Stories

Tag: peer learning

  • What is the pedagogy of Teach to Reach?

    What is the pedagogy of Teach to Reach?

    In a rural health center in Kenya, a community health worker develops an innovative approach to reaching families who have been hesitant about vaccination.

    Meanwhile, in a Brazilian city, a nurse has gotten everyone involved – including families and communities – onboard to integrate information about HPV vaccination into cervical cancer screening.

    These valuable insights might once have remained isolated, their potential impact limited to their immediate contexts.

    But through Teach to Reach – a peer learning platform, network, and community hosted by The Geneva Learning Foundation – these experiences become part of a larger tapestry of knowledge that transforms how health workers learn and adapt their practices worldwide.

    Since January 2021, the event series has grown to connect over 21,000 health professionals from more than 70 countries, reaching its tenth edition with 21,398 participants in June 2024.

    Scale matters, but this level of engagement begs the question: how and why does it work?

    The challenge in global health is not just about what people need to learn – it is about reimagining how learning happens and gets applied in complex, rapidly-changing environments to improve performance, improve health outcomes, and prepare the next generation of leaders.

    Traditional approaches to professional development, built around expert-led training and top-down knowledge transfer, often fail to create lasting change.

    They tend to ignore the rich knowledge that exists in practice – what we know when we are there every day, side-by-side with the community we serve – and the complex ways that learning actually occurs in professional networks and communities.

    Teach to Reach is one component in The Geneva Learning Foundation’s emergent model for learning and change.

    This article describes the pedagogical patterns that Teach to Reach brings to life.

    A new vision for digital-first, networked professional learning

    Teach to Reach represents a shift in how we think about professional learning in global health.

    Its pedagogical pattern draws from three complementary theoretical frameworks that together create a more complete understanding of how professionals learn and how that learning translates into improved practice.

    At its foundation lies Bill Cope’s and Mary Kalantzis’s New Learning framework, which recognizes that knowledge creation in the digital age requires new approaches to learning and assessment.

    Teach to Reach then integrates insights from Watkins and Marsick’s research on the strong relationship between learning culture (a measure of the capacity for change) and performance and George Siemens’s learning theory of connectivism to create something syncretic: a learning approach that simultaneously builds individual capability, organizational capacity, and network strength.

    Active knowledge making

    The prevailing model of professional development often treats learners as empty vessels to be filled with expert knowledge.

    Drawing from constructivist learning theory, it positions health workers as knowledge creators rather than passive recipients.

    When a community health worker in Kenya shares how they’ve adapted vaccination strategies for remote communities, they are not just describing their work – they’re creating valuable knowledge that others can learn from and adapt.

    The role of experts is even more significant in this model: experts become “Guides on the side”, listening to challenges and their contexts to identify what expert knowledge is most likely to be useful to a specific challenge and context.

    (This is the oft-neglected “downstream” to the “upstream” work that goes into the creation of global guidelines.)

    This principle manifests in how questions are framed.

    Instead of asking “What should you do when faced with vaccine hesitancy?” Teach to Reach asks “Tell us about a time when you successfully addressed vaccine hesitancy in your community.” This subtle shift transforms the learning dynamic from theoretical to practical, from passive to active.

    Collaborative intelligence

    The concept of collaborative intelligence, inspired by social learning theory, recognizes that knowledge in complex fields like global health is distributed across many individuals and contexts.

    No single expert or institution holds all the answers.

    By creating structures for health workers to share and learn from each other’s experiences, Teach to Reach taps into what cognitive scientists call “distributed cognition” – the idea that knowledge and understanding emerge from networks of people rather than individual minds.

    This plays out practically in how experiences are shared and synthesized.

    When a nurse in Brazil shares their approach to integrating COVID-19 vaccination with routine immunization, their experience becomes part of a larger tapestry of knowledge that includes perspectives from diverse contexts and roles.

    Metacognitive reflection

    Metacognition – thinking about thinking – is crucial for professional development, yet it is often overlooked in traditional training.

    Teach to Reach deliberately builds in opportunities for metacognitive reflection through its question design and response framework.

    When participants share experiences, they are prompted not just to describe what happened, but to analyze why they made certain decisions and what they learned from the experience.
    This reflective practice helps health workers develop deeper understanding of their own practice and decision-making processes.

    It transforms individual experiences into learning opportunities that benefit both the sharer and the wider community.

    Recursive feedback

    Learning is not linear – it is a cyclical process of sharing, reflecting, applying, and refining.

    Teach to Reach’s model of recursive feedback, inspired by systems thinking, creates multiple opportunities for participants to engage with and build upon each other’s experiences.

    This goes beyond communities of practice, because the community component is part of a broader, dynamic and ongoing process.

    Executing a complex pedagogical pattern

    The pedagogical pattern of Teach to Reach come to life through a carefully designed implementation framework over a six-month period, before, during, and after the live event.

    This extended timeframe is not arbitrary – it is based on research showing that sustained engagement over time leads to deeper learning and more lasting change than one-off learning events.
    The core of the learning process is the Teach to Reach Questions – weekly prompts that guide participants through progressively more complex reflection and sharing.

    These questions are crafted to elicit not just information, but insight and understanding.

    They follow a deliberate sequence that moves from description to analysis to reflection to application, mirroring the natural cycle of experiential learning.

    Communication as pedagogy

    In Teach to Reach, communication is not just about delivering information – it is an integral part of the learning process.

    The model uses what scholars call “pedagogical communication” – communication designed specifically to facilitate learning.

    This manifests in several ways:

    • Personal and warm tone that creates psychological safety for sharing
    • Clear calls to action that guide participants through the learning process
    • Multiple touchpoints that reinforce learning and maintain engagement
    • Progressive engagement that builds complexity gradually

    Learning culture and performance

    Watkins and Marsick’s work helps us understand why Teach to Reach’s approach is so effective.

    Learning culture – the set of organizational values, practices, and systems that support continuous learning – is crucial for translating individual insights into improved organizational performance.

    Teach to Reach deliberately builds elements of strong learning cultures into its design.

    Furthermore, the Geneva Learning Foundation’s research found that continuous learning is the weakest dimension of learning culture in immunization – and probably global health.

    Hence, Teach to Reach itself provides a mechanism to strengthen specifically this dimension.

