The Village Health Worker (VHW) Program in Vanuatu has been active since the
1970s. Since 1998 Save the Children Australia (SCA) has supported the Ministry of
Health (MOH) to implement the program with funding from AusAID totalling
approximately AUD $3.7 million. Phase II of the Strengthening Village Health Worker
and Community Based Health Management Project (2006-2012) aimed to improve
health in rural communities by improving the performance of VHWs and
strengthening program management.
This independent evaluation was conducted between October 2012 and March 2013.
There was an in-country visit in October 2012 which included site visits to ten Aid
Posts and communities in two provinces, as well as interviews with key stakeholders
at national and provincial level. A second visit to Port Vila for further interviews was
undertaken in February 2013. The purpose of the evaluation was to review the
performance of the VHW program over the last decade with a focus on Phase II,
based on the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) criteria of
effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability, and to provide recommendations on how
the program can best focus its efforts to contribute to primary health care (PHC) in
Vanuatu and specifically the MOH’s National Policy and Strategy for Healthy Islands,
going forward.
Reviewing the performance of the VHW program proved challenging due to
limitations in the monitoring and reporting systems, resulting in limited data available
to assess the outcomes of the program. However, sufficient information was
collected to enable an assessment of the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and
sustainability of the program and provide recommendations for the future of the
program.