1. Introduction
Lay health workers (LHWs), defined as persons who support health work without formal qualifications [Youth Health Africa (YHA) is an innovative LHW approach that has showed potential to support HIV service delivery at health facilities in South Africa [Rigorous evaluation is needed to assess the impact of YHA on health services to determine whether this LHW approach is effective in improving health care delivery, specifically in the HIV care sector. Past research has evaluated the YHA approach through observational studies [