    Take the simple act of asking questions about real work experiences.

    This is not just about gathering information – it’s about creating what Watkins and Marsick call “inquiry and dialogue,” a fundamental dimension of learning organizations.

    When health workers share their experiences, they are not just describing what happened.

    They are engaging in a form of collaborative inquiry that helps everyone involved develop deeper understanding.

    Networks of knowledge

    George Siemens’s connectivism theory provides another crucial lens for understanding Teach to Reach’s effectiveness.

    In today’s world, knowledge is not just what is in our heads – it is distributed across networks of people and resources.

    Teach to Reach creates and strengthens these networks through its unique approach to asynchronous peer learning.

    The process begins with carefully designed questions that prompt health workers to share specific experiences.

    But it does not stop there.

    These experiences become nodes in a growing network of knowledge, connected through themes, challenges, and solutions.

    When a health worker in India reads about how a colleague in Nigeria addressed a particular challenge, they are not just learning about one solution – they are becoming part of a network that makes everyone’s practice stronger.

    From theory to practice

    What makes Teach to Reach particularly powerful is how it fuses multiple theories of learning into a practical model that works in real-world conditions.

    The model recognizes that learning must be accessible to health workers dealing with limited connectivity, heavy workloads, and diverse linguistic and cultural contexts.

    New Learning’s emphasis on multimodal meaning-making supports the use of multiple communication channels ensuring accessibility.

    Learning culture principles guide the creation of supportive structures that make continuous learning possible even in challenging conditions.

    Connectivist insights inform how knowledge is shared and distributed across the network.

    Creating sustainable change

    The real test of any learning approach is whether it creates sustainable change in practice.

    By simultaneously building individual capability, organizational capacity, and network strength, it creates the conditions for continuous improvement and adaptation.

    Health workers do not just learn new approaches – they develop the capacity to learn continuously from their own experience and the experiences of others.

    Organizations do not just gain new knowledge – they develop stronger learning cultures that support ongoing innovation.

    And the broader health system gains not just a collection of good practices, but a living network of practitioners who continue to learn and adapt together.

    Looking forward

    As global health challenges have become more complex, the need for more effective approaches to professional learning becomes more urgent.

    Teach to Reach’s pedagogical model, grounded in complementary theoretical frameworks and proven in practice, offers valuable insights for anyone interested in creating impactful professional learning experiences.

    The model suggests that effective professional learning in complex fields like global health requires more than just good content or engaging delivery.

    It requires careful attention to how learning cultures are built, how networks are strengthened, and how individual learning connects to organizational and system performance.

    Most importantly, it reminds us that the most powerful learning often happens not through traditional training but through thoughtfully structured opportunities for professionals to learn from and with each other.

    In this way, Teach to Reach is a demonstration of what becomes possible when we reimagine how professional learning happens in service of better health outcomes worldwide.

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2024

  • Experiences shared at Teach to Reach 10

    Experiences shared at Teach to Reach 10

    Before, during, and after Teach to Reach on 20-21 June 2024, 21,398 health workers across the Global South—from veteran national managers to newly-trained community health workers—shared their unfiltered, frontline experiences of delivering care in an increasingly complex world.

    Ahead of Teach to Reach 11, The Geneva Learning Foundation has just released the English-language collection of “Experiences shared“.

    A second collection of experiences shared by French-speaking participants is also available.

    This remarkable collection captures over 600 experiences that health workers shared, in their own words, offering rare, ground-level perspectives on how global health challenges manifest in communities.

    Themes and topics explored in this collection:

    • How we use what we learn from Teach to Reach
    • Learning culture and performance
    • On the frontlines of climate change and health
    • Health workers insights to end malaria
    • Health workers insights to fight neglected tropical diseases
    • Integration of health services
    • Health workers insights on e-health
    • 50 years of the Expanded Programme for Immunization

    Through questions that probe specific moments rather than seeking generalizations, these accounts detail personal encounters with everything from climate change’s effects on malaria transmission to the challenges of integrating immunization with other health services.

    Health workers share candid stories of their successes, failures, and innovations: using WhatsApp for vaccine advocacy, adapting disease control strategies as weather patterns shift, building community trust during mass drug administration campaigns, and more.

    While these experiences are inherently context-specific and should not be mistaken for systematic evidence, their value lies in illuminating the lived reality of health service delivery—the kind of rich, qualitative insight that often eludes formal research.

    The collection represents a mosaic of perspectives from different levels of the health system, each contributor speaking in a personal capacity about their direct observations and experiences.

    This comprehensive volume is part of Teach to Reach, an ongoing cycle of learning and exchange facilitated by The Geneva Learning Foundation.

    Contributors receive back the complete collection of shared experiences, enabling them to learn from peers facing similar challenges across contexts.

    The experiences are also available as focused thematic publications on specific topics such as malaria control, climate change adaptation, and immunization integration.

    Finally, an accompanying insights report provides concise thematic summaries and analysis of key learnings about each of the topics that were explored.

    Whether your focus is immunization, digital health, climate change adaptation, or disease control, these raw accounts provide crucial context for anyone seeking to bridge the gap between global health policy and local implementation.

    Rather than providing definitive answers, this volume offers a unique window into how health workers learn, adapt, and drive change in their communities—making it an invaluable complement to traditional evidence for understanding and improving global health delivery.

    These Shared Experiences should be required reading for global health practitioners, policymakers, and researchers interested in understanding how macro-level health challenges and interventions play out on the ground.

    The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF). (2024). Teach to Reach 10. Experiences shared (1.0). Teach to Reach 10, Online. The Geneva Learning Foundation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13366491

    La Fondation Apprendre Genève. (2024). Teach to Reach 10. Expériences partagées (1.0). Teach to Reach 10, En ligne. La Fondation Apprendre Genève (TGLF). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13769081

  • Support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine: Bridging practice and learning through the sharing of experience

    Support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine: Bridging practice and learning through the sharing of experience

    Psychological First Aid in Support of Children Affected by the Humanitarian Crisis in Ukraine: the Experiences of Children, Caregivers and Helpers

    “Do you have an experience supporting children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine that you would like to share with colleagues? Tell us what happened and how it turned out. Be specific and detailed so that we can understand your story.”

    This was one of the questions that applicants to the Certificate peer learning programme on Psychological First Aid (PFA) in support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine could choose to answer.

