IWD2024 Women inspiring women

Women’s voices from the frontlines of health and humanitarian action

Reda SadkiGlobal health

English version | Version française GENEVA, Switzerland, 8 March 2024 – The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) is sharing a collection of stories titled “Women inspiring women”, shared by 177 women on the frontlines of health and humanitarian action. Download: The Geneva Learning Foundation. (2024). Women inspiring women: International Women’s Day 2024 (1.0). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10783218 The collection is a vibrant tapestry of women’s voices from the frontlines of health and humanitarian action, woven together to showcase the resilience, passion, and leadership of women who are making a difference in the face of war, disease, and climate change. TGLF reached out to women in its global network of more than 60,000 health workers, inviting them to share their heartfelt advice and vision for the future with young women and girls. 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. Many …

Des femmes pour la santé

Voix de femmes en première ligne de la santé et de l’action humanitaire

Reda SadkiGlobal health

English version | Version française GENÈVE, Suisse, le 8 mars 2024 — La Fondation Apprendre Genève (TGLF) partage une collection de récits intitulée « Des femmes pour la santé », partagées par 177 femmes en première ligne de la santé et de l’action humanitaire. Télécharger la collection: La Fondation Apprendre Genève (2024).  Des femmes pour la santé : Journée internationale de la femme 2024 (1.0). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10792027 La collection réunit des voix de femmes provenant des premières lignes de la santé et de l’action humanitaire. Ensemble, elles mettent en valeur la résilience, la passion et le leadership des femmes qui font la différence face à la guerre, à la maladie et au changement climatique. La Fondation a lancé l’appel aux femmes de son réseau international de plus de 60 000 professionnels de la santé, les invitant à partager avec les jeunes femmes et les filles leurs conseils sincères et leur vision de l’avenir. Les membres de ce …

Two years on mental health and psychosocial needs in ukraine and affected countries

Learning about mental health and psychosocial needs in Ukraine and affected countries

Reda SadkiGlobal health

The report “Two years on: mental health and psychosocial needs in Ukraine and affected countries” is from the Psychosocial Support Centre, a specialized hub of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) with the mission to “enhance psychosocial support initiatives”. Key points from the report include: Overall, the report highlights the substantial scale and complex nature of MHPSS (mental health and psychosocial support) needs driven by the Ukraine conflict as well as the scale and scope of the Red Cross Red Crescent response mobilized so far including through delivery of PFA (Psychological First Aid) and PSS (psychosocial support). What are the challenges? The report on mental health and psychosocial needs in Ukraine highlights several key challenges, including: What can we learn about psychological first aid (PFA) for children from this report? First, we need to understand the specialized terminology used: We learn that with support from …

Why lack of continuous learning is the Achilles heel of immunization

Why lack of continuous learning is the Achilles heel of immunization 

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Theory

Continuous learning is lacking in immunization. This lack may be an underestimated barrier to the “Big Catch-Up” and reaching zero-dose children This was a key finding presented at Gavi’s Zero-Dose Learning Hub (ZDLH) webinar “Equity in Action: Local Strategies for Reaching Zero-Dose Children and Communities” on 24 January 2024. The finding is based on analysis large-scale measurements conducted by the Geneva Learning Foundation in 2020 and 2022, with more than 10,000 immunization staff from all levels of the health system, job categories, and contexts, responding from over 90 countries. Year n Continuous learning Dialogue & Inquiry Team learning Embedded Systems Empowered People System Connection Strategic Leadership 2020 3830 3.61 4.68 – 4.81 4.68 5.10 4.83 2022 6185 3.76 4.71 4.86 4.93 4.72 5.23 4.93 TGLF global measurements (2020 and 2022) of learning culture in immunization, using the Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) What does this finding actually mean? In immunization, the …

What Have We Learned That Is Critical in Understanding Leadership Perceptions and Leader-Performance Relations?

What is the relationship between leadership and performance?

