GlaxoSmithKline to support African healthcare worker scheme

GlaxoSmithKline has announced its support for One Million Community Health Workers Campaign, a scheme that aims to provide training for healthcare providers in sub-Saharan Africa.

The pharmaceutical company will provide $750,000 (497,800 pounds) for the creation of an online Operations Room that will track the scale-up of community health workers and serve as a central database of information for the campaign.

It will help to improve the quality and expand the number of community health worker systems to provide national coverage, thus making it easier to provide basic healthcare for millions of impoverished people across the region.

Duncan Learmouth, senior vice-president for developing countries and market access at GlaxoSmithKline, said: "By generating valuable new information about the numbers, capability and quality of community health workers currently working in Africa, we can help support systems to deploy them most effectively and transform healthcare in rural areas."

This comes after the firm agreed additional partnerships with Save the Children and the GAVI Alliance earlier this month that will aim to expand global access to healthcare in different ways.