%0 Journal Article
%T Developing lay health worker policy in South Africa: a qualitative study
%A Karen Daniels
%A Marina Clarke
%A Karin C Ringsberg
%J Health Research Policy and Systems
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1478-4505-10-8
%X The study adopted a qualitative approach to exploring policy development from the perspective of policy actors. Eleven policy actors (policy makers and policy commentators) were interviewed individually. Data from the interviews were analysed thematically.Considerations of LHW working conditions drove policy redevelopment. From the interviews it seems that gender as an issue never reached the policy making agenda. Although there was strong recognition that the working conditions of LHWs needed to be improved, poor working conditions were not necessarily seen as a gender concern. Our data suggests that in the process of defining the problem which the redeveloped policy had to address, gender was not included. There was no group or body who brought the issue of gender to the attention of policy developers. As such the issue of gender never entered the policy debates. These debates focused on whether it was appropriate to have LHWs, what LHW programme model should be adopted and whether or not LHWs should be incorporated into the formal health system.LHW policy redevelopment focused on resolving issues of LHW working conditions through an active process involving many actors and strong debates. Within this process the issue of gender had no champion and never reached the LHW policy agenda. Future research may consider how to incorporate the voices of ordinary women into the policy making process.Lay Health Workers (LHWs) have been defined as any health worker carrying out functions related to health care delivery; trained in some way in the context of the intervention; and having no formal professional or paraprofessional certificated or degreed tertiary education [1]. Internationally LHWs have come both in and out of favour over the past 50 years [2]. They can be found in almost every primary health care system across the world, carrying out a range of tasks including palliative care, counselling, health promotion, treatment support, breastfeeding support etc [2].The
%K Lay health workers
%K Health policy analysis
%K Gender
%K Qualitative research
%U http://www.health-policy-systems.com/content/10/1/8