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Tag: peer learning

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

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

    By connecting practitioners to learn from each other, peer learning facilitates collaborative development. ow does it compare to expert-led coaching and mentoring “fellowships” that are seen as the ‘gold standard’ for professional development in global health?

    Scalability in global health matters. (See this article for a comparison of other aspects.)

    Simplified mathematical modeling can compare the scalability of expert coaching (“fellowships”) and peer learning

    Let N be the total number of learners and M be the number of experts available. Assuming that each expert can coach K learners effectively:

    $latex \text{Total Number of Coached Learners} = M \times K&s=3$

    For N>>M×KN>>M×K, it is evident that expert coaching is costly and difficult to scale.

    Expert coaching “fellowships” require the availability of experts, which is often optimistic in highly specialized fields.

    The number of learners (N) greatly exceeds the product of the number of experts (M) and the capacity per expert (K).

    Scalability of one-to-one peer learning

    By comparison, peer learning turns the conventional model on its head by transforming each learner into a potential coach who can provide peer feedback.

    This has significant advantages in scalability.

    Let N be the total number of learners. Assuming a peer-to-peer model, where each learner can learn from any other learner:

    $latex \text{Total Number of Learning Interactions} = \frac{N \times (N – 1)}{2}&s=3$

    $latex \text{The number of learning interactions scales with: } O(N^2)&s=3$

    In this context, the number of learning interactions scales quadratically with the number of learners. This means that if the number of learners doubles, the total number of learning interactions increases by a factor of four. This quadratic relationship highlights the significant increase in interactions (and potential scalability challenges) as more learners participate in the model.

    However, this one-to-one model is difficult to implement: not every learner is going to interact with every other learner in meaningful ways.

    A more practical ‘triangular’ peer learning model with no upper limit to scalability

    In The Geneva Learning Foundation’s peer learning model, learners give feedback to three peers, and receive feedback from three peers. This is a structured, time-bound process of peer review, guided by an expert-designed rubric.

    When each learner gives feedback to 3 different learners and receives feedback from 3 different learners, the model changes significantly from the one-to-one model where every learner could potentially interact with every other learner. In this specific configuration, the total number of interactions can be calculated based on the number of learners N, with each learner being involved in 6 interactions (3 given + 3 received).

    The total number of interactions per learner is six. However, since each interaction involves two learners (the giver and the receiver of feedback), we do not need to double-count these interactions for the total count in the system. Hence, the total number of interactions for each learner is directly 6, without further adjustments for double-counting.

    Therefore, the total number of learning interactions in the system can be represented as:

    $latex \text{Total Number of Learning Interactions} = N \times 3&s=3$

    Given this setup, the complexity or scalability of the system in terms of learning interactions relative to the number of participants N is linear. This is because the total number of interactions increases directly in proportion to the number of learners. Thus, the Big O notation would be:

    $latex O(N)&s=3$

    This indicates that the total number of learning interactions scales linearly with the number of learners. In this configuration, as the number of learners increases, the total number of interactions increases at a linear rate, which is more scalable and manageable than the quadratic rate seen in the peer-to-peer model where every learner interacts with every other learner. Learn more: There is no scale.

    Illustration: The Geneva Learning Foundation © 2024

  • Become a Teach to Reach 10 Partner: Help amplify frontline voices at the world’s largest health peer learning event

    Become a Teach to Reach 10 Partner: Help amplify frontline voices at the world’s largest health peer learning event

    The Geneva Learning Foundation is pleased to announce the tenth edition of Teach to Reach, to be held 20-21 June 2024.

    Teach to Reach is a massive, open peer learning event where health professionals network, and learn with colleagues from all over the world. Request your invitation…

    Teach to Reach 10 continues a tradition of groundbreaking peer learning started in 2020, when over 3,000 health workers from 80 countries came together to improve immunization training.

