As countries around the globe strive to meet the healthrelated Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to improve child and maternal health and reduce mortality, overwhelming evidence has emerged indicating the effectiveness of community-based interventions as a platform to extend health care delivery and improve health outcomes. The crucial role that Community Health Workers (CHWs) can play in delivering these interventions is broadly recognized. CHWs are best positioned to deliver these services in communities engaged in the improvement of their own health, working in partnership with other frontline health workers and anchored in the primary health care system. This is particularly true for communities comprised of the rural poor, for whom the provision of preventive.
