Community Case Management (CCM) in Humanitarian Settings: Guidelines for humanitarian workers

Children die when they do not have access to quality health care. Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) is a proven strategy that helps children in remote, low-resource settings get access to health care by training, supplying and supporting community health workers (CHWs) who can diagnose, treat and refer (as needed) children with pneumonia, malaria, diarrhea and/or malnutrition.

iCCM is lifesaving during emergencies when CHWs may be the only viable option for children to receive care. However, emergencies can exacerbate preexisting problems with iCCM — or create new ones — such as limited access to referral centers, shortages of medicines and other supplies, disrupted supervision, increased or altered workload and lack of security for patients, CHWs and supervisors.

Emergency responders can help keep existing iCCM programs running. However, they often are not familiar with iCCM or with the work of CHWs. Emergency responders may not know how to prioritize support for iCCM as a part of the emergency response strategy. This guide is based on findings from a global literature review on iCCM program implementation in emergencies and on case studies from Yemen and Haiti. It provides emergency responders with basic information on iCCM, support for making key decisions to implement iCCM during a spike in humanitarian needs or throughout protracted crisis settings and choices for transition after the acute phase has ended.