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Tag: Impact Accelerator

  • What is The Geneva Learning Foundation’s Impact Accelerator?

    What is The Geneva Learning Foundation’s Impact Accelerator?

    Imagine a social worker in Ukraine supporting children affected by the humanitarian crisis. Thousands of kilometers away, a radiation specialist in Japan is trying to find effective ways to communicate with local communities. In Nigeria, a health worker is tackling how to increase immunization coverage in their remote village. These professionals face very different challenges in very different places. Yet when they joined their first “Impact Accelerator”, something remarkable happened. They all found a way forward. They all made real progress. They all discovered they are not alone.

    The Impact Accelerator is a simple, practical method developed by The Geneva Learning Foundation that helps professionals turn intent into action, results, and outcomes. It has worked equally well in every country where it has been tried. It has helped people – whatever their knowledge domain or context – strengthen action and accelerate progress to improve health outcomes. Each time, in each place, whatever the challenge, it has produced the same powerful results.

    The social worker joins other professionals facing similar challenges. The radiation specialist connects with safety experts dealing with comparable concerns. The health worker collaborates with others working to improve immunization. Each group shares a common purpose.

    What makes the Impact Accelerator different?

    Most training programs teach you something and then send you away. You return to your workplace full of ideas but face the same obstacles. You have new knowledge but struggle to apply it. (Some people call this “knowledge transfer” but it is not only about knowledge. Others call this the “applicability problem”.) You feel alone with your challenges.

    The Impact Accelerator works differently. It stays with you as you implement change. It connects you with others facing similar challenges. It helps you take small, concrete steps each week toward your bigger goal.

    Each Impact Accelerator brings together professionals working on the same type of challenge. Social workers who support children join with others who do the same – but the group may also include teachers and psychologists they do not usually work with. Safety specialists connect with safety specialists, but also people in other job roles. It is their shared purpose that makes this diversity productive:  every discussion, every shared experience, every piece of advice directly applies to their work.

    Think of it like learning to ride a bicycle. Traditional training is like someone explaining how bicycles work. The Impact Accelerator is like having someone run alongside you, keeping you steady as you pedal, cheering when you succeed, and helping you get back on when you fall. Everyone learns to ride, together. And everyone is going somewhere.

    How does the Impact Accelerator work?

    The Impact Accelerator follows a simple weekly rhythm that fits into daily work. It is learning-based work and work-based learning.

    Monday: Set your goal

    Every Monday, you decide on one specific action you will complete by Friday. Not a vague hope or a grand plan. One concrete thing you can actually do.

    For example:

    • “I will create a safe space activity for five children showing signs of trauma.”
    • “I will develop a visual guide for the new radiation monitoring procedures.”
    • “I will meet with three community leaders to discuss vaccine concerns.”

    You share this goal with others in the Accelerator. This creates accountability. You know that on Friday, your peers will ask how it turned out.

    Wednesday: Check in with peers

    Midweek, you connect with others in your group who face the same type of challenges. You share what is working, what is difficult, and what you are learning.

    This is where magic happens. Someone else tried something that failed. Now you know to try differently. Another person found a creative solution. Now you can adapt it for your situation. You realize you are part of something bigger than yourself.

    Friday: Report and reflect

    On Friday, you report on your progress. Did you achieve your goal? What happened when you tried? What did you learn?

    This is not about judging success or failure. Sometimes the most valuable learning comes from things that did not work as expected. The important thing is that you took action, you reflected on what happened, and you are ready to try again next week.

    Monday again: Build on what you learned

    The next Monday, you set a new goal. But now you are not starting from zero. You have the experience from last week. You have ideas from your peers. You have momentum.

    Week by week, action by action, you make progress toward your larger goal.

    The power of structured support in the Impact Accelerator

    The Impact Accelerator provides several types of support to help you succeed.

    Peer learning networks

    You join a community of professionals who understand your challenges because they face similar ones. 