    17,662 health professionals – over 80% from districts and facilities, half working for government – participated in Teach to Reach 9 in October 2023. Participants shared 940 experiences ahead of the event. See what we learned at Teach to Reach 9 or view Insights Live with Dr Orin Levine.

    Teach to Reach is a platform, community, and network to amplify voices from lower-resource settings bearing the greatest burden of disease.

    Teach to Reach 10 will focus on the impacts of climate change on health, following the publication of a ground-breaking report sharing insights of over 1,200 health workers.

    In the video below, learn from the experiences of 4,700 participants in our Special Event: From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change.

    Poor connectivity? You will find the videos on this page in the low-bandwidth, audio-only Teach to Reach podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, or Amazon Podcasts.

    Alongside this theme, other critical health challenges selected by participants for this tenth edition include the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), and neglected needs of women’s health.

    In this video of a Teach to Reach session, learn about local action led by community-based health workers to tackle Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS), a neglected tropical disease that affects an estimated 56 million women and girls.

    In the run-up to Teach to Reach 10, participants will share their real-world experience. Every success, lessons learned, and challenge will be shared back with the community and brought to the attention of partners.

    The Manifesto for investment in health workers, a visionary statement elaborated by over 1,300 health workers, will be launched at Teach to Reach 10.

    A diverse range of over 50 global organizations have partnered with Teach to Reach since 2020, including Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, the Wellcome Trust, and UNICEF.

    The next video is a session with UNICEF on reaching zero-dose children in urban settings.

    Alongside global partners and ministries of health, local community-based organizations will also be invited to become Teach to Reach partners.

    Partners are invited to join the first Partner Briefing on Monday 4 March 2024, bringing together global health organizations with a commitment to listening and learning from health workers and the communities they serve.

    Illustration: The Geneva Learning Foundation © 2024

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

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

    A formula for calculating learning efficacy, (E), considering the importance of each criterion and the specific ratings for peer learning, is:

    $latex \text{Efficacy} = \frac{S \cdot w_S + I \cdot w_I + C \cdot w_C + F \cdot w_F + U \cdot w_U}{w_S + w_I + w_C + w_F + w_U}&s=3$

    This abstract formula provides a way to quantify learning efficacy, considering various educational criteria and their relative importance (weights) for effective learning.

    Variable DefinitionDescription 
    SScalabilityAbility to accommodate a large number of learners 
    IInformation fidelityQuality and reliability of information 
    CCost effectivenessFinancial efficiency of the learning method 
    FFeedback qualityQuality of feedback received 
    UUniformityConsistency of learning experience 
    Summary of five variables that contribute to learning efficacy

    Weights for each variables are derived from empirical data and expert consensus.

    All values are on a scale of 0-4, with a “4” representing the highest level.

    ScalabilityInformation fidelityCost-benefitFeedback qualityUniformity
    $latex w_S&s=3$$latex w_I&s=3$$latex w_C&s=3$$latex w_F&s=3$$latex w_U&s=3$
    4.003.004.003.001.00
    Assigned weights

    Here is a summary table including all values for each criterion, learning efficacy calculated with weights, and Efficacy-Scale Score (ESS) for peer learning, cascade training, and expert coaching.

    The Efficacy-Scale Score (ESS) can be calculated by multiplying the efficacy (E) of a learning method by the number of learners (N).

    $latex \text{ESS} = E \times N&s=3$

    This table provides a detailed comparison of the values for each criterion across the different learning methods, the calculated learning efficacy values considering the specified weights, and the Efficacy-Scale Score (ESS) for each method.

    Type of learningScalabilityInformation fidelityCost effectivenessFeedback qualityUniformityLearning efficacy# of learnersEfficacy-Scale Score
    Peer learning4.002.504.002.501.003.2010003200
    Cascade training2.001.002.000.500.501.40500700
    Expert coaching0.504.001.004.003.002.2060132

    Of course, there are many nuances in individual programmes that could affect the real-world effectiveness of this simple model. The model, grounded in empirical data and simplified to highlight core determinants of learning efficacy, leverages statistical weighting to prioritize key educational factors, acknowledging its abstraction from the multifaceted nature of educational effectiveness and assumptions may not capture all nuances of individual learning scenarios.

