Dear Scholars of the Geneva Learning Foundation,

As 2024 begins, we hope for new beginnings in a troubled world.

We begin by honoring Scholars on the frontlines of war, disease, disasters, and injustice.

The urgent need for new ways to learn and lead is self-evident, as facts separated from contexts of inequality and suffering ring hollow.

True learning integrates the lived challenges of communities.

In 2024, connecting global knowledge to local action – and ensuring local wisdom anchors global solutions – is key to making sense amid chaos.

Tens of thousands have already responded to the Foundation’s call to realize the potential of education as a philosophy for change.

Your unwavering dedication as practitioners calls for continuity.

So do the complex threats that engulf our hyperconnected age.

In 2024, we re-commit to championing contexts as rich learning spaces.

To propagating ground-up solutions flowing from embedded expertise.

And to steeling collective will for breakthroughs when unlikely allies unite across borders.

By interweaving disparate voices, aligned action ensues.

We will persist in building bridges between global thought and local change.

Between policies and frontline realities they impact.

Between systems to be transformed and change agents embedded within.

Interconnected learning lights hopeful paths forward.

We move into 2024 firmly believing that networked care and wisdom can redeem the times.

Will you continue boldly seeking answers with us, wherever the need is greatest?

In solidarity and care,

The Geneva Learning Foundation

Gavi Zero-Dose Learning Hub
Equity in Action: Local Strategies for Reaching Zero-Dose Children and Communities

Follow this link to register https://jsi.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Iyg-aNo_Tz6SHctnFLiFnQ#/registration

Real-world stories from the frontlines reveal how practitioners in Bangladesh, Mali, Nigeria, and Uganda are developing tailored local solutions to bring equity to immunization.

Join The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) and Gavi’s Zero-Dose Learning Hub (ZDLH) for an interactive session that analyzes real-world strategies for identifying and reaching zero-dose children across urban areas, conflict zones, and other marginalized communities.

During this webinar, attendees will learn how practitioners are overcoming barriers to reach zero-dose children through unique approaches to identification, microplanning, community engagement, and integrated services.

In addition, learning and immunization specialists will highlight opportunities to turn these real-world stories from lessons learned into actionable, replicable strategies that can be applied at the community and sub-national levels.

Attendees will leave the webinar with a new understanding of how local activities can inform global efforts to leave no child behind.

Simultaneous translation into French will be available.

Speaker(s):
- Heidi Reynolds, Senior Specialist, Evaluation and Learning, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance
- Jenny Sequeira, Immunization and Strategic Technical Advisor, TGLF, ZDLH
- Reda Sadki, Learning Science Specialist, CEO, TGLF, ZDLH
- Frontline health workers from Bangladesh, Mali, Nigeria, and Uganda

Comment, like and repost on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, and Instagram.

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.

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.

Read the blog post: https://redasadki.me/2024/01/16/movement-for-immunization-agenda-2030-ia2030-national-epi-leaders-from-31-countries-share-experience-of-hpv-vaccination/

You are cordially invited to join Teach to Reach 9 Insights Live with Orin Levine.

Follow this link to access the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-mloZjjQ5o

In this dialogue, we will explore what we learned from Teach to Reach 9 on 13 October 2023.

17,662 health professionals – over 80% from districts and facilities, half working for government – participated in this massive, online peer learning event.

Teach to Reach 9 Contributors shared 940 experiences.

What can we learn from a global network of peers who share their experiences? Why should global partners pay attention to such learning?

Dr. Orin Levine, Non Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development, will join us, together with Teach to Reach 9 Contributors from all over the world.

Discussion topics that we will explore together, grounded in real-world experiences shared by Teach to Reach 9 participants, include:
• Best practices and challenges faced by mobile vaccination teams
• Effective management of parental concerns over vaccine side effects
• Use of data systems and technology to identify and target zero-dose children
• Productive partnerships with community structures to advance immunization
• Strategies for coping with stockouts and bringing back hesitant parents
• Equipment and transportation barriers faced by healthcare workers
• Leveraging mobile phones, social media to bolster vaccine coverage
• Drivers of vaccine wastage and potential solutions
• Applying learnings from disease outbreaks to fill immunization gaps
• Fostering accountability among health workers and parents

Get 940 Teach to Reach 9 Experiences
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10062521

Request your invitation now for Teach to Reach 10
https://www.learning.foundation/teachtoreach

Poor connectivity? Subscribe to the podcast
https://www.learning.foundation/podcast

The Geneva Learning Foundation’s research has shown that the lack of continuous learning opportunities hinders immunization performance at all levels of the health system.

Insights Live is one of a set of interventions aimed at strengthening continuous learning.

Learn more about motivation, learning culture, and programme performance
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7004304

Help your colleagues learn by inviting them to join Insights Live on YouTube. Follow the links for WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X/Twitter.

How are we doing on Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)? Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is, so far, generally insufficient to achieve IA2030 targets.

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.

Widening inequities between and within countries and over 3 million more zero-dose children in 2022 compared to 2019.

You may be surprised to read what WHO contends needs to change to get back on track.

Follow this link to read a quick summary https://redasadki.me/2024/02/05/widening-inequities-immunization-agenda-2030-remains-off-track/

What actions can global partners take to support countries to accelerate progress toward the goals of Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)?

WHO has called for action “grounded in local realities”.

Growing evidence supports fresh approaches that do exactly that.

Here is one of them.

https://redasadki.me/2024/02/05/movement-for-immunization-agenda-2030-ia2030-an-opportunity-for-global-partners-to-learn-how-to-ground-action-in-local-realities-to-reach-the-unreached/

International Women’s Day (IWD) 2024: Women health workers face war, disease, climate change

Women health workers are facing war, disease, and climate change. How do they see the future? What do they think is needed to build a better world?