    Each Impact Accelerator brings together people working on the same type of challenge. This shared purpose means that every suggestion, every idea, every lesson learned is likely to be relevant to your work. The learning comes not from distant experts but from people doing the same work you do. Their solutions are practical and tested in real conditions like yours.

    Guided structure

    While you choose your own goals and actions, the Accelerator provides a framework that keeps you moving forward. The weekly rhythm creates momentum. The reporting requirements ensure reflection. The peer connections prevent isolation.

    This structure is like the banks of a river. The water (your energy and creativity) flows freely, but the banks keep it moving in a productive direction.

    Expert guidance when needed

    Sometimes you need specific technical input or help with a particular challenge. The Accelerator provides “guides on the side” – experts who offer targeted support without taking over your process. They help you think through problems and connect you with resources, but you remain in charge of your own change effort.

    What participants achieve

    Across different countries and different challenges, Impact Accelerator participants report similar outcomes.

    Increased confidence

    “Before, I knew what should be done but felt overwhelmed about how to start. Now I take one step at a time and see real progress.” This confidence comes from successfully completing weekly actions and seeing their impact.

    Tangible progress

    Participants do not just learn about change; they create it. A vaccination program reaches new communities. Safety procedures actually get implemented. Children receive support when they need it. The changes may start small, but they are real and they grow.

    Expanded networks

    “I used to feel like I was the only one facing these problems. Now I have colleagues across my country who understand and support me.” These networks last beyond the Accelerator, providing ongoing support and collaboration.

    Enhanced problem-solving

    Through weekly practice and peer exchange, participants develop stronger skills for analyzing challenges and developing solutions. They learn to break big problems into manageable actions and to adapt based on results.

    Resilience in facing obstacles

    Every change effort faces barriers. The Accelerator helps participants expect these obstacles and work through them with peer support rather than giving up when things get difficult.

    How can the same methodology work everywhere?

    The Impact Accelerator has succeeded across vastly different contexts – from supporting children in Ukrainian cities to enhancing radiation safety in Japanese facilities to improving immunization in Nigerian villages. Each Accelerator focuses on one specific challenge area, bringing together professionals who share that common purpose. Why does the same approach work for such different challenges?

    The answer lies in focusing on universal elements of successful change:

    • Breaking big goals into weekly actions;
    • Learning from peers who understand your specific context and challenges;
    • Reflecting on what works and what does not;
    • Building momentum through consistent progress; and
    • Creating accountability through a community united by shared purpose.

    Each group focuses on their specific challenge and context, but the process of creating change remains remarkably similar.

    A typical participant journey in the Impact Accelerator

    Let us follow Yuliia, a social worker in Ukraine helping children affected by the humanitarian crisis.

    Week 1: Getting started

    Yuliia joins the Impact Accelerator after developing her action plan. Her big goal: establish effective psychological support for 50 displaced children in her community center within three months.

    On Monday, she sets her first weekly goal: “During daily activities, I will observe and document how 10 children are affected.”

    By Friday, she has detailed observations. She notices that loud noises sometimes cause reactions in most children, and several withdraw completely during group activities. This gives her concrete starting points.

    Week 2: Building on learning

    Based on her observations, Yuliia sets a new goal: “I will create a quiet corner with calming materials and test it with three children who are withdrawn.”

    During the Wednesday check-in, another social worker shares how she uses art therapy for non-verbal expression with traumatized children. A colleague working in a different city describes success with sensory materials. Yuliia incorporates both ideas into her quiet corner.

    The quiet corner proves successful – two of the three children spend time there and begin to engage with the materials. One child draws for the first time since arriving at the center.

    Week 3: Creative solutions

    Yuliia’s new goal: “I will develop a simple ‘feelings chart’ with visual cues and introduce it during morning circle time.”

    Her peers from Ukraine and all over Europe – all working with children – help refine the idea. A psychologist from another region shares that abstract emotions are hard for traumatized children to identify. She suggests using colors and weather symbols instead of facial expressions. Another colleague recommends making the chart interactive rather than static.

