Exploring new ways to learn and lead change, together.
Singular insights by and for the people who make global health
Health workers connect with peers and international partners to accelerate immunization and primary health care learning, service improvement and management strengthening.
LEARN MOREWhy do we need new kinds of insights?
As a global community, we recognize the significance of local action to achieve the global goals.
View our Insights Dialogue with Dr Kate O’Brien, Director of Immunization at the World Health Organization (WHO)
“The lessons and learning are coming from people who are working in the community. That is where vaccination actually happens. We need to be focusing on the most local level of the immunization programme.”
We need fresh insights to support those leading change in districts, health facilities, and communities.
Who we are
The Insights Unit is the Foundation’s research and analysis group.
We systematically consolidate and communicate the contributions of learners in the Foundation’s programmes to share back to participants, governments, civil society and development partners.
To synthesize and spread insights, we work in partnership with Bridges to Development, the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and other partners.
What is The Double Loop?
Become a Member to receive The Double Loop, our free newsletter.
Become a Member now to receive briefing notes and summaries prepared by the Foundation’s Insights Unit and Bridges to Development.
To receive The Double Loop, we ask you to answer a few questions about the learning questions and challenges you face.
BECOME A MEMBERWe collect thousands of data points to see meaningful patterns
The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) hosts the largest and fastest-growing community of national and sub-national immunization professionals, with over 35,000 active participants from over 120 countries, as of May 2021. 80% of members are sub-national immunization staff, with strong support and linkage to national teams.
Immunization Agenda 2030
4,872 national and sub-national immunization staff shared qualitative descriptions of 1,874 challenges they face in their work, including detailed context descriptions. Our IA2030 insights surfaced surprising findings about shared challenges.
GET IA2030 INSIGHTSRapid learning from COVID-19 vaccine introduction
Over 2,000 participants from countries introducing COVID-19 vaccines shared early learnings from vaccine introduction through inter-country peer exchanges self-organized by COVID-19 Peer Hub Members from these countries. Our COVID-19 insights identified key sub-national capabilities that are helping to accelerate roll-out and improving take-up.
GET COVID-19 INSIGHTSSurfacing local innovation and leadership to build back better
In ten days, more than 6,000 immunization staff contributed 1,235 ideas and practices to aid recovery efforts by immunization services to “build back better.” Our innovation insights pinpointed determinants of resilience in recovery efforts.
GET INNOVATION INSIGHTSThe Foundation identifies and shares known limitations and biases of every sample we examine. In sharing individual testimonials from large, diverse datasets, the Foundation is conscious of the risk of overgeneralizing and other biases, or promoting hasty, potentially erroneous conclusions based on a few testimonials. Instead, we aim to highlight this diversity of experiences and viewpoints as the basis for nuanced reading of complex data.
Membership benefits
1. Get unique, valuable insights. Now.
Receive summary briefs and invitations to attend short live presentations of the latest insights.
2. Join the learning dialogue.
Contribute your learning questions and share your feedback on the insights and how you are using them to strengthen your work.
3. Partner.
License our data sets for research and partner with us to shape data collection and peer learning exercises.
Ideas Engine: Collect, evaluate, and share local solutions
Current organizational hierarchies and national barriers in immunization do not allow for rapid transfer of ideas and learning.
In ten days during August 2020, immunization staff from all levels of the health system and 90 countries created the Ideas Engine to collect 1,235 ideas and practices they were actually using to keep immunization services going.
These ideas then informed the development of 700 action plans for recovery, each one referencing and adapting practices from the Ideas Engine. By the end of October 2020, 30% of participants reported having already implemented recovery measures.
“One of the issues is building the trust of caregivers so that they bring back their child to RI session sites. I found one idea in the Ideas Engine helpful. Implementing it actually helped us improve the trust of caregivers.”
District MoH staff, Kenya
“I met some exceptional people, who explained to me how they managed to introduce the Covid-19 vaccines in their countries. It is going very well without any incidents. And so far, there have been no cases of AEFI. This has motivated me even more to raise awareness for the introduction of the vaccine in my country.”
District MoH staff, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
How can this help you?
1. Help make better decisions
We share synthetic insights from large data sets, grounded in learning science, to help make better and quicker decisions by deeper understanding what is happening in real-time and what works/doesn’t work for people who currently manage and deliver vaccines.
2. Answer learning questions
We investigate learning questions that conventional methods have been unable to answer in order to deliver lessons based in experience to those most needing it.
3. Progress toward double-loop learning
We provide evidence that can help organizations not only improve their work but also rethink and change how they work, in order to improve.
Removing barriers to facilitate the flow of ideas and innovation
We use learning analytics to map in real time how ideas and practices shared in the Ideas Engine inform planning and implementation of participants working at different system levels and in different countries.