The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) is pleased to announce an exciting initiative inviting women in our global network of more than 60,000 health workers to share their voices in the lead up to International Women’s Day on 8 March 2024.

Health workers in this network, men and women, are on the frontlines of adversity: they work in remote rural areas or with the urban poor. They support the needs of nomadic and migrant populations, refugees, and IDPs.

More than one in five face work for health in areas of armed conflict.

We have reached out to over 2,000 women health workers and humanitarians, inviting them to respond to two important questions:

1. What advice would you share with your daughter (or another young woman) who wishes to pursue a career in health or humanitarian work?

2. In a world facing widespread challenges, what difference can women and girls make to build a better future? What is needed for the next generation of women and girls to live healthy, fulfilled lives no matter who they are or where they are born?

We will share responses received through TGLF’s social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram.

“We need to speak up for girls and women who are the targets of rape”, says Dr. Rudahindwa Ntanda Lys, a public health physician who works for the Ministry of Health in the North Kivu region.

Please follow this link to like, comment, and repost the first story: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7165687286301503490

Gavi is sharing the voices of Climate/Health Scholars on its web site:

Follow this link to read the article:
Climate change and immunisation: time to widen the scope?
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/climate-change-and-immunisation-time-widen-scope

We congratulate the following Scholars whose observations are featured in the article:
Ali Orchei Halliky, Chad
Dr Akhtar Hussain, Pakistan
Dr Avuwa Joseph Oteri, Nigeria
Dr Chinedu Anthony Iwu, Nigeria
Ismaila Edego, Nigeria
Taphurother Muhonja Mutange, Kenya
Ziketo Beugre Arnaud, Côte d'Ivoire

Show your solidarity for International Women’s Day (#IWD) by commenting and sharing these testimonials:

“Women and girls must be educated to manage knowledge”, advises Mariama Aboubacar, a rural development agent for an NGO in the Zinder region of Niger.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/geneva-learning-foundation_iwd-activity-7166335566039478272-GJsz

“Education is key to success. Without it, you’re nobody,” says Sandra Janice Misiribi, a community health worker from Kakamega County, Shinyalu Sub-County in Kenya.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/geneva-learning-foundation_iwd-activity-7166008668709183488-xf0n

“Saving lives is priceless,” says Wagoum Taleghang Fernande, a midwife from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, who works in a local Ministry of Health facility.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/geneva-learning-foundation_saving-lives-is-priceless-says-wagoum-activity-7165974546074841088-P2lP

Gavi is featuring IA2030 Movement Leader Felix Adipare from Ghana
https://x.com/gavi/status/1760952769941238147?s=20

“Empowered women empower women,” says Dr. Faiza Rabbani, a public health specialist who works for the Ministry of Health in Lahore, Punjab Province, Pakistan. This is a mantra, she explains, passed down from her late grandmother and now to her daughter, Anam.

Read her story https://www.linkedin.com/posts/geneva-learning-foundation_iwd-activity-7166718475707609089-dWyM

“Women play a great role in making the world a better place and building a better future,” says Eddah Kanini, a public health specialist from Kenya.

Follow this link to read Eddah Kanini’s story https://www.linkedin.com/posts/geneva-learning-foundation_iwd-activity-7167844768369094656-0uQM

“Pursuing a career in health work is not for the faint-hearted in Malawi,” shares Dr. Eugenia Norah Chigamane, a gynecologist working for the Ministry of Health in Lilongwe, Malawi. “You have to do it because you really love the work and you will find personal satisfaction.”

Read Dr Eugenia’s story https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charlotte-mbu-kaben-2b565298_iwd-activity-7168113863907872768-5zXw

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.

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.

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. Alongside the health impacts of climate change, other critical health challenges selected by participants for this tenth edition include immunization, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), and neglected needs of women’s health.

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 Global Health, 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.

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.

Share this announcement online: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/geneva-learning-foundation_become-a-teach-to-reach-10-partner-help-activity-7168279129862172674-68Ax

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

1,500 health professionals respond to a call to join a global health fellowship programme. 60 of them can benefit from coaching and mentoring. What happens to the remainder? And is there a more inclusive way to support everyone?

Read the full article: https://redasadki.me/2024/02/29/the-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.

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

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.

Follow the link to learn why such “fellowships”, while well-intentioned, can perpetuate existing hierarchies within global health – and how we can overcome their limitations.

Further reading:
How does the scalability of peer learning compare to expert-led coaching ‘fellowships’?
https://redasadki.me/2024/02/28/how-does-peer-learning-compare-to-expert-led-coaching-fellowships/

Calculating the relative effectiveness of expert coaching, peer learning, and cascade training
https://redasadki.me/2024/02/27/calculating-the-relative-effectiveness-of-expert-coaching-peer-learning-and-cascade-training/

Why does cascade training fail?
https://redasadki.me/2024/02/26/why-does-cascade-training-fail/

Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030): grounding action in local realities to reach the unreached
https://redasadki.me/2024/02/05/movement-for-immunization-agenda-2030-ia2030-an-opportunity-for-global-partners-to-learn-how-to-ground-action-in-local-realities-to-reach-the-unreached/

“I am very proud”, says Nurse Panmwa Mwatunwa, from Plateau State, Shendam LGHA in Nigeria, to be a health professional because “I save people’s lives”.

Read her story: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charlotte-mbu-kaben-2b565298_iwd-activity-7168983782811758594-w-1S