    The feelings chart becomes a breakthrough tool. Children who never spoke about their emotions begin pointing to images. Yuliia’s colleagues can better understand and respond to children’s needs.

    Week 4: Scaling what works

    Energized by success, Yuliia aims higher: “I will train two other staff members to use the quiet corner and feelings chart, and create a simple guide for these tools.”

    By now, Yuliia has concrete evidence that these approaches work. She documents specific examples of children’s progress. Her guide is so practical that the center director wants to share it with other locations.

    The ripple effect

    Yuliia’s tools spread throughout the network of centers supporting displaced children. Through the Accelerator network, colleagues adapt her approaches for different age groups and settings. Soon, hundreds of children across Ukraine benefit from these simple but effective interventions.

    The evidence of impact

    The true test of any approach is whether it creates lasting change. Impact Accelerator participants consistently report:

    • Specific improvements in their work that they can measure and document;
    • Sustained changes that continue after the Accelerator ends;
    • Solutions that others adopt and spread;
    • Professional growth that enhances all their future work; and
    • Networks that provide ongoing support and learning.

    These outcomes appear whether participants work on mental health support in Ukraine, radiation safety in Japan, or immunization in Nigeria. The challenges differ, but the pattern of success remains consistent.

    How we prove the Accelerator makes a difference

    In global health, the biggest challenge is proving that your intervention actually caused the improvements you see. This is called “attribution.” How do we know that better health outcomes happened because of the Impact Accelerator and not for other reasons?

    The Geneva Learning Foundation solves this challenge through a three-step process that connects the dots between learning, action, and results.

    Step 1: Measuring where we start

    Before participants begin taking action, they document their baseline – the current situation they want to improve. For example:

    • A social worker records how many children show severe trauma symptoms.
    • A radiation specialist documents current safety incident rates.
    • A health worker notes the vaccination coverage in their area.

    These starting numbers give us a clear picture of where improvement begins.

    Step 2: Tracking progress and actions

    Every week, participants complete “acceleration reports” that capture two things:

    • The specific actions they took; and
    • Any changes they observe in their measurements.

    This creates a detailed record connecting what participants do to what happens as a result. Week by week, the picture becomes clearer.

    Step 3: Proving the connection

    Here is where the Impact Accelerator becomes special. When participants see improvements, they must answer a crucial question: “How much of this change happened because of what you learned and did through the Accelerator?”

    But they cannot just claim credit. They must prove it to their peers by showing:

    • Exactly which actions led to which results;
    • Why the changes would not have happened without their intervention; and
    • Evidence that their specific approach made the difference.

    This peer review process is powerful. Your colleagues understand your context. They know what is realistic. They can spot when claims are too bold or when someone is being too modest. They ask tough questions that help clarify what really caused the improvements.

    After the first-ever Accelerator in 2019, we compared the implementation progress after six months between those who joined this final stage and a control group that also developed action plans, but did not join.

    Why this method works

    This approach solves several problems that make attribution difficult:

    1. Traditional studies often cannot capture the complexity of real-world change. The Impact Accelerator’s method shows not just that change happened, but how and why it happened.
    2. Self-reporting can be unreliable when people work alone. But when you must convince peers who understand your work, the reports become more accurate and honest.
    3. Numbers alone do not tell the whole story. By combining measurements with detailed descriptions of actions and peer validation, we get a complete picture of how change happens.

    The invitation to act

    Around the world, professionals like you are transforming their work through the Impact Accelerator. They start with the same doubts you might have: “Can I really create change? Will this work in my context? Do I have time for this?”

    Week by week, action by action, they discover the answer is yes. Yes, they can create change. Yes, it works in their context. Yes, they can find time because the Accelerator fits into their real work rather than adding to it.

    The Impact Accelerator does not promise overnight transformation. It offers something better: a proven process for creating real, sustainable change through your own efforts, supported by peers who understand your journey.

