Overcoming barriers to vaccine acceptance in the community: Key learning from the experiences of 734 frontline health workers

What works in practice to build vaccine confidence?

Global health

This is the content of a poster presented today by The Geneva Learning Foundation (LinkedIn | YouTube | Podcast | Twitter)  at the International Social and Behavior Change Communication Summit 2022 (#SBCCSummit) held 5-9 December 2022 in Marrakech, Morocco. What is the Geneva Learning Foundation? Get the full report… Read the preface by Heidi Larson… From responding to the initial shock of the pandemic to preparing COVID-19 vaccine introduction Over 6,000 health professionals joined the COVID-19 Peer Hub in July 2022, part of the Geneva Learning Foundation’s (TGLF) global immunization learning-to-action platform. We asked a simple question: Can you think of a time when you helped an individual or group overcome their initial reluctance, hesitancy, or fear about vaccination? Who participated? Local practitioners from 86 countries: Health system levels: So what? What was the significance of the experience for participants? Transformation: “I can tell you this experience changed my life. It has changed my practice and made …

Heidi Larson: “So much remains determined by the capacity of people on the frontlines to explain, advocate, and respond in ways that are almost entirely dictated by context”

Global health

This is the preface by Heidi Larson for the report “Overcoming barriers to vaccine acceptance in the community: Key learning from the experiences of 734 frontline health workers”. This report is presented today by The Geneva Learning Foundation (LinkedIn | YouTube | Podcast | Twitter) at the International Social and Behavior Change Communication Summit 2022 (#SBCCSummit) held 5-9 December 2022 in Marrakech, Morocco. What is the Geneva Learning Foundation? Get the full report… Read the preface by Heidi Larson… My own consciousness of the fragile equilibrium sustaining vaccine confidence came from working with immunization programmes and local health workers to defuse rumors that threatened to derail vaccination initiatives. Twenty years ago, this meant traveling to countries to meet, build relationships with, and work side-by-side with frontliners. Since that time, the corpus of research on the topic has grown tremendously. Elaborate behavioral science frameworks, supported by robust monitoring and evaluation, are now available to guide policy makers, donors, …

What is a rubric and why you should use it in global health education-small

What is a “rubric” and why use rubrics in global health education?

Global health, Learning, Learning design, Theory

Rubrics are well-established, evidence-based tools in education, but largely unknown in global health. At the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), the rubric is a key tool that we use – as part of a comprehensive package of interventions – to transform high-cost, low-volume training dependent on the limited availability of global experts into scalable peer learning to improve access, quality, and outcomes. The more prosaic definition of the rubric – reduced from any pedagogical questioning – is “a type of scoring guide that assesses and articulates specific components and expectations for an assignment” (Source). The rubric is a practical solution to a number of complex issues that prevent effective teaching and learning in global health. Developing a rubric provides a practical method for turning complex content and expertise into a learning process in which learners will learn primarily from each other. Hence, making sense of a rubric requires recognizing and appreciating the value of peer learning. This may be …

Epidemic preparedness through connected transnational digital networks of local actors-small

Pandemic preparedness through connected transnational digital networks of local actors

Global health, Learning strategy

What is the link between pandemic preparedness, digital networks, and local action? In the Geneva Learning Foundation’s approach to effective humanitarian learning, knowledge acquisition and competency development are both necessary but insufficient. This is why, in July 2019, we built the first Impact Accelerator, to support local practitioners beyond learning outcomes all the way to achieving actual health outcomes. What we now call the Full Learning Cycle has become a mature package of interventions that covers the full spectrum from knowledge acquisition to implementation and continuous improvement. This package has produced the same effects in every area of work where we have been able to test it: self-motivated groups manifesting remarkable, emergent leadership, connected laterally to each other in each country and between countries, with a remarkable ability to quickly learn and adapt in the face of the unknown. Such networks have obvious relevant for pandemic preparedness. In 2020, we …

Reinventing the path from knowledge to action in global health

Global health, Learning strategy, The Geneva Learning Foundation

At the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), we have just begun to share a publication like no other. It is titled Overcoming barriers to vaccine acceptance in the community: Key learning from the experiences of 734 frontline health workers. You can access the full report here in French and in English. Short summaries are also available in three special issues of The Double Loop, the Foundation’s free Insights newsletter, now available in both English and French. The report, prefaced by Heidi Larson who leads the Vaccine Confidence Project, includes DOI to facilitate citation in academic research. (The Foundation uses a repository established and maintained by the Geneva-based CERN for this purpose.) However, knowing that academic papers have (arguably) an average of three readers, we have a different aspiration for dissemination. As a global community, we recognize the significance of local action to achieve the global goals. The report documents vaccine confidence practices just …

Mindjourney-online learning network-abstract-colorful

Which is better for global health: online, blended, or face-to-face learning?

