LINKING EFFECTIVE iCCM POLICY TO EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PROGRAM MANAGERS

I ntegrated community case management (iCCM) has been endorsed and promoted by WHO, UNICEF, USAID, and other major international organizations as a high-impact strategy to increase access to treatments for the leading causes of child mortality—diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. Because it relies on health workers based in the community, iCCM improves access and timeliness of treatment, and the integrated, multidisease approach applied by those community health workers (CHW) has proven an effective way to treat sick children. More generally, CHW-based strategies such as iCCM have proven to be successful in accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Yet in spite of the strengths and potential impact of iCCM, many countries have yet to implement or scale-up the approach.