    If you work in a field where you seek to make a difference, the Impact Accelerator can help you move from good intentions to meaningful impact. The same process can work for you.

    The question is not whether the Impact Accelerator can help you create change. The question is: What change do you want to create?

    Your journey can begin Monday.

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2025

  • Pandemic preparedness through connected transnational digital networks of local actors

    Pandemic preparedness through connected transnational digital networks of local actors

    What is the link between pandemic preparedness, digital networks, and local action? In the Geneva Learning Foundation’s approach to effective humanitarian learning, knowledge acquisition and competency development are both necessary but insufficient. This is why, in July 2019, we built the first Impact Accelerator, to support local practitioners beyond learning outcomes all the way to achieving actual health outcomes.

    What we now call the Full Learning Cycle has become a mature package of interventions that covers the full spectrum from knowledge acquisition to implementation and continuous improvement. This package has produced the same effects in every area of work where we have been able to test it: self-motivated groups manifesting remarkable, emergent leadership, connected laterally to each other in each country and between countries, with a remarkable ability to quickly learn and adapt in the face of the unknown. Such networks have obvious relevant for pandemic preparedness.

    In 2020, we got to test this package during the COVID-19 pandemic, co-creating the COVID-19 Peer Hub with over 6,000 frontline health professionals, and building together the Ideas Engine to rapidly share ideas and practices to problem-solve and take action quickly in the face of dramatic consequences of the new virus on immunization services (largely due to fear, risk, and misinformation). By January 2021, over a third of Peer Hub members had successfully implemented their immunization service recovery project, far faster than colleagues who faced the same problems but worked alone, without a global support network. Once connected to each other, these country teams then organized inter-country peer learning to help them figure out “what works” for COVID-19 vaccine introduction and scale-up.

    Such a holistic approach is about mobilizing and connecting country-based impact networks for pandemic preparedness that reach and involve practitioners at the local levels, as well as national MoH leaders and planners – quite different from conventional approaches (whether online or face-to-face) to building capacity and preparedness.

    TGLF’s global health network and platform reach significant numbers of practitioners at all levels of the health system. It is not only the number of people who participate (47,000 as I write this) but also the depth of engagement and diversity of contexts that they work in. Globally, 21.2% face armed conflict; 24.5% work with refugees or internally-displaced populations; 61.6% work in remote rural; 47% with the urban poor; 35.7% support the needs of nomadic/migrant populations. This is across 110 countries, with over 70 percent in “high burden” countries. Many have deep experience in responding to epidemic outbreaks of all kinds. Health professionals who join come from all levels of the health system, but most are (logically) from health facilities and districts, the bottom of the health pyramid.

    Through the network and platform, they build lateral connections, forging bonds not only of knowledge but also of trust. They do this not because they are from the same profession, but primarily (we believe) because they face similar challenges and see the benefit of sharing their experience in support of each other. Engagement is voluntary (ie people opt in and contribute because they want to), with no per diem or other extrinsic incentives offered. The concern for both epidemic outbreak and pandemic preparedness is shared.

    Individuals develop and implement corrective actions to tackle the root causes of the challenges they are taking on, drawing on both peer learning and the best available global guidelines. For the IA2030 Movement, our largest initiative so far, participants are simultaneously implementing 1,024 projects in 99 countries, learning from each other what works, sharing successes, lessons learned, and challenges. Here are four examples of what collective action through digital networks looks like :

    • In Ghana, TGLF’s alumni (including national and regional MoH EPI directors) decided to organize online sessions country-wide to share the latest information about COVID-19 with local staff, starting in April 2020. They had learned how to use digital tools to find the best available global knowledge and to combine it with their local expertise and experience to inform collective action.
    • In Burkina Faso, the national EPI manager entrusted the first “masked” vaccination campaign to the TGLF alumni team, which has organized itself country-wide, with over half of alumni working in conflict-affected areas. He told me no one else had the network and the capacity for change to figure out quickly how to get this right.
    • In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the TGLF alumni team is increasingly being asked by national EPI to contribute to various activities, due to their effectiveness in connecting and coordinating. The alumni network is country-wide and includes many from very remote areas. When Monkeypox was reported in Europe and North America, we were already seeing a steady stream of information through the DRC and other country networks.