    If you are reading this, you may be one of the education, health, or social work professionals who answered questions like these. You may also be a policy maker or organizational leader asking yourself how children from Ukraine and the people who work with them can be better supported.

    The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and with support from the European Union’s EU4Health programme, is pleased to announce the publication of the first “Listening and Learning” report focused on the experiences of education, social work, and health professionals who support children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

    This new report, published in both Ukrainian and English editions, gives back the collected experiences of 873 volunteers and professionals who applied to this new programme in spring 2024.

    Readers will find short, thematic analyses. A comprehensive annex is also included to present the full compendium of experiences shared.

    To transform these rich experiences into actionable insights, the Foundation’s Insights Unit applied a rigorous analytical process. This included systematic consolidation of data, thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns, synthesis of key trends and effective practices, and careful curation of representative experiences. This methodology allows for the rapid sharing of on-the-ground knowledge and innovative practices tailored to the specific context of MHPSS in humanitarian crises. As with any qualitative analysis, these insights should be considered alongside other forms of evidence and expertise in the field.

    Experiences shared reflect the intrinsic motivation of helpers, their subtle attention to children, the magic of doing the right thing at the right moment. They also describe the personal and practical challenges helpers face when working with distressed individuals and communities, often with limited resources. 

    This programme, offered by The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), employs an innovative peer learning-to-action model grounded in the most recent advances in the learning sciences.

    To complement existing top-down skills-based training in Psychological First Aid (PFA), we are working with IFRC to create structured opportunities for practitioners to learn directly from each other’s experiences while applying what they learn to their own work, aligning to the best guidance and norms for mental health and psychosocial support. For professionals working in crisis settings, this offers several key advantages:

    It leverages the collective expertise and tacit knowledge of practitioners on the ground.

    It creates a supportive community of action, connecting professionals across boundaries of geography, hierarchy, and job roles.

    It helps bridge gaps between theory and practice by positioning learning at the point of work.

    It fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills through peer analysis and feedback.

    It is highly adaptable and can be implemented quickly in response to emerging crises.

    This process not only enhanced participants’ understanding of Psychological First Aid principles but also built their capacity to critically reflect on and improve their practice. By engaging professionals from across Europe and Ukraine in both English and Ukrainian cohorts, the exercise fostered cross-cultural exchange and mutual learning.

    As the humanitarian sector continues to grapple with how to effectively build capacity at scale, particularly in rapidly evolving crisis situations, we believe this peer learning-to-action model offers a promising pathway. It empowers practitioners as both learners and teachers, creating a dynamic and sustainable approach to professional development that can adapt to meet emerging needs.

    The Foundation would like to thank IFRC, the Psychosocial Support Centre (PSC), National Societies, as well as the network of governmental and non-governmental organizations across Europe that has engaged in this new approach, as a complement to their efforts on the ground. As the programme continues through to June 2025, this report will be followed by others to share what we learned from successive peer learning exercises, folllowed by the development and implementation of local projects guided by the collective intelligence of practitioners.

    We invite you to explore these insights, reflect on their implications for your own work, and consider how this approach might be applied to strengthen mental health and psychosocial support capacity in your own context.

    The Geneva Learning Foundation

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2024

  • Why become a Teach to Reach Partner?

    Why become a Teach to Reach Partner?

    We need new ways to tackle global health challenges that impact local communities.

    It is obvious that technology alone is not enough.

    We need human ingenuity, collaboration, and the ability to share across borders and boundaries.

    That is why I am excited about Teach to Reach.

    Imagine if we could tap into the collective intelligence of over 20,000 health professionals working on the front lines in low- and middle-income countries.

    What insights could we gain?

    What innovations might we uncover?

    This is exactly what Teach to Reach is doing.

    In June 2024, Teach to Reach 10 brought together 21,398 participants from across the health system – from community health workers to national policymakers.

    This diverse group represents an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience that has often been overlooked in global health decision-making.

    Bridge the gap between policy and practice

    One of the most exciting aspects of Teach to Reach is how it bridges the gap between policy and practice.

    Too often, there is a disconnect between those making decisions at the global level and those implementing programs on the ground.

    Teach to Reach creates a direct line of communication, allowing frontline workers to influence policy and program design in real-time.

    This approach not only leads to more effective interventions but also empowers health workers, increasing their engagement and motivation.

    Scale knowledge transfer and translation efficiently

    In global health, we are always looking for ways to scale solutions efficiently.

    This scaling effect is particularly crucial in low-resource settings, where formal learning opportunities may be limited.

    Teach to Reach applies this principle to peer learning.

    Then there is speed.

    The platform can disseminate best practices and local solutions much more rapidly than traditional top-down approaches.

    There is also the “know-do” gap or the “applicability problem”.

    Teach to Reach supports continuous learning by sharing experience, focused on how to get results, especially at the local community level.

    Measuring impact and driving innovation

    The Teach to Reach platform uses a comprehensive framework to track the value of participation for individuals and the benefits for partners.

    But we do not stop there.

    Teach to Reach is just one component in the Geneva Learning Foundation’s model to support new learning and leadership to drive change.

    We then track and measure what participants do with the knowledge gained and the experiences shared.

    We do this all the way to the time where improved health outcomes can be attributed to a discovery or significant learning made at Teach to Reach.

    Moreover, Teach to Reach serves as an innovation hub, surfacing diverse ideas and solutions from the field.

    For organizations looking to drive innovation in their global health programs, this platform offers a new path to creative problem-solving with those closest to the challenges.

    A call to action for global health leaders

    If you are a leader in the global health space, I urge you to consider partnering with Teach to Reach.

    Here are 5 ways in which partners have found utility in Teach to Reach:

    1. Inform a strategy with ground-level insights.
    2. Expand reach across multiple countries and health system levels.
    3. Tap into a diverse pool of local solutions – and help augment and scale them.
    4. Demonstrate commitment to supporting locally-led, community-based positive change.
    5. Accelerate progress towards global health goals through collaborative learning.

    In today’s interconnected world, our ability to solve global health challenges depends on our capacity to learn from one another and scale effective solutions quickly.

    Teach to Reach is pioneering a new approach that harnesses the power of peer learning to do just that.

