7 take-aways from Nigeria’s first Immunization Collaborative peer learning exercise

7 take-aways from Nigeria’s first Immunization Collaborative peer learning exercise

Reda SadkiWriting

On August 6, 2024, the Nigeria Immunization Agenda 2030 Collaborative concluded its first peer learning exercise with a final Assembly. This groundbreaking initiative, a partnership between The Geneva Learning Foundation, Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and UNICEF, has already engaged over 4,400 health workers from all 36 States and more than 300 Local Government Areas (LGAs) across Nigeria. The Collaborative’s innovative approach focuses on empowering health workers to identify root causes of local immunization challenges and develop practical, context-specific solutions. As the initiative continues to grow, with new members joining daily, it could help shift how Nigeria approaches immunization capacity building and problem-solving. Right after the final Assembly on 6 August 2024, Nigeria immunization specialist Jenny Sequeira and The Geneva Learning Foundation’s deputy director Charlotte Mbuh shared their initial thoughts about the exercise. Here are 7 key takeaways from their discussion. 1. Critical Thinking Evolution: Participants made …

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

Reda SadkiGlobal health

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: 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 …

What is norms shifting in immunization and global health

What is norms-shifting in immunization and global health?

Reda SadkiGlobal health

The concept of “norms shifting perspective”, in the field of immunization and global health focuses on strategies that aim to alter norms and attitudes towards vaccination to promote uptake and acceptance. This perspective acknowledges the influence that social norms have on individuals decisions regarding vaccination. Aims to utilize this insight to enhance acceptance through well crafted policies, messaging and interventions. The goal is to make vaccination the expected and socially endorsed choice across communities Here are a few aspects of this perspective. Recognizing the influence of social norms on vaccination behavior: Using accurate information about norms to increase acceptance: Shaping norms through public policy: Designing targeted interventions: Considering unintended consequences: Adapting to local contexts: Taking a long-term view: Where to learn more about norms-shifting in immunization? Bardosh, K., De Figueiredo, A., Gur-Arie, R., Jamrozik, E., Doidge, J., Lemmens, T., Keshavjee, S., Graham, J.E., Baral, S., 2022. The unintended consequences of …

Taking the pulse why and how we change everything in response to learner signals

Taking the pulse: why and how we change everything in response to learner signals

Reda SadkiLearning design, Theory

The ability to analyze and respond to learner behavior as it happens is crucial for educators. In complex learning that takes place in digital spaces, task separation between the design of instruction and its delivery does not make sense. Here is the practical approach we use in The Geneva Learning Foundation’s learning-to-action model to implement responsive learning environments by listening to learner signals and adapting design, activities, and feedback accordingly. Listening for and interpreting learner signals Educators must pay close attention to various signals that learners emit throughout their learning journey. These signals appear in several key ways: Making sense of learner signals Once these signals are identified, a nuanced approach to analysis is necessary: Adapting learning design in situ What can we change in response to learner behavior, signals, and patterns? Responding to learner signals Feedback plays a crucial role in the learning process: Balancing act When combined, these …

Community-based monitoring for immunization

Integrating community-based monitoring (CBM) into a comprehensive learning-to-action model

Reda SadkiGlobal health

According to Gavi, “community-based monitoring” or “CBM” is a process where service users collect data on various aspects of health service provision to monitor program implementation, identify gaps, and collaboratively develop solutions with providers. By engaging service users, CBM aims to foster greater accountability and responsiveness to local needs. The Geneva Learning Foundation’s innovative learning-to-action model offers a compelling framework within which CBM could be applied to immunization challenges. The model’s comprehensive design creates an enabling environment for effectively integrating diverse monitoring data sources – and this could include community perspectives. Health workers as trusted community advisers… and members of the community A distinctive feature of TGLF’s model is its emphasis on health workers’ role as trusted advisors to the communities they serve. The model recognizes that local health staff are not merely service providers, but often deeply embedded community members with intimate knowledge of local realities. For example, in …

Heini Utenen OpenWHO confusion about methods and learner preferences

Why asking learners what they want is a recipe for confusion

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Theory

A survey of learners on a large, authoritative global health learning platform has me pondering once again the perils of relying too heavily on learner preferences when designing educational experiences. One survey question intended to ask learners for their preferred learning method. The list of options provided includes a range of items. (Some would make the point that the list conflates learning resources and learning methods, but let us leave that aside for now.) Respondents’ top choices (source) were videos, slides, and downloadable documents. At first glance, this seems perfectly reasonable. After all, should we not give learners what they want? As it happens, the main resources offered by this platform are videos, slides, and other downloadable documents. (If we asked learners who participate in our peer learning programmes for their preference, they would likely say that they prefer… peer learning.) Beyond this availability bias, there is a more significant …

Learn health, but beware of the behaviorist trap

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Theory

The global health community has long grappled with the challenge of providing effective, scalable training to health workers, particularly in resource-constrained settings. In recent years, digital learning platforms have emerged as a potential solution, promising to deliver accessible, engaging, and impactful training at scale. Imagine a digital platform intended to train health workers at scale. Their theory of change rests on a few key assumptions: On the surface, this seems sensible. Mobile optimization recognizes health workers’ technological realities. Multimedia content seems more engaging than pure text. Assessments appear to verify learning. Incentives promise to drive uptake. Scale feels synonymous with success. While well-intentioned, such a platform risks falling into the trap of a behaviorist learning agenda. This is an approach that, despite its prevalence, is a pedagogical dead-end with limited potential for driving meaningful, sustained improvements in health worker performance and health outcomes. It is a paradigm that views learners …

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

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

Reda SadkiGlobal health

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 …

Self-Regulated Learning: Beliefs, Techniques, and Illusions

8 things we know about learning across the lifespan in a complex world

Reda SadkiTheory

The work by Robert A. Bjork and his colleagues is very helpful to make sense of the limitations of learners’ perceptions. Here are 8 summary points from their paper about self-regulated learning. Source: Bjork, R.A., Dunlosky, J., Kornell, N., 2013. Self-Regulated Learning: Beliefs, Techniques, and Illusions. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 64, 417–444. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143823

Petra Klepac Climate change, malaria and neglected tropical diseases-a scoping review

Klepac and colleagues‘ scoping review of climate change, malaria and neglected tropical diseases: what about the epistemic significance of health worker knowledge?

Reda SadkiGlobal health

By Luchuo E. Bain and Reda Sadki The scoping review by Klepac et al. provides a comprehensive overview of codified academic knowledge about the complex interplay between climate change and a wide range of infectious diseases, including malaria and 20 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The review synthesized findings from 511 papers published between 2010 and 2023, revealing that the vast majority of studies focused on malaria, dengue, chikungunya, and leishmaniasis, while other NTDs were relatively understudied. The geographical distribution of studies also varied, with malaria studies concentrated in Africa, Brazil, China, and India, and dengue and chikungunya studies more prevalent in Australia, China, India, Europe, and the USA. One of the most striking findings of the review is the potential for climate change to have profound and varied effects on the distribution and transmission of malaria and NTDs, with impacts likely to vary by disease, location, and time. However, the …