Two Pakistani Youth are Speaking Out on the Importance of Inclusivity in Sexual and Reproductive Health
This FP2020 blog was originally posted on the Medium website. Family planning advocates in Pakistan, an FP2020 commitment maker since 2012, have worked hard to make sure the country’s FP programs address the needs of a variety of users. Saro Imran and Tanzila Khan, two young people changing the SRH movement in their country, are [more…]
Youth Leadership in Africa – Has Never Been and Will Never Be About Age!
Youth leadership in Africa has never been and will never be about age, but rather, capabilities and revolutionary thinking. When I landed my first management role at 28 years in Africa’s largest indigenous health non-governmental organization (Amref Health Africa), I never really thought about my age. Until it was pointed out, I had traversed different [more…]
Preparing to “Zoomshop”
It seems that face-to-face workshops are a thing of the past, at least for the foreseeable future. While I miss the dynamics of working “live” and in real time with groups of people, I am committed to helping people easily participate when they are in virtual workshops. Over the past few months, I’ve learned a [more…]
Guaranteeing a Healthy Future Generation: Integrating Adolescent & Youth Friendly Services at the Primary Health Care Level
Adolescents in Nigeria are caught between traditional culture and changing social norms brought about by urbanization, globalized economies, and an influential media-saturated environment. With evolving attitudes, including less restrictive sexual norms without comprehensive sexual education, there have been increased rates of unprotected sex, unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS. These increased rates [more…]
A Wake-Up Call Both Brutal and Urgent
This blog was originally posted on the Think Global Health website and is authored by Tamara Hafner and Javier Guzman from the USAID MTaPS Program. As COVID-19 spreads across the world, falsified medicines for the novel coronavirus are leaking into Africa, where almost 19 percent of medicines are already substandard and where a number of countries [more…]
Making Sense of Communities of Practice in Global Health
‘A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.’ We define Communities of Practice (CoPs) in global health as open, inclusive, virtual spaces (discussion forums) that bring together people who share a concern [more…]
Graphic Design in the Development World: It’s All about the Details
In my years of designing graphics in the development world, I believe that on-the-job experience is far more important than just having the title Graphic Designer. In my own expression of the field, graphic design is the art of communicating with images or text (graphics) by arranging (design) them in such a way that they [more…]
How Can I Engage Members of a Community of Practice to Participate?
This blog was originally posted on the USAID Learning Lab website. A steady thread throughout my career has been a passion for bringing people together for relationship building and learning. One of the ways I’ve done this is to facilitate learning communities and networks (shout-out to USAID/PPL’s Reena Nadler, who I managed the CLA Community [more…]
WHO Global Benchmarking Tool is a “Game-changer” for Regulatory Systems Strengthening
This blog is part of the blog series “Pharmaceutical Systems in Practice: Global Insights” and was originally posted on the USAID MTaPS Program website. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 1 in 10 pharmaceutical products sold globally is falsified or substandard,¹ with deadly effects and the situation is known to be far [more…]
Maternal and Newborn Care in the Time of COVID-19
This blog was originally posted on the Jhpiego website. In some of the most challenging areas for health, delivering high-quality care for all women should be the standard—before, during and after COVID-19. As the world struggles to adjust to life during a pandemic, maternal health needs don’t go away—they grow. Now more than ever, the [more…]