    Investing in Teach to Reach can help unlock the full potential of our global health workforce and make significant strides towards a healthier, more equitable world.

    The future of global health is collaborative.

    Teach to Reach provides a way to turn the rhetoric of collaboration into practical action.

  • Can Teach to Reach help your organization?

    Can Teach to Reach help your organization?

    Teach to Reach stands as a unique nexus in the global health landscape, offering unprecedented opportunities for diverse stakeholders to engage, learn, and drive meaningful change.

    With over 60,000 participants from more than 90 countries, this platform, network, and community bring together a mix of frontline health workers, policymakers, and key decision-makers.

    At Teach to Reach, research institutions and academic researchers engage health workers to translate their findings into policy and practice

    For research institutions and academic partners, Teach to Reach provides a site for knowledge translation.

    It provides direct access to practitioners and policymakers at all levels, enabling researchers to share findings with those best positioned to apply them in real-world settings.

    The platform’s interactive features, such as “Teach to Reach Questions,” allow for rapid data collection and feedback, helping bridge the gap between research and practice.

    At Teach to Reach, global agencies can listen and learn with local communities

    Global health organizations can leverage Teach to Reach to gain invaluable insights into unmet needs of local communities.

    With half of the participants working in districts and local facilities, and many in challenging contexts such as armed conflict zones (1 in 5) or remote rural areas (>60%), partners can engage with ground-level perspectives that inform development, strategies, and programme design.

    This direct engagement with frontline workers offers a unique window into the realities of diverse health systems.

    At Teach to Global, global actors help elevate the voices and leadership of local actors

    For those looking to make a tangible impact on global health equity, Teach to Reach’s scholarship programme offers a compelling opportunity.

    Scholarship sponsors support health workers from low and middle-income countries to participate in Teach to Reach.

    This investment not only builds individual capacity but strengthens health systems by recognizing and amplifying health worker voices and expertise.

    Facilitate meaningful dialogue on critical issues

    Global health stakeholders find in Teach to Reach a platform that facilitates meaningful dialogue on critical issues.

    The diverse participant base, including national policymakers and heads of national programmes, creates an environment ripe for new kinds of inclusive dialogue that can shape national and global strategies and frameworks.

    Become a Teach to Reach sponsor

    This mix of participants offers partners a unique opportunity to engage with key decision-makers in an interactive, collaborative setting.

    Some partners also become sponsors by contributing to the costs.

    For example, partners can sponsor scholarships for health workers to support their participation in Teach to Reach.

    This is just one of the ways in which partners can help sustain Teach to Reach as a platform, network, and community.

    For private sector organizations, sponsoring Teach to Reach aligns seamlessly with corporate social responsibility goals in global health.

    By this platform, organizations can articulate their concrete commitment to strengthening health systems, showing their support to health workers, and promoting health equity.

    This engagement goes beyond traditional philanthropy, offering sponsors a way to showcase their dedication to improving global health outcomes while enhancing their reputation in the field.

    In essence, Teach to Reach offers a multifaceted value proposition for partners.

    It is a place to listen and learn, to share and collaborate, to influence and be influenced.

    Whether an organization’s goals revolve around research impact, market insights, policy influence, or social responsibility, Teach to Reach provides a unique, efficient, and impactful site to engage.

    By joining this community, partners do not just support a platform – they become part of a movement that is reshaping how we approach global health challenges, one connection at a time.

  • Why participate in Teach to Reach?

    Why participate in Teach to Reach?

    In global health, where challenges are as diverse as they are complex, we need new ways for health professionals to connect, learn, and drive change.

    Imagine a digital space where a nurse from rural Nigeria, a policymaker from India, and a WHO expert can share experiences, learn from each other, and collectively tackle global health challenges.

    That’s the essence of Teach to Reach.

    Welcome to Teach to Reach, a peer learning initiative launched in January 2021 by a collection of over 300 health professionals from Africa, Asia, and Latin America as they were getting ready to introduce COVID-19 vaccination.

    Four years later, the tenth edition of Teach to Reach on 20-21 June 2024 brought together an astounding 21,389 health professionals from over 70 countries.

    Discussion has expanded beyond immunization to include a range of challenges that matter for the survival and resilience of local communities.

    What makes this gathering extraordinary is not just its size, but its composition.

    Unlike traditional conferences dominated by high-level experts, 80% of Teach to Reach participants work at district and facility levels, bringing ground-level insights to global discussions.

    Half are government workers.

    One in five work for health in the context of armed conflict.

    Why do so many health workers join and contribute to Teach to Reach?

    The event’s success lies in its unique process.

    Weeks before the main event, participants start sharing their experiences through targeted questions.

    In June, these “Teach to Reach Questions” resulted in over 2,000 real-world stories and insights being collected and shared back with the community.

    This pre-event engagement ensures that when participants finally meet virtually, conversations are rich, relevant, and rooted in real-world challenges.

    During the two-day event, participants engage in a mix of plenary sessions, interactive workshops, and one-on-one networking.

    “It’s like speed dating for global health professionals,” jokes The Geneva Learning Foundation’s Charlotte Mbuh. “But instead of romantic connections, we’re forming professional bonds that can transform health outcomes in our communities.”

    This structure facilitates direct dialogue between global health leaders and frontline workers.

    How does this relate to the work done by global partners?

    Ahead of Teach to Reach 10, Dr. Kate O’Brien, Director of Immunization at WHO, noted, “Our job is to take everything that you all know at the grassroots level and bring it together into sort of that collated guidance.”

    Jaded global health staff may ask “So what?”.

    The impact of Teach to Reach extends far beyond the event itself.

    Health workers leading Teach to Reach helped create the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030).

    This year, over 2,400 civil society and community-based organizations and at least as many local leaders engaged as as partners, creating a diverse network that spans from grassroots NGOs and local government agencies to global institutions like Gavi and UNICEF.

    Connections made through the network outlast the event itself, strengthening local action and creating new ways to inform global strategies.

    For global partners, Teach to Reach offers an unparalleled opportunity.

    Dr. Ephraim T. Lemango, Chief of Immunization at UNICEF, said: “We’ve said we want to listen and that co-creation is very important… This is exactly the type of innovative approach that we need to overcome the complex challenges we are faced with in global health.”

