Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract ELIC202551 (Poster 130) | Published: 07 Aug 2025
Odame Emmanuel Ankrah1,&, Houeto David2, Balle Okpe3, Sani Ali4, Lokossou Virgil4, Keita Kissi5, Namam Pansau6, Cardoso Placido6, Sombie Issiaka4, Usman Aishat B4, Keita Namoudou4, Agbla Felix4, Melchior Aïssi4
1University of Ghana Medical School/Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana, 2University of Parakou, Benin, 3Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, 4West African Health Organisation, 5UNFPA, Guinea, 6Ministry of Public Health, Guinea-Bissau
&Corresponding author: Odame Emmanuel Ankrah, University of Ghana Medical School/Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana. Email: joeankra@yahoo.com
Received: 12 Apr 2025, Accepted: 09 Jul 2025, Published: 07 Aug 2025
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: Social determinants of health, primary health care, community health systems, West Africa, health policy
©Odame Emmanuel Ankrah et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Odame Emmanuel Ankrah et al., Situational analysis of community health systems in West Africa: Imperative to integrate social determinants of health. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc5):00276. https://doi.org/10.37432/jieph-confpro5-00276
Recent global economic crises, pandemics, and climate change have exposed weaknesses in health systems, particularly at the community level. In response, the West African Health Organization (WAHO) conducted a regional situational analysis to inform updates to its community health strategy, emphasizing social determinants of health (SDH), multisectoral collaboration, and the “Health in All Policies” (HiAP) approach.
A cross-sectional study was carried out in 13 ECOWAS countries using a standardized tool developed by WAHO. Data were collected from September to November 2023 through self-administered questionnaires, document reviews, and stakeholder interviews. Thematic content analysis was used to identify key trends.
All countries reported using data-driven approaches, but few had community-specific HRH systems or fully adopted MEAL frameworks. Two CHW categories were common—professionals and volunteers—though core competencies were often misaligned with SDH. Financing remained inconsistent, and HiAP strategies lacked full implementation.
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