MLC/Equalize Health Event: Reimagining Global Health Ecosystems
MLC Event | September 22nd 2021
Global Health has many diverse actors and experts. When responding to and recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has more than ever seen the need for collaboration between such actors to develop and deliver solutions at scale. To address this need, on September 22nd, the Million Lives Collective hosted an event in collaboration with Equalize Health, on Reimagining the Global Health ecosystem. The event featured speakers from Assist International, Equalize Health, Grand Challenges Canada, and moderated by Meghan Majorowski, Senior Advisor for the Center for Innovation and Impact at USAID. The panel offered a chance to understand connections between global health research, industry and implementation, and explore how health innovations can reach all who need them. Panelists discussed the challenges and opportunities for collaboration among different actors while dealing with the consequences and opportunities of the Covid-19 pandemic.
By beginning to reimagine the global health ecosystem as one that not only supports scale, but accelerates it, panelists reflected on who needs to be a part of the conversation and who has previously been left out.
As Krishnakumar Sankaranarayanan (Equalize Health’s India Managing Director) suggests, healthcare providers and patients are key stakeholders whose voices need to be heard more. In the last eighteen months, health workers have been working longer hours, serving more patients, and unfortunately seeing more deaths than ever before. This has impacted their health and well-being.
In addition, countries with inadequate infrastructure, and scarce human resources and supply chains, have increased the vulnerability of patients, especially impacting women and children. To fight such inequities, Krishnakumar reiterated the importance of having reliable data and giving voice to health care workers, as “the voices of health workers need to be heard in the corridors of power.”
Hannington Segirinya, Assist International’s East Africa Representative, offered a clear way forward in increasing collaboration, through a strategic focus on three key steps; implementation, industry, and research. Hannington continued that, for a program or innovation to be successful, there needs to be buy-in from decision-makers before implementation. For instance, in Assist International’s ECHO tele-mentoring program, there has been support from key organizations to help hospitals understand the value of the innovation. This support from administration helps healthcare providers to commit time and resources to these projects. Hannington also stated that while there are a lot of innovative healthcare products designed for LMIC contexts, solving the manufacturing and distribution question is often the hardest part of implementing quality innovations in global health contexts. For this reason, sustaining maintenance of innovations with appropriate research on local contexts and an integration of local knowledge is key for the success of a global health ecosystem.
Monica Cainer, Senior Manager of Global Health Programmes at Assist International provided comments on how to leverage lessons learned and challenges highlighted by the pandemic to amplify change. She reiterated the importance of leveraging existing virtual training programs. For instance, Assist International provides Covid-19 relevant training and mentorship in Tanzania, Cambodia and other 10 Hubs across Africa and Latin America to equip them with the resources to lead their own Oxygen Therapy and Critical Care Project ECHO Hubs. This ensures a reduced reliance on international partners to continue programming even in the event of travel restrictions. Having a broader range of team members in leadership roles also proves crucial both to implement programs and to enhance country-level ownerships. Working with existing resources, without having to rely on a backed-up supply chain for new equipment, proved extremely crucial during the pandemic. In Monica’s words, “not everything has to be brand new or innovative to be impactful”.
In this complex ecosystem, funders and donors also play a key role, as Adetunji Eleso, Investment Manager at Grand Challenges Canada reminded the audience. Adetunjii mentioned the importance of cross-collaboration in solving important health challenges, giving the example of GCC’s collaboration with Open Society Foundation and Women and Children’s Health Research Institute to support a solar powered oxygen solution in Dhusamareb, Somalia. He stated how Covid-19 demonstrated that global health systems are still not resilient. There is a continuous need for cross-sectoral collaboration to get health services and care to end-users. In doing this, Adentunji mentioned the fundamental importance of enabling local teams and local leadership to take ownership of projects and their implementations.
In conclusion, we appreciated the highlighted importance of involving a diverse range of partners, including healthcare workers, biomedical engineers, distributors, administrators, patients, local actors, funders and private sector organizations, in the conversation. We must continue to question how to better facilitate connections and collaboration in order to leverage on the pandemic and make it a catalyst for change. Krishnakumar mentioned, “we need to continue our efforts and be empathetic, innovative and collaborative”. To do so, panelists concluded by reiterating the need for each actor, including funders, innovators, governments, to play a role in connecting patients and healthcare workers with the decision makers in global health, as “while progress is possible, it is not inevitable.”