    Peer learning

    The calculated learning efficacy for peer learning, $latex (E_{\text {peer}})&s=2$ , is 3.20. This value reflects the weighted assessment of peer learning’s strengths and characteristics according to the provided criteria and their importance.

    By virtue of scalability, ESS for peer learning is 24 times higher than expert coaching.

    Cascade training

    For Cascade Training, the calculated learning efficacy, $latex (E_{\text {cascade}})&s=2$, is approximately 1.40. This reflects the weighted assessment based on the provided criteria and their importance, indicating lower efficacy compared to peer learning.

    Cascade training has a higher ESS than expert coaching, due to its ability to achieve scale.

    Learn more: Why does cascade training fail?

    Expert coaching

    For Expert Coaching, the calculated learning efficacy, $latex (E_{\text {expert}})&s=2$, is approximately 2.20. This value indicates higher efficacy than cascade training but lower than peer learning.

    However, the ESS is the lowest of the three methods, primarily due to its inability to scale. Read this article for a scalability comparison between expert coaching and peer learning.

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2024

  • Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030): grounding action in local realities to reach the unreached

    Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030): grounding action in local realities to reach the unreached

    Three years after the launch of Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), WHO’s 154th Executive Board meeting provided a sobering picture of how the COVID-19 pandemic reversed decades of progress in expanding global immunization coverage and controlling vaccine-preventable diseases.

    1. Over 3 million more zero-dose children in 2022 compared to 2019 and widening inequities between and within countries.
    2. Africa in particular suffered a 25% increase in children missing out on basic vaccines.
    3. Coverage disparities grew between the best- and worst-performing districts in the same countries that previously made gains.

    In response, the World Health Organization is calling for action “grounded in local realities”.

    Growing evidence supports fresh approaches that do exactly that.

    Tom Newton-Lewis is part of the community of researchers and practitioners who have observed that “health systems are complex and adaptive” and, they say, that explains why top-down control rarely succeeds.

    • The claim is that directive performance management—relying on targets, monitoring, incentives and hierarchical control—is largely ineffective at driving outcomes in low- and middle-income country health systems.
    • By contrast, enabling approaches aim to leverage intrinsic motivation, foster collective responsibility, and empower teams for improvement.

    However, top-down control and directive management appear to have been key to how immunization programmes achieved impressive results in previous decades.

    Hence, it may be challenging for the current generation of global immunization leaders to consider that enabling approaches that leverage intrinsic motivation, foster collective responsibility, and empower teams – especially for local staff – are the ones needed now.

    One example of an enabling approach is the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030).

    What is the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)?

    This is a locally-led network, platform, and community of action that emerged in March 2022 in response to the Director-General’s call for a “groundswell of support” for immunization.

    In Year 1 (report), this Movement demonstrated the feasibility of establishing a large-scale peer learning platform for immunization professionals, aligned with global IA2030 goals. Specifically:

    • Over 6,000 practitioners from 99 countries joined initial activities, with 1,021 implementing peer-reviewed local action plans by June 2022.
    • These participants generated over half a million quantitative and qualitative data points shedding light on local realities.
    • Regular peer learning events known as Teach to Reach rallied tens of thousands of national and sub-national immunization staff, defying boundaries of geography, hierarchy, gender, and job roles in collaborative sessions with each other, but also with IA2030 Working Groups.

    By September 2022, over 10,000 professionals had joined the Movement, turning their commitment to achieving IA2030 into context-specific actions, sharing progress and results to encourage and support each other.

