RESEARCH ARTICLE The influence of the Community‐based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) program on community health sustainability in the Upper West Region of Ghana Hannah Woods 1 | Umar Haruna 2 | Irenius Konkor 1 | Isaac Luginaah 1 1 Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada 2 Department of Social, Political and Historical Studies, University for Development Studies, Wa Campus, Wa, Ghana Correspondence Umar Haruna, Department of Social, Political and Historical Studies, University for Development Studies, Wa Campus, Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana. Email: humar@uds.edu.gh Summary Ghana introduced Community‐based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) to improve primary health care in rural areas. The extension of health care services to rural areas has the potential to increase sustainability of community health. Drawing on the capitals framework, this study aims to understand the contribution of CHPS to the sustainability of community health in the Upper West Region of Ghana— the poorest region in the country. We conducted in‐depth interviews with community members (n = 25), key informant interviews with health officials (n = 8), and focus group dis- cussions (n = 12: made up of six to eight participants per group) in six communities from two districts. Findings show that through their mandate of primary health care provision, CHPS contributed directly to improvement in community health (eg, access to family planning services) and indirectly through strengthening social, human, and economic capital and thereby improving social cohesion, awareness of health care needs, and willingness to take action at the community level. Despite the current contributions of CHPS in improv- ing the sustainability of community health, there are several challenges, based on which we recommend, that govern- ment should increase staffing and infrastructure in order to strengthen and maintain the functionality of CHPS. KEYWORDS capital, CHPS, community health, Ghana, health sustainability Received: 27 August 2018 Revised: 27 September 2018 Accepted: 27 September 2018 DOI: 10.1002/hpm.2694 Int J Health Plann Mgmt. 2018;1–15. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hpm 1