Meeting of The Geneva Learning Foundation's Scholars and Alumni of Ghana

Making connections: Ghana’s Alumni of The Geneva Learning Foundation meet in Accra

Global health

The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) will host its first physical-world meeting of Ghana Scholars and Alumni on Wednesday, October 30, 2024 in Accra. Seventy-two health professionals from across Ghana’s health system will participate in the evening event. The participants include staff from the Ghana Health Service, teaching hospitals, district health directorates, and non-governmental organizations. They represent all levels of the health system, with 8 working at the national level, 8 at regional facilities, 39 in district health services, and 13 in community-based programs. “This is a great opportunity for all health workers for impact,” says one participant, reflecting the anticipation among attendees. These professionals are alumni of TGLF’s programs, including the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) and Teach to Reach initiatives, which focus on transforming global health strategies into practical, locally-adapted solutions. “TGLF’s learning platforms give us great information and knowledge that are feasible and can be applied in …

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

Global 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 …

50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization

50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization

Global health

In two articles published during the fiftieth year of the World Health Organization’s Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), Samarasekera and Shattock provide valuable insights into EPI’s remarkable impact on reducing childhood mortality and morbidity since its launch in 1974. Shattock et al. present a detailed quantitative analysis of the lives saved and health gains attributed to vaccination. They estimate that “since 1974, vaccination has averted 154 million deaths, including 146 million among children younger than 5 years of whom 101 million were infants younger than 1 year.”  The authors further emphasize the long-term benefits of vaccination, noting that “for every death averted, 66 years of full health were gained on average, translating to 10.2 billion years of full health gained.” These findings underscore the transformative impact of EPI on global health outcomes. Bill Moss of the International Vaccines Access Center (IVAC) calls this “one of humankind’s greatest achievements”. Inherent uncertainties …

Les visage de la vaccination 2023

Semaine mondiale de la vaccination: Que voyez-vous?

Global health, Writing

English version | Version française Ceci est la préface de la nouvelle publication Les visages de la vaccination. En savoir plus… Télécharger la collection… Chaque jour, des milliers d’agents de santé, de l’Afghanistan au Zimbabwe, se lèvent et se rendent au travail avec un seul objectif en tête : faire en sorte que les vaccins parviennent à ceux qui en ont besoin. À l’occasion de la Semaine mondiale de la vaccination du 24 au 30 avril 2023 et du lancement de la campagne « Big Catch Up », la Fondation Apprendre Genève (TGLF) a invité les membres du Mouvement pour la vaccination à l’horizon 2030 (IA2030) à partager des photographies d’eux-mêmes et de leur travail quotidien. Plus de 1 000 témoignages visuels ont été partagés. Il ne s’agit pas de clichés soigneusement composés et techniquement élaborés par des photographes professionnels, mais plutôt d’une vue authentique sur ce que signifie la vaccination dans la pratique. …

The many faces of immunization.10.5281/zenodo.8166653

World Immunization Week: What do you see?

Global health

English version | Version française This is the preface of the new publication The many faces of immunization. Learn more… Download the collection… Every day, thousands of health workers, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, get up and go to work with a single goal in mind ­ to ensure that vaccines reach those who need them. To mark World Immunization Week 2023 (24­–30 April 2023) and the launch of the “Big Catch Up” campaign, the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) invited members of the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) to share photographs of themselves and their daily work. More than 1,000 visual stories were shared. These are not the carefully composed and technically accomplished shots of the professional photographer: rather, they capture a raw and authentic view of what immunization means in practice. The transport challenges. The concerned and loving mothers. The curious onlookers. The dialogue between practitioners and community members. The …

Gender analysis of the World Health Organization online learning program on Immunization Agenda 2030

Gender analysis of the World Health Organization online learning program on Immunization Agenda 2030

Global health

The article “Gender analysis of the World Health Organization online learning program on Immunization Agenda 2030” is, according to the authors, “the first to showcase the positive inclusion of mainstreaming gender in a WHO capacity-building program.” Context: Key findings: This is consistent with the known effectiveness of peer feedback, as the rubric followed by each learner included specific instructions to “describe how your action plan has considered and integrated gender dimensions in immunization.” TGLF’s peer learning model focuses on generating and applying new knowledge. This appears to be conducive to raising awareness of issues like gender barriers to immunization. By giving and receiving feedback, participants build understanding. Whereas only around ten percent of learners participated in expert-led presentations offered about gender and immunization, every learner had to think through and write up gender analysis. And every learner had to give feedback on the gender analyses of three colleagues. The social …

Movement for Immunization Agenda IA2030

Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030): grounding action in local realities to reach the unreached

Global health

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. In response, the World Health Organization is calling for action “grounded in local realities”. Growing evidence supports fresh approaches that do exactly that. Tom Newton-Lewis is part of the community of researchers and practitioners who have observed that “health systems are complex and adaptive” and, they say, that explains why top-down control rarely succeeds. However, top-down control and directive management appear to have been key to how immunization programmes achieved impressive results in previous decades. Hence, it may be challenging for the current generation of global immunization leaders to consider that enabling approaches that leverage intrinsic motivation, foster collective responsibility, and empower teams – especially for local staff – are the ones needed now. One example of an enabling approach is the Movement for Immunization …

WHO Director-General says Immunization Agenda 2030 off-track

Widening inequities: Immunization Agenda 2030 remains “off-track”

Global health

The WHO Director General’s report to the 154th session of the Executive Board on progress towards the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) goals paints a “sobering picture” of uneven global recovery since COVID-19. As of 2022, 3 out of 7 main impact indicators remain “off-track”, including numbers of zero-dose children, future deaths averted through vaccination, and outbreak control targets. Current evidence indicates substantial acceleration is essential in order to shift indicators out of the “off-track” categories over the next 7 years. While some indicators showed recovery from pandemic backsliding, the report makes clear these improvements are generally insufficient to achieve targets set for 2030. While some indicators have improved from 2021, overall performance still “lags 2019 levels” (para 5). Specifically, global coverage of three childhood DTP vaccine doses rose from 81% in 2021 to 84% in 2022, but remains below the 86% rate achieved in 2019 before the pandemic (para 5). …

IA2030 Movement HPV vaccination national EPI consultation

Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030): National EPI leaders from 31 countries share experience of HPV vaccination

Global health

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. What is the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)? 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 …

TechNet conference how to to open access to global health conferences-small

What did we learn from the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) in its first two years?

Global health, Innovation, The Geneva Learning Foundation

At a World Health Organization conference in Panama, The Geneva Learning Foundation is hosting an Innovations Café today. The session’s title is “Connected learning to accelerate local impact at global scale: Year 1 of the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)”. What is the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)? Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) is the world’s strategy, adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2020, to achieve the global goals for immunization. In March 2022, The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) launched a call to form a movement in support of IA2030. By June 2023, over 16,000 health workers were participating. More than 80% work in districts and health facilities and over half are government workers. 70% work in fragile contexts such as armed conflict, remote areas, urban poverty, and other challenges. This ground-up commitment has the potential to complement the top-down work of the IA2030 global partners, if this …