Learning, Research, Theory

Question 1. Does supplementing face-to-face instruction with online instruction enhance learning? No. Positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. (It is more likely that positive effects are due to people doing more work in blended learning, once online and then again in a physical space.) This is the conclusion of the U.S. Department of Education’s “Evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: a meta-analysis and review of online learning studies” in September 2010. You can find the full document here. Question 2. Is the final academic performance of students in distance learning programs better than that of those enrolled in traditional FTF programs, in the last twenty-year period? Yes. Distance learning results in increasingly better learning outcomes since 1991 – when learning technologies to support distance learning were far more rudimentary than they are now. This is the meta-analysis done by Mickey …

How we make sense of complexity at The Geneva Learning Foundation

How we make sense of complexity, together, at the Geneva Learning Foundation

The Geneva Learning Foundation

Unique learning experiences generate not just data points but complex stories about what it takes to make change actually happen. By connecting the dots between ideas and implementation, we can zero in on the highest-value insights.  Our Insights Unit uses the latest advances in learning analytics to map how ideas and practices shared between countries and system levels make a difference.  The Unit facilitates international partners to work hand-in-hand with local practitioners.  In addition to thousands of local practitioners contributing and using insights to drive shared learning and action, our Insights Unit’s work is being used by leading global agencies. Examples include:  We are exploring affordable, practical ways to extract meaning from large data sets  To learn more about the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), download our brochure, listen to our podcast, view our latest livestreams, subscribe to our insights, and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Or introduce yourself to our …

How does The Geneva Learning Foundation break the norm

How does the Geneva Learning Foundation’s approach break the norm?

The Geneva Learning Foundation

100% digital 100% human: using the latest learning technologies and interfaces, we adapt our digital networking interfaces to learner needs and habits to augment their digital and networking capabilities.  Grounded in experience: we foster problem-solving that values both participants’ lived experience and the world’s best available global knowledge.  We open access: participation can be opened for all, across geographic, sectoral or institutional barriers.  New knowledge is created through peer learning: national and international practitioners sharing experience, giving and receiving feedback, and using this new knowledge to solve problems together.  We build trust and mutual respect: safe spaces encourage authentic sharing of experiences to learn what actually works, how, and why.  Driven by intrinsic motivation: proven high engagement rates with no per diem or other extrinsic incentives.  Sustainability built-in: 78% of TGLF programme participants feel “capable” of using TGLF’s methodology for their own needs, and 82% want to organize their own activities using it with their colleagues.  To learn more about the …

The Geneva Learning Foundation- Localizing programming and grounding policy

The Geneva Learning Foundation: Localizing programming and grounding policy

The Geneva Learning Foundation

By defying distance to connect with each other, practitioners expand the realm of what they are able to know beyond their local boundaries.  Listening to these diverse voices and experiences is critical to inform programming, policy and decision-making and build bridges across sectoral silos and other boundaries, by providing:  Thousands of ideas are turned into action, results, and impact  In every TGLF programme, practitioners develop action plans and then report to each other as they implement, documenting results, outcomes, and impact to help each other.  Such peer accountability has proven more reliable, in some cases, than conventional monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.  For individuals, TGLF enables:  Measurable impact in countries: Examples of outcomes tracked in immunization since July 2019  To learn more about the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), download our brochure, listen to our podcast, view our latest livestreams, subscribe to our insights, and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Or …

The Geneva Learning Foundation Scale, reach, and sustainability

The Geneva Learning Foundation: Scale, reach, and sustainability

The Geneva Learning Foundation

In its first years of operation, the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) built digital infrastructure to foster and support several global networks and platforms connecting practitioners. Communities supported included:•  immunization and primary health care professionals,•  humanitarian workers advocating gender equality during disasters and other emergency operations,•  doctors, other health workers, and communities addressing neglected needs in women’s health, and•  health workers tackling neglected tropical diseases. This digital infrastructure enabled TGLF to rapidly respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first two years of the pandemic, a team of three people developed and implemented…  To learn more about the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), download our brochure, listen to our podcast, view our latest livestreams, subscribe to our insights, and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Or introduce yourself to our Partnerships team.