TY - JOUR
T1 - Per diems in polio eradication
T2 - Perspectives from community health workers and officials
AU - Closser, Svea
AU - Rosenthal, Anat
AU - Justice, Judith
AU - Maes, Kenneth
AU - Sultan, Marium
AU - Banerji, Sarah
AU - Amaha, Hailom Banteyerga
AU - Gopinath, Ranjani
AU - Omidian, Patricia
AU - Nyirazinyoye, Laetitia
N1 - Funding Information:
The larger study from which these data are drawn was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ([BMGF] contract 20333).
Funding Information:
This project was approved by the Mid- dlebury College institutional review board, the Nepal Health Research Council, and the Rwanda National Ethics Committee.
PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - Nearly all global health initiatives give per diems to community health workers (CHWs) in poor countries for shortterm work on disease-specific programs.Weinterviewed CHWs, supervisors, and high-level officials (n = 95) in 6 study sites across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in early 2012 about the per diems given to them by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. These per diems for CHWs ranged from $1.50 to $2.40 per day. International officials defended per diems for CHWs with an arrayof arguments,primarily that they were necessary to defray the expenses that workers incurred during campaigns. But high-level ministry of health officials inmany countries were concerned that even small per diems were unsustainable. By contrast, CHWs saw per diems as a wage; the very small size of this wage led many to describe per diems as unjust. Per diem polio work existed in the larger context of limited and mostly exploitative options for female labor. Taking the perspectives of CHWs seriously would shift the international conversation about per diems towardquestionsof labor rights and justice in global health pay structures.
AB - Nearly all global health initiatives give per diems to community health workers (CHWs) in poor countries for shortterm work on disease-specific programs.Weinterviewed CHWs, supervisors, and high-level officials (n = 95) in 6 study sites across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in early 2012 about the per diems given to them by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. These per diems for CHWs ranged from $1.50 to $2.40 per day. International officials defended per diems for CHWs with an arrayof arguments,primarily that they were necessary to defray the expenses that workers incurred during campaigns. But high-level ministry of health officials inmany countries were concerned that even small per diems were unsustainable. By contrast, CHWs saw per diems as a wage; the very small size of this wage led many to describe per diems as unjust. Per diem polio work existed in the larger context of limited and mostly exploitative options for female labor. Taking the perspectives of CHWs seriously would shift the international conversation about per diems towardquestionsof labor rights and justice in global health pay structures.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85027838222&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2105/AJPH.2017.303886
DO - 10.2105/AJPH.2017.303886
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85027838222
SN - 0090-0036
VL - 107
SP - 1470
EP - 1476
JO - American Journal of Public Health
JF - American Journal of Public Health
IS - 9
ER -