    Teach to Reach 10 demonstrated the event’s growing impact and reach:

    • Diverse participation: 80% of attendees were district and facility-level health workers, providing ground-level perspectives often missing from global health dialogues.
    • Organizational engagement: 2,400 organizations participated in the partnership process, with 240 selected as official partners, spanning local NGOs to global institutions.
    • Thematic relevance: The event addressed critical issues like climate change’s impact on health, with insights from 4,700 health workers informing discussions.
    • Global-local collaboration: Sessions featured partnerships between international organizations and local implementers, such as UNICEF’s work on reaching zero-dose children in urban settings.
    • Tangible outcomes: Post-event surveys revealed that 99.7% of respondents reported increased motivation, and 97.4% learned something new and applicable to their work.

    We are pleased to announce Teach to Reach 11 that will be held on 5-6 December 2024.

    As Teach to Reach 11 approaches, the excitement is palpable.

    This year’s event promises to continue to explore critical issues like climate change’s impact on health, malaria, and immunization, bringing new partners seeking to listen and learn with communities.

    The running thread across all these issues is expressed in a groundbreaking Manifesto for investment in health workers, developed collaboratively by over 1,300 Teach to Reach participants.

    For those new to Teach to Reach, participating is straightforward.

    The event is free for health professionals from low and middle-income countries, with options for low-bandwidth participation to ensure inclusivity.

    Global organizations can join as partners, gaining access to a wealth of insights and opportunities through their respectful, meaningful engagement with health workers.

    By harnessing the collective wisdom of health professionals worldwide, Teach to Reach is creating a new paradigm for learning, collaboration, and action in global health.

    So, whether you’re a community health worker in rural Asia or a decision-maker at a global health institution, Teach to Reach invites you to be part of this transformative journey.

    Together, we can bridge the gap between global strategies and local realities, turning shared knowledge into powerful action for better health worldwide.

  • The Nigeria Immunization Collaborative: Early learning from a novel sector-wide approach model for zero-dose challenges

    The Nigeria Immunization Collaborative: Early learning from a novel sector-wide approach model for zero-dose challenges

    Less than three weeks after its launch, the Nigeria Immunization Collaborative – a partnership between the Geneva Learning Foundation, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and UNICEF – has already connected over 4,000 participants from all 36 states and more than 300 Local Government Areas (LGAs).

    The Collaborative is part of the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030).

    In the Collaborative’s first peer learning exercise that concluded on 6 August 2024, over 600 participants conducted root cause analyses of immunization barriers in their communities.

    Participants engaged in a two-week intensive process of analyzing immunization challenges, conducting root cause analyses, and developing actionable plans to address these issues.

    They did this without having to stop their daily work or travel, a key characteristic of The Geneva Learning Foundation’s model to support work-based learning.

    Watch the General Assembly of the Nigeria Immunization Collaborative on 6 August 2024

    What are health workers saying about the Collaborative?

    For Mariam Mustapha, a participant from Kano State, the Collaborative is “multiple individuals that perform a task”, united around a shared purpose.

    She highlighted the importance of engaging with community members, noting, “These people from the community, most of them, they don’t have enough knowledge or they are receiving misinformation about immunization and vaccines.”

    The peer learning exercise employed a structured approach, asking participants to explain their immunization challenge, conduct a “5 Whys” analysis to identify root causes, and develop actionable plans within their scope of work.

    How does the Collaborative help health workers?

    This method proved enlightening for many participants.

    John Emmanuel, a community health worker from Bauchi State, shared his experience: “I just discovered that over the years, I have been superficial in my approach. I’ve been one sided. I’ve been actually peripheral in my approach. So during the root cause analysis, I was able to identify the broader perspective of identifying the challenge and then fixing it as it affects my job here in the community.”

    The Collaborative also fostered connections between health workers across different regions of Nigeria.

    Mohammed Nasir Umar, a JSI HPV program associate in Zamfara State, noted the value of this cross-pollination of ideas: “The root cause analysis really widened my horizon on how I think around the challenges. The ‘5 Whys’ techniques approach was really, really helpful.”

    Participants identified a range of immunization challenges, including vaccine hesitancy, lack of information and awareness, sociocultural and religious factors, reaching zero-dose children, incomplete immunization, healthcare worker issues, logistical challenges, political interference, poor documentation, and community trust issues.

    But then each one started asking ‘why’, stopping only once they found a root cause that they are in a position to do something about.

    Esther Sharma, working with NPHCDA in a local government area, identified a critical issue in her facility: “The reason why people turn out low for immunization is because there are no health workers in the facilities to attend to them when they get here.”

    Her solution involves ensuring consistent staffing during immunization days, which should encourage more community members to seek vaccination services.

    How are new stakeholders participating in the Collaborative?

    The Collaborative also welcomed participation from organizations not traditionally involved in immunization services.

    Angela Emmanuel, a nurse and founder of the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation in Lagos, found value in the exercise for her work on HPV vaccination and cancer prevention.

    She emphasized the need for a more educational approach: “Our motive should be education. Our motive should be the awareness, not just asking them to take this vaccine.”

    Chijioke Kaduru, a public health physician who served as a Guide for the Collaborative, reflected: “While some of these challenges are similar in many settings, the local context and the nuances that shape these challenges clearly make them a good opportunity to engage, to interact, to understand them better, and to start to also see the ideas that colleagues have about how to solve those problems.”

    By connecting frontline health workers, fostering critical thinking, and encouraging the development of locally-tailored solutions, the Nigeria Immunization Collaborative represents a potentially scalable model for strengthening health systems and improving immunization coverage.

    As the exercise concludes, participants are poised to implement their action plans in their respective communities.

    How are government workers participating in the Collaborative?

    A key focus of the final session was the presentation of root cause analyses by government workers from the Federal and State Primary Health Care Development Agencies.

    These presentations provided valuable insights into the challenges faced at various levels of the health system and the innovative solutions being developed.

    Maimuna Tata, a deputy in-charge at a health facility in Bunkura local government area of Kano State, presented her analysis of why routine immunization sessions were not being conducted at her facility.

    Through her “5 Whys” analysis, she uncovered a systemic issue: “The health facility is newly built and was commissioned after the 2024 micro plan exercise and needs to undergo several processes for provision of routine immunization.”

