ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a set of principles for training community-based distribution (CBD) workers in family planning and health interventions. As part of the world-wide movement to expand family planning and primary health care to both urban and rural populations, auxiliary or village health workers represent an essential human resource. Primary care and family planning represent complex activities, requiring the organization of supplies, logistics, and supervision, and it is enticing to assume that training is relatively simple in comparison. Training CBD workers to deliver both health and family planning interventions entails certain difficulties. Training is an ongoing process wherein people learn to perform certain tasks in a competent manner. Competency-based training focuses on identifying training goals for learners rather than for teachers. Good training costs money and competency-based education can be more expensive over the short-term than education based on more traditional methods such as lectures. The use of competency-based training can assist in indicating the necessary length of training.