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Leadership, Theory

In their article “What Have We Learned That Is Critical in Understanding Leadership Perceptions and Leader-Performance Relations?”, Robert G. Lord and Jessica E. Dinh review research on leadership perceptions and performance, and provide research-based principles that can provide new directions for future leadership theory and research. What is leadership?  Leadership is tricky to define. The authors state: “Leadership is an art that has significant impact on individuals, groups, organizations, and societies”. It is not just about one person telling everyone else what to do. Leadership happens in the connections between people – it is something that grows between a leader and followers, almost like a partnership. And it usually does not involve just one leader either. There can be leadership shared across a whole team or organization. The big question is: how does all this connecting and partnering actually get a team to perform well? That is what researchers are …

The limitations of expert-led fellowships for global health

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

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Theory

Coaching and mentoring programs sometimes called “fellowships” have been upheld as the gold standard for developing leaders in global health. For example, a fellowship in the field of immunization was recently advertised in the following manner. We will not dwell here on the ‘live engagements’, which are expert-led presentations of technical knowledge. We already know that such ‘webinars’ have very limited learning efficacy, and unlikely impact on outcomes. (This may seem like a harsh statement to global health practitioners who have grown comfortable with webinars, but it is substantiated by decades of evidence from learning science research.) On the surface, the rest of the model sounds highly effective, promising personalized attention and expert guidance. The use of a project-based learning approach is promising, but it is unclear what support is provided once the implementation plan has been crafted. It is when you consider the logistical aspects that the cracks begin …

How does peer learning compare to expert-led coaching fellowships

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

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Theory

By connecting practitioners to learn from each other, peer learning facilitates collaborative development. How 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: 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 …

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

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

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Theory

A formula for calculating learning efficacy, (E), considering the importance of each criterion and the specific ratings for peer learning, is: This abstract formula provides a way to quantify learning efficacy, considering various educational criteria and their relative importance (weights) for effective learning. Variable  Definition Description  S Scalability Ability to accommodate a large number of learners  I Information fidelity Quality and reliability of information  C Cost effectiveness Financial efficiency of the learning method  F Feedback quality Quality of feedback received  U Uniformity Consistency 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. Scalability Information fidelity Cost-benefit Feedback quality Uniformity 4.00 3.00 4.00 3.00 1.00 Assigned weights Here is a summary table including all values for each criterion, learning efficacy calculated …

Why does cascade training fail

Why does cascade training fail?

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Theory

Cascade training remains widely used in global health. Cascade training can look great on paper: an expert trains a small group who, in turn, train others, thereby theoretically scaling the knowledge across an organization. It attempts to combine the advantages of expert coaching and peer learning by passing knowledge down a hierarchy. However, despite its promise and persistent use, cascade training is plagued by several factors that often lead to its failure. This is well-documented in the field of learning, but largely unknown (or ignored) in global health. What are the mechanics of this known inefficacy? Here are four factors that contribute to the failure of cascade training 1. Information loss Consider a model where an expert holds a knowledge set K. In each subsequent layer of the cascade, α percentage of the knowledge is lost: 2. Lack of feedback In a cascade model, only the first layer receives feedback …

The capability trap

The capability trap: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened

Reda SadkiLeadership, Learning strategy

Here is a summary of the key points from the article “Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened: creating and sustaining process improvement”. Overview Core causal loops The capability trap The “capability trap” refers to the downward spiral organizations can get caught in, where attempting to boost performance by pressuring people to “work harder” actually erodes process capability over time. This trap works through a few key mechanisms: Key takeaway for learning leaders Learning leaders must understand the systemic traps identified in the article that underly failed improvement initiatives and facilitate mental model shifts. This help build sustainable, effective learning programs to be realized through productive capability-enhancing cycles. Key takeaway for immunization leaders It’s reasonable to hypothesize that poor health worker performance is a symptom rather than the cause of poor immunization programme performance. Short-term decisions, often responding to top-down targets and donor requirements, hurt capability and …