The global immunization community is now focused on “the big catch-up”, dealing with recovery of immunization services from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, as countries – and immunization staff on the frontlines – work toward the goals of Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030).
At the Seventy-Fourth World Health Assembly, the Director General of the World Health Organization had called for “a broad social movement for immunization that will ensure that immunization remains high on global and regional health agendas and help to generate a groundswell of support or social movement for immunization”.
A Movement is larger than any one individual or organization. The Geneva Learning Foundation is one of many working to support this Movement. In March 2022, we launched a call for immunization staff at all levels of the health system to connect across boundaries of geography and to commit to working together to achieve the goals of Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030). In 2022, over 10,000 health professionals, primarily government workers from districts and facilities, joined this movement and shared ideas and practices, analyzed root causes of their local immunization challenges, and developed and implemented corrective actions to tackle them, together.
Today, we share an open-source Manifesto for how health services could develop in ways that we think would make them more effective, recognizing health workers and communities – and the expertise and experience they hold because they are “there every day” – at the centre of public health systems.
This Manifesto is an open-source draft because, in today’s complex world, we tackle challenges that no one country or organization can possibly overcome alone.
This is why we are inviting you – along with more than 10,000 members of the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030 – to bring to life and shape this Manifesto. There are two ways to contribute:
“Build Back Better” [what’s this?] and “localization” [what’s this?] — what do these taglines mean in global health?
Despite its best intentions, global health largely remains hierarchical, too often led at global and national levels by traditional power brokers who advocate for empowerment and equity, but rarely let go of their own power or privilege.
In order to truly “build back better”, the way of working will need to be about how health practitioners at any level can engage and learn best-fit practices and tactics from each other, informing dynamic, standards-based guidelines and shaping global expertise. Global health “power holders” will need to move from being the “sage on the stage” to “guides on the side”. Standards and guidelines help provide a collective vision for where a health system needs to go, but as traditionally applied, they all-too-often promote “cookie cutter” development that “cuts-and-pastes” an approach or intervention, without testing, adapting, or questioning how relevant the ideas are for a local culture or context.”
How has your work been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? Where are you on the path to recovery? Can you think of something that you are doing better now, as a result of the pandemic? Do you want to go back to the way things were before the pandemic? Or can you imagine how to build back better? [Follow this link to answer these questions](https://tglf.typeform.com/to/HQsrzMOY#type=experience&topic=Manifesto: How has your work been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? Where are you on the path to recovery? Can you think of something that you are doing better now, as a result of the pandemic? Do you want to go back to the way things were before the pandemic? Or can you imagine how to build back better?)…
How has sharing experience with colleagues who are facing challenges like yours helped you in your daily work? How is sharing experience different from having global health experts or hierarchical superiors tell you what to do? Which do you believe is most likely to help you progress toward the global health goals and achieve those of Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)? What is the most useful way for global health agencies and their technical experts to assist you in making real progress where you work? [Follow this link to answer these questions](https://tglf.typeform.com/to/HQsrzMOY#type=experience&topic=How has sharing experience with colleagues who are facing challenges like yours helped you in your daily work? How is sharing experience different from having global health experts or hierarchical superiors tell you what to do? Which do you believe is most likely to help you progress toward the global health goals and achieve those of Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030)? What is the most useful way for global health agencies and their technical experts to assist you in making real progress where you work?)…