On March 11, 2026, six years after the world shut down for a pandemic, a private event will reconvene Alumni of the COVID-19 Peer Hub.
This initiative, led by more than 6,000 immunization staff, was one of the first ground-up responses to recover from the early impacts of the pandemic on vaccination services worldwide.
Froma health center in Kumi, Uganda, to a conflict-affected district in Mali, health professionals will join to accept a nomination that comes with no paycheck, only a mandate: to lead.
They are the new Alumni Ambassadors of The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF).
Today, as the Foundation opens this network to its 80,000-strong community of health and humanitarian professionals worldwide, the story is not about the small non-profit headquartered in Geneva.
It is about the thousands of professionals like Rebecca Akello, a public health nurse in Uganda, who found a lifeline in a digital network when the rest of the world felt very far away.
“I felt I belonged to these people,” Akello says of her fellow alumni. “I don’t need to drop off, let me just continue.”
The local and community roots of these Ambassadors position them as the missing link in the “last mile” of healthcare delivery.
They are the leaders who, having learned during a global crisis to support each other, are uniquely positioned to translate high-level strategies into saved lives.
Born from isolation: The pandemic proof-of-concept (2020)
The Ambassadors’ network traces its roots to April 2020.
As borders closed and programmes halted, frontline workers faced an unprecedented crisis of isolation.
“We thought we were the only ones battling up with the issues,” says Arapbatya Muzakir, a project manager in Uganda.
Through the Foundation’s newly launched COVID-19 Peer Hub, he connected with colleagues across the continent. “It really makes us see the areas we are supposed to put much strength”, he explained.
This digital proximity validated a simple but disruptive truth: the most valuable knowledge often resides not in headquarters, but in the communities.
In the best of cases, health leaders remain trusted advisers for the people they serve.
In 2020, we observe the power that comes from connecting across borders: health workers could solve problems faster than top-down guidance could arrive.
This led to the development of the Movement for Immunization Agenda in 2021, culminating in the first deployment of a “full learning cycle” in 2022, with immunization staff from 99 countries participating.
The pivot: Making the “ground truth” visible (2023)
In 2023, this organic exchange matured into a formal strategic asset.
When Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, established the Zero Dose Learning Hub (ZDLH) to reach the world’s most vulnerable children, TGLF was tapped to lead the learning innovation.
The Foundation didn’t send experts to the field.
It activated its alumni networks.
The first cohort of Ambassadors was selected from the four ZDLH priority countries: Bangladesh, Mali, Nigeria, and Uganda.
Their role was to bridge the gap between global goals and local reality.
“You know things that others do not,” the Foundation told them. “Because you are there every day.”
In official inter-country exchanges, their experience of defying distance helped newcomers onboard quickly.
That network grew from zero to more than 3,000 participants, in less than six months.
For Hilary Okello, a health worker in Lira City, Uganda, this mandate empowered him to look beyond official data.
“When you go to DHIS2 [the health information system], it was silent. I could not get it,” he explains regarding data on unvaccinated children.
But through the peer network’s prompts, he dug deeper.
“I interfaced with two children… frequently falling sick… I realized that they had never had any vaccination completely.”
He mobilized his team to fix it.
“We decided to give them all the antigens in bits… they are no longer falling sick.”
The evolution: Rigor and results in the DRC (2025)
By 2025, the model had evolved from advocacy to rigorous implementation.
To qualify, Ambassadors had to complete a four-week leadership activation programme, proving their ability to mobilize peers before receiving the title.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Foundation inducted 167 Ambassadors.
This led to the launch of the “Mouvement congolais pour la vaccination”, a country-wide action network of health and humanitarian workers.
Entry was no longer just about participation.
It was about getting things done.
Dr. Jean-Paul Kanda, a district medical officer in the DRC, describes the shift to this results-oriented “Impact Accelerator” as a fundamental change in mindset.
“It’s a marathon where you have to launch yourself to be first,” he says. “You don’t joke around there… even if you have to ’die’, you can’t die, you must achieve the objective.”
This intensity is driven by pride, not per diems.
Unlike traditional development programs that struggle with retention once funding dries up, this network runs on the intrinsic motivation of its members.
This is because it serves the needs of their communities first, not the needs of a donor.
“I can always see to that and make sure that I give my best, my life, my time to the care of the children,” says Dr. Ndaeyo Iwot, a pioneer Ambassador from Nigeria who has received national recognition for his leadership.
“Becoming an Ambassador, to me, is a very great elevation.”
The 2026 call: A global infrastructure for resilience
Now, the Foundation is taking this proven model to scale.
The “go global” call invites alumni from over 100 countries to become Ambassadors of this self-organized, distributed digital infrastructure for health resilience.
They will champion peer learning across an expanded portfolio of threats, from climate change to gender equity in emergencies.
Experienced leaders will serve as “Guides on the side,” ensuring that the network remains decentralized and locally led.
For the global health community, these Ambassadors offer a sustainable answer to the implementation gap.
They are not waiting for the next project or the next grant.
They are already there, they are connected, and they are working.
“We are the ones,” says Dr. Iwot, “thinking globally and acting locally.”