Global Health

The diffusion of information and communication technology (ICTs) throughout the world is changing the face international development and global health in fundamental ways. Development practitioners and technologists have an array of new tools with the potential to solve age-old problems, but the road to realize success is full of failures – as it should be.

Last week, I attended a working group meeting at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs that focused on knowledge management in the international development sector.

At Forum One, we take monitoring and evaluation (M&E) seriously, especially when it comes to measuring the success of digital communication campaigns. While we love data and establishing relevant indicators for initiatives that are sometimes hard to measure, we also love talking about these strategies. So we decided to share our knowledge on how to measure and evaluate social media campaigns at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Global Health’s 11th Annual Global Health Mini-University in Washington, DC.

Much of the current conversation among the international health community is focused on non-communicable diseases (NCDs). NCDs are medical conditions or diseases that are not spread by infection (e.g., lung disease or diabetes). The impact from these disease could be greatly reduced by healthier decision making. Social media and other online communication streams represent an opportunity to reach the public and supply them with concrete ways to avoid these diseases.

Forum One Communications was recently commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to guide the Agency through the changing tides of e-publication platforms, formats and channels.

This summer, I had the pleasure of attending the InterAction Forum (#IAForum) here in Washington, D.C. One of my most pleasant surprises was the acknowledgement and engagement at a very senior level around data sharing and transparency within the global development sector.

At Forum One we promote online collaboration to our clients as a way to bring people and ideas together, bridge geographic and political boundaries, and create an impact. For that reason, I’m excited to announce the launch of www.TowardsASaferWorld.org, a website that allows development leaders across various disciples to share knowledge and lessons learned from the influenza pandemic, and coordinate efforts moving forward to apply those lessons to future and ongoing threats.

Research Analyst, Kat Overland, attended the Global Health Council's annual conference, "Securing a Healthier Future in a Changing World," this past week. It was an exciting time, with many enthusiastic attendees from across the world coming together to discuss the future of global health.

Equipped with a bag full of conference swag and a handy Flip camera, I was ready to tackle the Global Health Council’s annual conference, “Securing a Healthier Future in a Changing World,” and uncover some voices on the frontlines – or, in this case, the Wi-Fi-challenged Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.