    In Year 2, further evidence emerged on participant demand and public health impacts:

    • By June 2023, the network expanded to 16,835 members across over 100 countries.
    • Some participants directly attributed coverage increases to the Movement (see Wasnam Faye’s story and other examples), with many sharing a strong sense of IA2030 ownership.

    Overall, the Movement has already demonstrated a scalable model facilitating peer exchange between thousands of motivated immunization professionals during its first two years.

    • Locally-developed solutions are proving indispensable to practitioners, to make sense of generalized guidance from the global level.
    • Movement research confirmed that “progress more likely comes from the systematic application and adaptation of existing good practice, tailored to local contexts and communities.”
    • Connecting local innovation to global knowledge could be “instrumental for resuscitating progress” towards more equitable immunization, especially when integrated into coordinated action across health system levels.
    • It could be part of a teachable moment in which global partners learn from local action, rather than prescribe it.

    The Movement has already been making sparks. It will take the fuel of global partners to propel it to accelerate progress in new ways that could meet or exceed IA2030 goals.

  • Making sense of sensemaking

    Making sense of sensemaking

    In her article “A Shared Lens for Sensemaking in Learning Analytics”, Sasha Poquet argues that the field of learning analytics lacks a shared conceptual language to describe the process of sensemaking around educational data. She reviews prominent theories of sensemaking, delineating tensions between assumptions in dominant paradigms. Poquet then demonstrates the eclectic use of sensemaking frameworks across empirical learning analytics research. For instance, studies frequently conflate noticing dashboard information with interpreting its significance. To advance systematic inquiry, she calls for revisiting epistemic assumptions to reconcile tensions between cognitive and sociocultural traditions. Adopting a transactional perspective, Poquet suggests activity theory, conceptualizations of perceived situational definitions, and ecological affordance perception can jointly illuminate subjective and objective facets of sensemaking. This preliminary framework spotlights the interplay of internal worldviews, external systemic contexts, and emergent perceptual processes in appropriating analytics.

    The implications span research and practice. The proposed constructs enable precise characterization of variability in stakeholder sensemaking to inform dashboard design. They also facilitate aggregating insights across implementations. Moreover, explicitly mapping situational landscapes and tracking affording relations between users and tools reveals rapid shifts in adoption phenomena frequently obscured in learning analytics. Capturing sensemaking dynamics through this multidimensional lens promises more agile, context-sensitive interventions. It compels a human-centered orientation to analytics aligned with longstanding calls to catalyze latent systemic wisdom rather than control complex educational processes.

    The Geneva Learning Foundation’s mission centers on fostering embedded peer learning networks scaling across boundaries. This vision resonates deeply with calls to transition from fragmented insights towards fostering collective coherence. The Foundation already employs a complexity meta-theory treating learning as an emergent phenomenon arising from cross-level interactions between minds and cultures. Adopting Poquet’s shared vocabulary for examining sensemaking processes driving appropriation of insights can help, as we continue to explore how to describe, explain, and understand our own work, large parts of which remain emergent. For instance, analysis could trace how contextual definitions interact with perceived affordances and activity systems to propagate innovative practices during Teach to Reach events spanning thousands worldwide. More broadly, the lens proposed mobilizes analytics to illuminate rather than dictate stakeholder wayfinding through complex challenges.

    Poquet, O. (2024). A shared lens around sensemaking in learning analytics: What activity theory, definition of a situation and affordances can offer. British Journal of Educational Technology, 00, 1–21.

    Illustration: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2024

  • Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030): National EPI leaders from 31 countries share experience of HPV vaccination

    Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030): National EPI leaders from 31 countries share experience of HPV vaccination

    What difference can peer-led learning and action make for national EPI planners seeking new strategies to support HPV vaccine introduction or reintroduction?

    The stakes are high: HPV vaccination efforts, if successful, will avert 3.4 million deaths by 2030.

    On Friday, EPI focal points for HPV and other national-level MOH colleagues from 31 countries convened under the banner of the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), which connects over 60,000 primarily sub-national health staff worldwide.