By dissolving barriers of geography and hierarchy, we facilitate the flow of the best available knowledge, practices, and experience.
By examining which ideas and practices are contributing to achieving tangible outcomes, we can zero in on the highest-value insights.
The figure shows the exchange of ideas and practices between system levels in September and October 2020, as participants took action, working together in new ways to keep immunization services going during 2020.
“Participation has helped expand my network across the immunization space and gain more knowledge in handling immunization based issues”
Health facility MoH staff, Pakistan
“I can actually broaden my vision and be more imaginative, creative towards new ideas that have come up to improve overall immunization coverage.”
MoH health facility staff, Ghana
A ‘learning analytics’ dashboard to surface the meaning in the haystack
Navigation: All learning analytics are collected and organized in a cross-indexed, searchable dashboard.
Exploration: The dashboard is organized to facilitate the exploration of learning questions.
Visualization: Multi-dimensional visualizations combine search terms with detailed categorical data to show change over time.
Beyond webinars: New ways to share as we learn, in real time
Insights gain value if they are shared and used.
In the last year, the Foundation organized over 200 live events to spread insights, ideas, and experience of sub-national immunization staff in dialogue with global experts. Our audience of peers listening and contributing grew by 1000%.
Our live learning events are livestreamed across all major social media platforms, to connect with participants on those that they already use.
These events provide opportunities for global and regional partners to engage with national and sub-national immunization staff.
For example, in the Ideas Engine Live show with Charlotte Mbuh, participants share successes, lessons learned, and challenges as they apply new ideas and practices to make a difference.
Working with countries to foster new learning that leaves no one behind
Working with partners to strengthen the dialogue with people who deliver vaccines
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I quote data from Insights?
Can I access source data?
Can I partner with TGLF Insights to investigate a specific learning questions?
Can I access these insights without becoming a Member?
Our story
How we started
Alumni from programmes implemented by the Foundation in partnership with many development organizations have created the world’s largest platform of national and sub-national health professionals.
Giving back
We realized that the valuable multi-country knowledge should be regularly given back to the community, and that it could also inform our partners in identifying real-time priorities and opportunities and formulating strategies.
Network effect
Insights are drawn from this fast-growing, dynamic network of over 35,000 multilingual (English, French, and Spanish) alumni from over 90 countries. Over 80% of contributors are sub-national immunization staff.
A new learning partnership between research and practice toward the goals of Immunization Agenda 2030
The Geneva Learning Foundation
The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) hosts the largest and fastest-growing community of national and sub-national immunization professionals, with over 34,000 active participants from over 120 countries, as of March 2021. We are now supporting the emergence of new communities for humanitarian response, primary health care, neglected tropical diseases, and other areas of global health.
Bridges to Development
Bridges is led by a team of experienced professionals who have demonstrated commitment and delivered solutions to global problems throughout their careers, leveraging experience in diverse organizations such as Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, The Global Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
International Vaccine Access Center
To help realize this promise for billions around the world, IVAC builds knowledge and provides the evidence base for the value of vaccines. Since 2009, we have served as a trusted partner for governments, international agencies, research groups, and non-profit organizations seeking to advance access to life-saving immunizations for all people.
Our Insights Team
Charlotte Mbuh
Ian Steed
Contributors and reviewers
Alan Brooks
Bill Moss
Jenny Sequeira
Chizoba Wonodi
Important information about the Foundation’s Insights
Languages
Insights are currently offered in the English language only, even though inputs from both francophone and anglophone members of the Foundation’s platform are used.
Disclaimers
Insights users are responsible for assessing the ethical, legal and practical implications of using material shared by peers, such as the need to adapt practice between contexts.
Inclusion of experiences and comments in TGLF Insights does not imply a recommendation on the part of the Foundation or its partners.
The Foundation does not endorse any particular strategy, approach, or reflection shared by participants, and explicitly advises against inferring conclusions from context-specific cases that may not be generalizable.
Known limitations and biases include
Self-reporting: Data may be self-reported and have not been verified by TGLF.
Selection bias: Some of the data sources include self-selecting immunization professionals committed to supporting their peers through sharing their own experiences. Such 'positive deviants' may be outliers less likely to be representative of most immunization staff.
Quality development
TGLF Insights are vetted by immunization professionals for accuracy and credibility prior to sharing.
Some datasets are peer-reviewed and this peer feedback has been used by fellow immunization professionals to improve quality.
Permissions and attribution
All submissions have the author’s permission to be used by TGLF for purposes of communication, advocacy, capacity building, and research.
The Insights Unit is being piloted through a business planning grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to support the Geneva Learning Foundation’s immunization platform.