    We believe that this continuous learning and action is actually the definition of pandemic preparedness. Trying to imagine preparedness and response to new pandemics using old, failed methods of training and capacity building – whether face-to-face or online – is both dangerous and irrational.

    Image: Remote villages illuminated by rays of light, with mountains beyond mountains in the background. The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection.

  • When learning meets emergency: The Geneva Learning Foundation’s approach to crisis response

    When learning meets emergency: The Geneva Learning Foundation’s approach to crisis response

    This article is based on Zapnito CEO Charles Thiede’s interview of Reda Sadki on 16 September 2019.

    “I knew we had hit gold when a young doctor in Ghana was able to turn what he learned into action – and get results that improved the health outcome prospects of every pregnant woman in his district – in just four weeks,” says Reda Sadki, founder of the Geneva Learning Foundation. “His motivation was being part of this global network, this global community, but his focus was on local action.”

    The transformation from classroom learning to immediate implementation in a healthcare setting taught Sadki something profound about how people learn to lead change when facing life-threatening emergencies. For the Geneva Learning Foundation, which he founded just three years ago, this connection between knowledge and action is not accidental. It is the result of a deliberate methodology that challenges conventional assumptions about professional development in crisis response.

    Speaking with Charles Thiede, CEO of Zapnito, in a September 2019 interview, Sadki outlined his organization’s mission: research and development to find better ways to learn, foster new forms of leadership, and lead change in humanitarian development and global health work. The foundation operates at the intersection of urgent need and institutional capacity, working with major international organizations while reaching practitioners directly in communities across 137 countries.

    The reluctant learning systems manager

    Sadki’s path to founding the Geneva Learning Foundation began with twenty years of community organizing, working directly with families facing poverty, disease, and racism in the HIV pandemic. His journey to education as a philosophy for change had its start in the office of an Undersecretary General at the International Red Cross, who asked him if he could “help him bring the Red Cross into the twenty-first century”.

    “In practice, I got stuck with managing a broken learning management system that could not possibly do what I was being asked to do, which was address a network of 17 million volunteers working in 137 countries and figure out how to support their learning needs using digital means,” Sadki recalls.

    The system failure forced fundamental questions about community building, organizational culture, and the relationship between formal learning and practical application. Rather than simply fixing the technology, Sadki began examining why traditional learning approaches consistently failed to produce the leadership capabilities needed for complex humanitarian challenges.

    That broken learning platform became the fastest-growing information system in the global network for two simple but breakthrough insights. Sadki figured out that it was about culture, weaving technology into daily life. And that learning is about producing knowledge, not consuming information.

    This questioning led him to seek out networks of cutting-edge educators from higher education, including George Siemens, one of the founding figures in massive open online courses, or Bill Cope, who was busy building the technological implementation of his “new learning” pedagogy. Sadki’s approach was direct: these educators were transforming higher education, but could their insights apply to people facing life-threatening emergencies?

    “You challenge them by saying, well, you are doing this cutting-edge work with higher education, but in development, humanitarian, and global health work, in terms of learning, education, and training, we have some challenges,” Sadki explains. “They all said yes” to contribute to the foundation’s early work.

    Communities of action, not practice

    The Geneva Learning Foundation’s core innovation emerged from recognizing a persistent disconnect in professional development: the gap between stopping work to learn and applying that learning to solve immediate problems. Traditional training programs, Sadki observed, create what he calls “communities of practice,” which “basically, mostly do not work.”

    Instead, the foundation developed what they term “communities of action”—networks of practitioners united by shared purpose and mission rather than simply shared professional interests. The distinction matters because people facing emergencies cannot afford learning that exists separate from implementation.