    Tata’s proposed solution demonstrated the kind of innovative thinking the Collaborative aimed to foster: “Instead of them coming for outreach session in the settlement, I think the vaccine should be channeled to the health facility so that the health facility can conduct the sessions. And at the end of the day, we will now be submitting our reports to the health facility, that is the model health facility, pending the time the health facility will be recorded or will be updated in the server.”

    Esther Sharma, working with NPHCDA in a local government area, identified a critical staffing issue: “The reason why people turn out low for immunization is because there are no health workers in the facilities to attend to them when they get here. I am the routine immuunization focal person where I currently work and when I went there newly, I asked a lot of people, why don’t they come to the hospital for immunization? And they said when they come, they don’t find anybody to attend to them.”

    Her solution involves ensuring consistent staffing during immunization days, which she reported has already encouraged more community members to seek vaccination services.

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2024

  • Experience-sharing sessions in the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030: A novel approach to localize global health collaboration

    Experience-sharing sessions in the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030: A novel approach to localize global health collaboration

    As immunization programs worldwide struggle to recover from pandemic disruptions, the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) offers a novel, practitioner-led approach to accelerate progress towards global vaccination goals.

    From March to June 2022, the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) conducted the first Full Learning Cycle (FLC) of the Movement for IA2030, engaging 6,185 health professionals from low- and middle-income countries.

    A cornerstone of this programme was a series of 44 experience-sharing sessions held between 7 March and 13 June 2022. These sessions brought together between 20 and 400 practitioners per session to discuss and solve real-world immunization challenges.

    IA2030 case study 16, by Charlotte Mbuh and François Gasse, offers valuable insights from these experience-sharing session:

    1. what we learned from the experiences themselves and how it can help practitioners; and
    2. what we learned about the significance and potential of the peer learning process itself.

    Download the full case study: IA2030 Case study 16. Continuum from knowledge to performance. The Geneva Learning Foundation.

    For every challenge shared during the experience sharing sessions, there was always at least one member who had encountered or was encountering the same challenge and had carried out measures to resolve it.

    These sessions provided a space to share practical stories that are making a difference – and supported participants in considering their relevance to their own situations.

    Experience sharing also helped build confidence and motivation.

    Members were able to identify with experiences shared, realizing they were not alone in facing similar challenges.

    The sessions covered a wide range of critical immunization topics.

    For instance, a participant from Nigeria discussed strategies for reaching zero-dose children in Borno state.

    Facing the challenge of reaching approximately 600,000 unvaccinated children, the presenter received practical suggestions from peers, including developing a zero-dose reduction operational plan, leveraging new vaccine introductions, and partnering with the private sector for evening vaccination services.

    In another session, a subnational Ministry of Health staff member from Côte d’Ivoire presented challenges related to cross-border immunization campaigns.

    Peers shared experiences of organizing cross-border meetings to identify unvaccinated children, synchronize efforts, and involve community representatives in the process.

    Such context-specific, experience-based advice exemplifies the unique value of peer learning in addressing complex health system challenges.

    The case study of 44 sessions highlights how these sessions fostered multiple types of learning simultaneously.

    Participants reported learning from each other’s experiences, experiencing the power of solving problems together across distances, feeling a growing sense of belonging to a community, and connecting across country borders and health system levels.

    A district-level Ministry of Health staff member from Ghana encapsulated the impact: “I have linked up with expert vaccinators worldwide through experience sharing and twinning. I have become more competent and knowledgeable in the area of immunization, and work confidently.”

    This sentiment was echoed by many participants who found value not only in acquiring new knowledge but also in expanding their professional networks and gaining confidence in their problem-solving abilities.

    The case study also reveals the adaptability of the approach in responding to unique contexts.

    This resilience underscores the potential of digital platforms to democratize access to expertise and foster global collaboration.

    However, the study also identifies areas for improvement.

    • Participants expressed a desire for more follow-up support and opportunities to continue their peer learning groups beyond the initial sessions.
    • Additionally, the need for better integration of community engagement strategies was identified as a key area for future development.

    To contextualize these findings, we can turn to a 2022 study by Watkins et al., which evaluated a prototype of these experience-sharing sessions known as Immunization Training Challenge Hackathons (ITCH), conducted in 2020.

    The ITCH methodology, developed by The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), informed the design of the 2022 IA2030 Movement sessions.

    Watkins et al. found that the ITCH approach fostered four simultaneous types of learning: peer, remote, social, and networked.

    1. Peer Learning: This involves participants learning directly from each other’s experiences and knowledge. In the context of immunization, imagine a scenario where a vaccination program manager from rural India shares their successful strategy for improving vaccine cold chain management with a colleague facing similar challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. This direct exchange of practical, context-specific knowledge can complement more theoretical training, as it is based on real-world application.
    2. Remote Learning: This refers to the ability to learn and solve problems collaboratively across geographical distances. For an immunization specialist, this might seem counterintuitive, as many believe that hands-on, in-person training is essential. However, the ITCH sessions demonstrated that meaningful learning can occur remotely. For example, a team in Bangladesh could describe their approach to overcoming vaccine hesitancy, and a team in Nigeria could immediately adapt and apply those strategies to their local context, all without the need for costly and time-consuming travel.
    3. Social Learning: This concept emphasizes the importance of learning within a network. In the immunization field, professionals often work in isolation, especially at sub-national levels. The ITCH sessions created a sense of belonging to a global network, community, and platform of immunization practitioners. This social aspect can boost motivation, reduce feelings of isolation, and foster a collective approach to problem-solving that transcends individual or even national boundaries.
    4. Networked Learning: This type of learning emerges from connections made across different levels of health systems and across country borders. For an epidemiologist, this might be analogous to how disease surveillance networks function across borders. In the ITCH context, it means that a district-level immunization officer could learn from and share ideas with national-level policymakers from other countries, fostering a more holistic understanding of immunization challenges and solutions.

    These four types of learning operate simultaneously during ITCH sessions, creating a synergistic effect. 

    For instance, a participant might learn a new cold chain management technique (peer learning) from a colleague in another country (remote learning), feel supported by the global community in implementing this new technique (social learning), and then share their adaptation of this technique with others across various levels of the health system (networked learning).

    From an epidemiological perspective, this approach to learning could be compared to how we understand disease transmission and intervention effectiveness.

    Just as multiple factors contribute to disease spread and control, these multiple learning types contribute to knowledge dissemination and capacity building in the immunization field.