    What is the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)?

    This time, it was national HPV vaccination focal points and other national EPI planners who joined to share experience between countries of ‘what works’ (and how).

    They also discussed how the Geneva Learning Foundation’s unique peer learning-to-action pathway could help them overcome barriers they are facing to ensure that local communities understand and support the benefits of this vaccine.

    Such a pathway can complement existing, top-down forms of vertical technical assistance and may provide a new ‘lever’ for national planners.

    In June and October 2023, health workers – primarily from districts and facilities – in over 60 countries shared 298 lessons learned and success stories about HPV vaccination in the Foundation’s Teach to Reach peer learning events. Watch the video: Why HPV matters for women who deliver vaccines.

    The active participation of national EPI managers from Burkina Faso and key stakeholders Sierra Leone led to the consultative engagement in January.

    Although HPV vaccine is not new, the global community’s effort to introduce it has been stymied by a number of factors.

    Doing what has been done before is unlikely to produce the change that is needed.

    For example, it remains unclear how early gains achieved through campaigns can sustainably become part of routine immunization.

    TGLF’s Insights Unit will now produce a short summary of key learning from this inter-country peer learning exchange, which will be shared back with participants.

    If you are interested in learning more about the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) or the Geneva Learning Foundation’s HPV vaccination learning-to-action pathway, please do get in touch.

  • What learning science underpins peer learning for Global Health?

    What learning science underpins peer learning for Global Health?

    Watch Reda Sadki’s presentation about peer learning for global health at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Symposium on 19 October 2023

    Most significant learning that contributes to improved performance takes place outside of formal training.

    It occurs through informal and incidental forms of learning between peers.

    This is called peer learning or peer-to-peer learning.

    Effective use of peer learning requires realizing how much we can learn from each other (peer learning), experiencing the power of defying distance to solve problems together (remote learning), and feeling a growing sense of belonging to a community (social learning), emergent across country borders and health system levels (networked learning).

    At the ASTMH annual meeting Symposium organized by Julie Jacobson, two TGLF Alumnae, María Monzón from Argentina and Ruth Allotey from Ghana, will be sharing their analyses and reflections of how they turned peer learning into action, results, and impact.

    In his presentation, Reda Sadki, president of The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), will explore:

    1. What do we need to understand about digital learning?
    2. Networked learning: rethinking learning architecture in the Digital Age
    3. Social learning: peer learning is about making human connections
    4. Practical examples of TGLF peer learning systems for WHO, Wellcome, UNICEF, and Bridges to Development that connect learning to change, results, and impact.
    5. Emergent peer learning systems driven by local practitioner and community needs and priorities.

    Join this #TropMed23 Peer Learning symposium on Day 2 of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

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

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

    A new article by colleagues at the Cambridge Digital Education Futures Initiative (DEFI) illustrates academic understanding of Collective Intelligence (CI) through the COVID-19 Peer Hub, a peer learning initiative organized by over 6,000 frontline health workers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with support from The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), in response to the initial shock of the pandemic on immunization services that placed 80 million children at risk of missing lifesaving vaccines. Learn more about the COVID-19 Peer Hub…

    From the abstract:

    Collective Intelligence (CI) is important for groups that seek to address shared problems.

    CI in human groups can be mediated by educational technologies.

    The current paper presents a framework to support design thinking in relation to CI educational technologies.

    Our Collective Intelligence framework is grounded in an organismic-contextualist developmental perspective that orients enquiry to the design of increasingly complex and integrated CI systems that support coordinated group problem solving behaviour.

    We focus on pedagogies and infrastructure and we argue that project-based learning provides a sound basis for CI education, allowing for different forms of CI behaviour to be integrated, including swarm behaviour, stigmergy, and collaborative behaviour.

    We highlight CI technologies already being used in educational environments while also pointing to opportunities and needs for further creative designs to support the development of CI capabilities across the lifespan.

