://medic.org

A Personal Anecdote: The App That Froze

One Nigerian startup built a sleek telemedicine app. But it failed in the field. Why? Because no one taught the CHWs how to use it. Worse, the app froze on all the phones with 1GB RAM—i.e., 90% of the phones in the pilot area.

Meanwhile, the CHWs had kept using their own notebooks and WhatsApp groups, and health coverage still improved. The app? It’s still somewhere on GitHub, probably with 3 stars and no README.

Africa’s Digital Health Revolution Needs More Feet on the Ground

Dear policy makers, funders, and startup founders: your shiny app is not a health system. It’s just a tool. The real system is human—built on trust, community, and local knowledge.

If you're looking to fund innovation, how about:

• Training 1,000 more CHWs instead of flying to yet another pitch competition in Lisbon?

• Equipping existing CHWs with digital literacy and simple mobile tools?

• Building healthtech that listens to users in gumboots, not just users in hoodies?

“A single bracelet does not jingle.” — Congolese proverb
Translation: Coders and CHWs need each other.

Conclusion: Shift the Spotlight

So next time you attend a health innovation panel and the conversation drifts (again) to blockchain and wearables, politely raise your hand and ask: “Yes, but what about the community health workers?”

Because it’s high time we placed our bets on the people who know our communities best—and have been saving lives long before healthtech had buzzwords.

References

Living Goods. (2023). Digitally enabled community health workers save lives. https://livinggoods.org
Medic. (2024). Tools for community health. https://medic.org
Reach52. (2024). Connecting underserved communities to healthcare. https://reach52.com
Ministry of Health Kenya. (2020). Community Health Policy 2020–2030. https://www.health.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Kenya-Community-Health-Policy-2020-2030-FINAL.pdf