Table 2. CHW cadres referred to in this paper.

Country	CHW Cadre	Abbreviation	Description (note that in some countries, roles and employment conditions vary between states/regions)
Bangladesh	Community Healthcare Provider	CHCP	Male and female government workers; three months of training; work full-time at community clinics; provide wide range of preventive, promotive, and curative care including managing childhood diarrhoea, pneumonia, and malaria; screening for malnutrition; new-born care, antenatal care (ANC) and postnatal care (PNC); and attending deliveries; receive monthly salary [34,35].
	Family Welfare Assistant	FWA	Female government worker; one month of training; work principally in rural areas at community and satellite clinics and through household visits; provide services related to family planning, ANC, PNC and child care, adolescent health, and nutrition; receive monthly salary [36,37].
	Family Welfare Visitor	FWV	Female government worker; 18 months’ training; work primarily in remote areas at union health and family welfare centres; provide family planning services, maternal and other services; receive monthly salary [38–40].
	Health Assistant	HA	Male and Female government worker; one month of training; work in community clinics and via household visits; focus on organizing immunization campaigns, including associated community education; receive monthly salary [34,37].
	Shasthya Shebikas	SS	Female non-government organization (NGO) volunteers, recruited by BRAC from village microfinance organisations; three weeks of training; work through household visits; provide basic treatment, health promotion and referral; receive performance-based incentives, and some income via selling medial products [34,37,41,42].
India	Auxiliary Nurse Midwife	ANM	Female health workers; eighteen months of training; based at health sub-centres (the lowest facility in the rural public health care system) and also conduct outreach; manage family planning, immunization, and maternal and child health programmes as well as other services; support Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs); receive monthly salary [43,44].
	Accredited Social Health Activist	ASHA	Female village-level voluntary health workers recruited by the local government village representatives; receive around 3 weeks’ initial training followed by further modules; mobilise communities to access health services, particularly for ANC, PNC and institutional delivery; receive performance-based incentives and/or a fixed salary, varying between states [45].
	Anganwadi Worker	AWW	Female nutrition and child development workers, recruited from the village; one month of training; run preschool Anganwadi Centres and provide early childhood health and education, provide nutritional supplementation for children, lactating and pregnant women, and adolescent girls, and support with other health services; receive a monthly honorarium [43].
	ASHA Facilitators	AF	Female health workers; trained in a two-day workshop; provide guidance, supervision and other support for ASHA, including practical support with service delivery such as community meetings, and data collection on key indicators related to ASHA work; receive monthly honorarium [44,46].
Kenya	Community Health Extension Worker	CHEW	Male and female government employees; trained for 6 months (classroom and field); provide health services at household and community levels, make referrals and linkages to health facilities, and provide supportive supervision to Community Health Volunteer (CHV); receive monthly salary [47,48].
	Community Health Volunteer	CHV	Male and female volunteers; three months training based on a curriculum with 13 modules,; deliver services in a defined geographical area location called a Community Health Unit (CHU); receive monthly incentives [37].
Pakistan	Lady Health Worker	LHW	Female government employees; three months of classroom training and additional on-the-job training; attached to a local health facility but primarily community-based, working from their homes and via household visits; initial focus on maternal and child health but now participate in large health campaigns, newborn care, community management of TB, and HIV/AIDS education; receive a monthly salary [49].
Sierra Leone	Community Health Worker	CHW	Male or female (approximately 24% female health workers employed by government; 24 days’ classroom training; work primarily via household visits and provide reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health services, health promotion and community mobilisation, and support surveillance; receive a monthly incentive and additional allowance for travel and other logistics [50,51].
Ethiopia	Health Extension Worker	HEWs	Primarily female (in most regions) government employees; one to two years’ training; work at health posts and through outreach and household visits; conduct health promotion, disease prevention, and basic treatment; receive a monthly salary [52].