    We argue that Collective Intelligence education grounded in dialogue and the application of CI methods across a range of project-based learning challenges can provide a common bridge for diverse transitions into public and private sector jobs and a shared learning experience that supports cooperative public-private partnerships, which can further reinforce advanced human capabilities in system design.

    Article excerpt:

    As an example of Collective Intelligence in practice, in 2020–2021, more than 6000 health workers joined The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) COVID-19 Peer Hub.

    Participants shared more than 1200 ideas or practices for managing the pandemic in their contexts within 10 days. Relevant peer ideas and practices were then referenced as participants produced individual, context-specific action plans that were then reviewed by peers before finalisation and implementation.

    Mapping of action plan citations (C3L 2022) demonstrate patterns of peer learning, between countries, organisations and system levels.

    In parallel, TGLF synthesises data generated by peer learners in formats legitimised by the global health knowledge system (e.g. Moore et al. 2022).

    The biggest challenge to CI in this context remains one of legitimacy: how can collective intelligence compete with the perceived gold standard of academic publication within this expert-led culture?

    We argue that as CI education is further developed and extends across the lifespan from school learning environment to work and organisational environments, CI technologies and practices will be further developed, evaluated, and refined and will gain legitimacy as part of broader societal capabilities in CI that are cultivated and reinforced on an ongoing basis.

    References

    • Kovanovic, V. et al. (2022) The power of learning networks for global health: The Geneva Learning Foundation COVID-19 Peer Hub Project Evaluation Report. Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning.
    • Moore, Katie, Barbara Muzzulini, Tamara Roldán, Juliet Bedford, and Heidi Larson. 2022. Overcoming barriers to vaccine acceptance in the community: Key learning from the experiences of 734 frontline health workers (1.0). The Geneva Learning Foundation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6965355
    • Hogan, M.J., Barton, A., Twiner, A., James, C., Ahmed, F., Casebourne, I., Steed, I., Hamilton, P., Shi, S., Zhao, Y., Harney, O.M., Wegerif, R., 2023. Education for collective intelligence. Irish Educational Studies 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2023.2250309
  • Honoring health professionals as leaders of change

    Honoring health professionals as leaders of change

    We honor everyone who is joining the Special Event “From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change”: health staff from immunization and other areas of health – environmental health and One Health, but also those who fight neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), HIV, and other ailments. We also honor allies, including human rights advocates, those working to decolonize global health, fighting for gender and racial equity as well as economic justice.

    Since 2016, the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) has supported a global peer learning network and platform, built by and for immunization staff from all over the world. This is because we believe that practitioner-led peer education is a powerful philosophy for change in the Digital Age. 

    In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic, at least 80 million children under one were placed at risk of vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria, measles and polio as COVID-19 disrupted immunization service as worldwide. Over 6,000 immunization staff om TGLF’s immunization network worked together to build the COVID-19 Peer Hub, collaborating on early-learning recovery plans and then preparing strategies to engage communities ahead of the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccines.

    In March 2022, this network and platform helped launch the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), transforming the world’s strategy into local action. IA2030 Movement Leaders are accelerating progress by learning from each other, sharing successes, lessons learned, and challenges, forging together new ways of thinking, learning, and doing to meet the complex challenges ahead. Learn more about the Movement… What is the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)?

    We honor these IA2030 Leaders, primarily government workers from districts and facilities, who were the first to respond to the Call to Action of the Special Event “From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change”.

    What does immunization have to do with climate change? Read this blog post.

  • Learning from Frontline Health Workers in the Climate Change Era

    Learning from Frontline Health Workers in the Climate Change Era

    By Julie Jacobson, Alan Brooks, Charlotte Mbuh, and Reda Sadki

    The escalating threats of climate change cast long shadows over global health, including increases in disease epidemics, profound impacts on mental health, disruptions to health infrastructure, and alterations in the severity and geographical distribution of diseases.