    The value of this approach lies in its potential to rapidly disseminate practical, context-specific knowledge and solutions across a global network of immunization professionals.

    This can lead to faster adoption of best practices, more innovative problem-solving, and ultimately, improvements in immunization program performance that could contribute to better disease control outcomes.

    While this approach may seem unconventional compared to traditional training methods in the immunization field, the evidence presented by Watkins et al. suggests that it can be a powerful complement to existing capacity-building efforts, particularly in resource-constrained settings where access to formal training opportunities may be limited.

    This multifaceted approach allowed participants to not only acquire new knowledge but also to expand their professional networks and gain confidence in their problem-solving abilities—findings that align closely with the outcomes observed in the 2022 IA2030 Movement sessions.

    The Watkins study emphasized the importance of building confidence and motivation through peer learning experiences, a theme strongly echoed in the Mbuh case study.

    Furthermore, Watkins et al. highlighted the potential of this approach to create a “space of possibility” for innovation and problem-solving, which is evident in the diverse and creative solutions shared during the 2022 sessions.

    Both studies underscore the significance of peer-led, digital learning experiences in accelerating progress towards global health goals.

    By fostering peer learning and digital collaboration, these approaches empower health workers to turn global strategies into effective local action.

    References

    Mbuh, C., Gasse, F., Jones, I., Sadki, R., Brooks, A., Zha, M., Steed, I., Sequeira, J., Churchill, S., Kovanovic, V., 2022. IA2030 Case study 16. Continuum from knowledge to performance. The Geneva Learning Foundation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7014392

    Watkins, K.E., Sandmann, L.R., Dailey, C.A., Li, B., Yang, S.-E., Galen, R.S., Sadki, R., 2022. Accelerating problem-solving capacities of sub-national public health professionals: an evaluation of a digital immunization training intervention. BMC Health Serv Res 22, 736. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08138-4

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2024

  • Why health leaders who are critical thinkers choose rote learning for others

    Why health leaders who are critical thinkers choose rote learning for others

    Many health leaders are highly analytical, adaptive learners who thrive on solving complex problems in dynamic, real-world contexts.

    Their expertise is grounded in years of field experience, where they have honed their ability to rapidly generate insights, test ideas, and innovate solutions in collaboration with diverse stakeholders.

    In January 2021, as countries were beginning to introduce new COVID-19 vaccines, Kate O’Brien, who leads WHO’s immunization efforts, connected global learning to local action:

    “For COVID-19 vaccines […] there are just too many lessons that are being learned, especially according to different vaccine platforms, different communities of prioritization that need to be vaccinated. So [everyone]  has got to be able to scale, has got to be able to deal with complexity, has got to be able to do personal, local innovation to actually overcome the challenges.”

    In an Insights Live session with the Geneva Learning Foundation in 2022, she made a compelling case that “the people who are working in the program at that most local level have to be able to adapt, to be agile, to innovate things that will work in that particular setting, with those leaders in the community, with those families.”

    However, unlike Kate O’Brien, some senior leaders in global health disconnect their own learning practices and their assumptions about how others learn best.

    When it comes to designing learning initiatives for their teams or organizations, these leaders may default to a more simplistic, behaviorist approach.

    They may equate learning with the acquisition and application of specific skills or knowledge, and thus focus on creating structured, content-driven training programs.

    The appeal of behaviorist platforms – with their promise of efficient, scalable delivery and easily measured outcomes – can be seductive in the resource-constrained, results-driven world of global health.

    Furthermore, leaders may hold assumptions that health workers – especially those at the community level – do not require higher-order critical thinking skills, that they simply need a predetermined set of knowledge and procedures.

    This view is fundamentally misguided.

    A robust body of scientific evidence on learning culture and performance demonstrates that the most effective organizations are those that foster continuous learning, critical reflection, and adaptive problem-solving at all levels.

    Health workers at the frontlines face complex, unpredictable challenges that demand situational judgment, creative thinking, and the ability to learn from experience.

    Failing to cultivate these capacities not only underestimates the potential of these health workers, but it also constrains the performance and resilience of health systems as a whole.

    The problem is that this approach fails to cultivate the very qualities that make these leaders effective learners and problem-solvers.

    Behaviorist techniques, with their emphasis on passive information absorption and narrow, pre-defined outcomes, do not foster the critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative capacity needed to tackle complex health challenges.

    They may produce short-term gains in narrow domains, but they cannot develop the adaptive expertise required for long-term impact in ever-shifting contexts.

    To help health leaders recognize this disconnect, it is useful to engage them in reflective dialogue about their own learning processes.

    By unpacking real-world examples of how they have solved thorny problems or generated novel insights, we can highlight the sophisticated cognitive strategies and collaborative dynamics at play.

    We can show how they constantly question assumptions, synthesize diverse perspectives, and iterate solutions – all skills that are essential for navigating complexity, but are poorly served by rigid, content-focused training.

    The goal is not to dismiss the need for foundational knowledge or skills, but rather to emphasize that in the face of evolving challenges, adaptive learning capacity is the real differentiator.

    It is the ability to think critically, to imagine new possibilities, to learn from failure, and to co-create with others that drives meaningful change.

    By tying this insight directly to leaders’ own experiences and values, we can inspire them to champion learning approaches that mirror the richness and dynamism of their personal growth journeys.

    Ultimately, the most impactful health organizations will be those that not only equip people with essential skills, but that also nurture the underlying cognitive and collaborative capacities needed to continually learn, adapt, and innovate.

    By recognizing and leveraging the powerful learning practices they themselves embody, health leaders can shape organizational cultures and strategies that truly empower people to navigate complexity and drive transformative change.

    This shift requires letting go of the illusion of control and predictability that behaviorism offers, and instead embracing the messiness and uncertainty of real learning.

    It means creating space for experimentation, reflection, and dialogue, and trusting in people’s inherent capacity to grow and create.

    It is a challenging transition, but one that health leaders are uniquely positioned to lead – if they can bridge the gap between how they learn and how they seek to enable others’ learning.

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2024

  • How to overcome limitations of expert-led fellowships for global health

    How to overcome limitations of expert-led fellowships for global health

    Coaching and mentoring programs sometimes called “fellowships” have been upheld as the gold standard for developing leaders in global health.