    “We produce the kinds of learning outcomes that you get through training, but also go beyond that,” Sadki notes. “We have people come out after a very short time connected to each other, feeling empowered by each other as peers.”

    The foundation’s “Scholar package” represents a systematic approach to creating these communities around virtually any thematic area or operational challenge. The methodology integrates learning with immediate application, enabling practitioners to develop capabilities while simultaneously addressing urgent problems in their specific contexts.

    Measuring what matters

    The foundation’s latest innovation, the Impact Accelerator, launched in July 2019, addresses one of the most persistent problems in organizational learning: demonstrating concrete results rather than participation metrics or satisfaction scores.

    “In learning and development, every Chief Learning Officer has this dilemma,” Sadki explains. “How do you demonstrate impact that you are not just a cost center within the organization?”

    The Impact Accelerator functions as both monitoring system and empowerment network, tracking participants as they move from learning to implementation while providing peer support and accountability mechanisms. The system measures real-world applications—like the Ghanaian doctor’s vaccination information program—rather than quiz scores or completion rates.

    The foundation recently completed piloting this component with results that exceeded expectations from both their team and their partners. One major partner and donor declared they were “doing magic,” recognition that reflects the foundation’s ability to deliver outcomes that larger, better-funded organizations often struggle to achieve.

    The execution imperative

    Sadki’s reflection on organizational effectiveness reveals his pragmatic approach to institutional change: “At the end of the day, you are judged by execution. You can have nice ideas and a lofty mission, but what are you actually able to deliver.”

    This focus on execution shapes the foundation’s work across multiple complex challenges, from immunization programs to gender in humanitarian emergencies. Their current projects include helping organizations ensure that the specific needs of men, women, boys, and girls are addressed in crisis response, ensuring that nobody gets left behind even in the most complicated emergency situations.

    The foundation’s approach addresses critical gaps in global capacity: the world faces challenges requiring people with skill combinations that currently do not exist in sufficient numbers. Their focus on leadership development recognizes that effective responses require capabilities at every level, from community organizing to international coordination.

    Digital transformation as democratic access

    The foundation’s methodology leverages what Sadki calls the “ubiquitous affordability of digital transformation,” creating what he terms a “whole new economy of effort.” This technological access enables direct engagement with communities rather than working exclusively through institutional gatekeepers.

    “As educators, we are addressing people everywhere and anywhere,” Sadki explains. While the foundation works with the world’s largest international organizations—UN agencies, Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, major international NGOs—their educational approach reaches practitioners directly where they work.

    This dual approach reflects Sadki’s understanding that effective change requires both institutional support and grassroots capability. The foundation operates as a bridge between global resources and local implementation, creating networks that connect individual practitioners to larger systems while maintaining focus on immediate, practical problems.

    The privilege of purpose

    When asked about his daily motivation, Sadki frames his work in terms of connection and privilege. “I have spent my entire adult life working on things that I am passionate about, committed to, and that hopefully have not been detrimental to the world,” he says. “I realize not everyone gets to do that.”

    This sense of purpose extends beyond personal satisfaction to encompass the foundation’s role in connecting practitioners across geographical and institutional boundaries. The organization serves as both educator and network facilitator, enabling practitioners to share successes, discuss challenges, and maintain motivation for continued innovation.

    For Sadki, the foundation’s impact is most visible in these individual connections: receiving updates on achievements from practitioners worldwide, connecting at unusual hours due to time zone differences, responding to urgent needs from colleagues facing immediate crises. These relationships embody the foundation’s core insight that learning and leadership development must be embedded in the actual work of responding to complex challenges.

    The Geneva Learning Foundation’s model suggests that professional development in crisis response requires more than knowledge transfer—it demands the creation of networks capable of translating learning into immediate action. In a world where humanitarian emergencies and global health challenges increasingly require rapid adaptation and innovation, the foundation’s approach offers a framework for transforming how organizations develop the leadership capabilities they desperately need.