    Mitigating the impact of such shadows on communities will test the resilience of health infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and especially challenge frontline health workers. The need for effective and cost-efficient public health interventions, such as immunization, will evolve and grow.

    Health workers, approximately 70% of which are women, that provide immunization and other health services will be trusted local resources to the communities they serve, further amplifying their centrality in resilient health systems.

    Listening to and building upon the experiences and insights of frontline health workers as they live with and increasingly work to address the manifestations of climate change on health is pivotal to the collective, global response today and in the years to come.

    We imagine a future of health workers connected to each other, learning directly from the successes and challenges of others by choosing to engage in digital, peer-supported, peer-learning networks regardless of the remoteness or location of their communities. Success will lie in a nimbleness and ability to quickly see new emerging patterns and respond to evolving needs of individuals and communities.

    Such a future shines a light on the importance of new ways of thinking about global health, leadership, who should have a “voice”, starting from a position of equity not hierarchy, and the value that peers ascribe to each other. The hyperlocal impact of climate change on health cannot be mitigated only through global pronouncements and national policies. It requires local knowledge and understanding.

    Recognizing this unique position of health workers, Bridges to Development and The Geneva Learning Foundation, two Swiss non-profits, are supporting this first-ever, large peer-learning event for frontline health workers to share their experiences and insights on climate change and health.

    More than 1,100 health workers have already shared their observations of changes in climate and health affecting the communities they serve in over 60 countries. They will be sharing their stories and insights at the Special Event: From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change, but you can already read short summaries from Guatemala; India and Mongolia; Bénin, Gambia, and Kenya.

    Starting from a Call to Action shared through the Movement for Immunization Agenda (IA2030), the call has “gone viral” through local communities and districts: over 4,500 people – most of them government workers involved in primary health care services in LMICs – registered to participate and contribute.

    Almost every health worker responding says that they are very worried about climate change, and that, for them, it is already a grave threat to the health of the communities they serve.

    Taken together, their observations, while imperfect, paint a daunting picture. This picture, consistent with global statistics and other data, helps to bring to life global pronouncements of the dire implications of climate change for health in LMICs.

    Amid this immense and dire challenge lies an opportunity to shift from a rigid, academically-dominated approach to a decentralized, democratized recognition and learning about the health impacts of climate change. This shift underscores the importance of amplifying insights from those who are bearing the brunt of the consequences of climate change, and recognizing the special role of health service workers as bridges between their communities and those working elsewhere to address similar challenges.

    This perspective requires those of us working at the global level to critically evaluate and challenge our biases and assumptions. The notion that only climate or health specialists can offer meaningful insights or credible solutions should be questioned. The understanding of climate change’s impact on epidemiology of disease, mental health and other manifestations – and the strategies employed to mitigate them – can be substantially enriched and sharpened by welcoming the voices of those on the frontlines. By doing so, we can foster a more comprehensive, inclusive, equitable and effective response to the challenges posed by climate change.

    The thousands of members of the Movement for the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) and others who have initiated this global dialogue around climate and health may be forging a new path, showing the feasibility and value of the global health community listening to and supporting the potential of frontline health workers to shine the brightest of lights into the shadow cast worldwide by climate change.

    This editorial is a contribution to the Special Event: From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change.

    About the authors

    Julie Jacobson and Alan Brooks are co-founders and managing partners of Bridges to Development. Jacobson was the president of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) in 2020-2021. Bridges to Development, a nonprofit founded in 2018 based in Europe and the US, strives to build on the world’s significant progress to date towards a stronger and more resilient future.

    Reda Sadki and Charlotte Mbuh lead the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF). The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) is a non-profit implementing its vision to catalyze transformation through large scale peer and mentoring networks led by frontline actors facing critical threats to our societies. Learn more: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7316466.

    Illustration: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2023. All rights reserved.