Lady Health Workers Programme — Pakistan's Women-Led Community Health Workforce

Pakistan's National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care, launched in 1994, deploys Lady Health Workers (LHWs) who deliver preventive, promotive and curative primary care in marginalised rural areas and urban slums. UNICEF's 2019 performance evaluation reports about 90,000 LHWs serving roughly 115 million people; other sources cite around 100,000 to 125,000 women employed.
An evaluation published in Health Policy and Planning (2005) found that women served by LHWs were significantly more likely to use a modern reversible contraceptive method than women in communities without the programme.
Oxfam reports that LHWs gain education, an independent income, greater decision-making authority in families, and mobility and respect in their communities, and some become community leaders. It also documents limits: the primary-education entry requirement marginalises the lowest castes, family members absorb the workers' time costs, and the model works less well in peri-urban areas that lack community cohesion.

Read the full analysis: https://frompoverty.oxfam.org.uk/pakistans-lady-health-workers-empowerment-healthcare