    For example, a fellowship in the field of immunization was recently advertised in the following manner.

    • Develop your skills and become an advocate and leader: The fellowship will begin with two months of weekly mandatory live engagements led by [global] staff and immunization experts around topics relating to rebuilding routine immunization, including catch-up vaccination, integration and life course immunization. […]
    • Craft an implementation plan: Throughout the live engagement series, fellows will develop, revise and submit a COVID-19 recovery strategic plan.
    • Receive individualized mentoring: Participants with strong plans will be considered for a mentorship program to work 1:1 with experts in the field to further develop and implement their strategies and potentially publish their case studies.

    We will not dwell here on the ‘live engagements’, which are expert-led presentations of technical knowledge. We already know that such ‘webinars’ have very limited learning efficacy, and unlikely impact on outcomes. (This may seem like a harsh statement to global health practitioners who have grown comfortable with webinars, but it is substantiated by decades of evidence from learning science research.)

    On the surface, the rest of the model sounds highly effective, promising personalized attention and expert guidance.

    The use of a project-based learning approach is promising, but it is unclear what support is provided once the implementation plan has been crafted.

    It is when you consider the logistical aspects that the cracks begin to show.

    The essence of traditional coaching lies in the quality of the one-to-one interaction, making it an inherently limited resource.

    Take, for example, a fellowship programme where interest outstrips availability—say, 1,600 aspiring global health leaders are interested, but only 30 will be selected for one-on-one mentoring.

    Tailored, one-on-one coaching can be incredibly effective in small, controlled environments.

    While these 30 may receive an invaluable experience, what happens to those left behind?

    There is an ‘elitist spiral’.

    Coaching and mentoring, while intensive, remain exclusive by design, limited to the select few.

    This not only restricts scale but also concentrates knowledge among the selected group, perpetuating hierarchies.

    Those chosen gain invaluable support.

    The majority left out are denied access and implicitly viewed as passive recipients rather than partners in a collective solution.

    Doubling the number of ‘fellows’ only marginally improves this situation.

    Even if the mentor pool were to grow exponentially, the personalized nature of the engagement limits the rate of diffusion.

    When we step back and look at the big picture, we realize there is a problem: these programs are expensive and difficult to scale.

    And, in global health, if it does not scale, it is not solving the problem.

    How does the scalability of peer learning compare to expert-led coaching ‘fellowships’?

    Calculating the relative effectiveness of expert coaching, peer learning, and cascade training

    So while these programs can make a real difference for a small group of people, they are unlikely to move the needle on a global scale.

    That is like trying to fill a swimming pool with a teaspoon—you might make some progress, but you will never get the job done.

    The model creates a paradox: the attributes making it effective for individuals intrinsically limit systemic impact.

    There is another paradox related to complexity.

    Global health issues are inextricably tied to cultural, political and economic factors unique to each country and community.

    Complex problems require nuanced solutions.

    Yet coaching promotes generalized expertise from a few global, centralized institutions rather than fostering context-specific knowledge.

    Even the most brilliant, experienced coach or mentor cannot single-handedly impart the multifaceted understanding needed to drive impact across diverse settings.

    A ‘fellowship’ structure also subtly perpetuates the existing hierarchies within global health.

    It operates on the tacit assumption that the necessary knowledge and expertise reside in certain centralized locations and among a select cadre of experts.

    This sends an implicit message that knowledge flows unidirectionally—from the seasoned experts to the less-experienced practitioners who are perceived as needing to be “coached.”

    Learn more: How does peer learning compare to expert-led coaching ‘fellowships’?

    Peer learning: Collective wisdom, collective progress

    In global health, no one individual or institution can be expected to possess solutions for all settings.

    Sustainable change requires mobilizing collective intelligence, not just centralized expertise.

    Learn more: The COVID-19 Peer Hub as an example of Collective Intelligence (CI) in practice

    This means transitioning from hierarchical, top-down development models to flexible platforms amplifying practitioners’ contextual insights.

    The gap between need and availability of quality training in global health is too vast for conventional approaches to ever bridge alone.

    Instead of desperately chasing an asymptote of expanding elite access, we stand to gain more by embracing approaches that democratize development.

    Complex challenges demand platforms unleashing collective wisdom through collaboration. The technologies exist.

    In the “fellowship” example, less than five percent of participants were selected to receive feedback from global experts.

    A peer learning platform can provide high-quality peer feedback for everyone.

    • Such a platform democratizes access to knowledge and disrupts traditional hierarchies.
    • It also moves away from the outdated notion that expertise is concentrated in specific geographical or institutional locations.

    What learning science underpins peer learning for global health? Watch this 14-minute presentation at the 2023 annual meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

    What about the perceived trade-off between quality and scale?

    Effective digital peer learning platforms negate this zero-sum game.

    Research on MOOCs (massive open online courses) has conclusively demonstrated that giving and receiving feedback to and from three peers through structured, rubric-based peer review, achieves reliability comparable, when properly supported, to that of expert feedback alone.

    If we are going to make a dent in the global health crises we face, we have to shift from a model that relies on the expertise of the few to one that harnesses the collective wisdom of the many.

    • Peer learning isn’t a Band-Aid. It is an innovative leap forward that disrupts the status quo, and it’s exactly what the global health sector needs.
    • Peer learning is not just an incremental improvement. It is a seismic shift in the way we think about learning and capacity-building in global health.
    • Peer learning is not a compromise. It is an upgrade. We move from a model of scarcity, bound by the limits of individual expertise, to one of collective wisdom.
    • Peer learning is more than just a useful tool. It is a challenge to the traditional epistemology of global health education.

    Read about a practical example: Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030): grounding action in local realities to reach the unreached

    As we grapple with urgent issues in global health—from pandemic recovery to routine immunization—it is clear that we need collective intelligence and resource sharing on a massive scale.

    And for that, we need to move beyond the selective, top-down models of the past.

    The collective challenges we face in global health require collective solutions.

    And collective solutions require us to question established norms, particularly when those norms serve to maintain existing hierarchies and power imbalances.

    Now it is up to us to seize this opportunity and move beyond outmoded, hierarchical models.

    There is a path – now, not tomorrow – to truly democratize knowledge, make meaningful progress, and tackle the global health challenges that confront us all.