Engaging Internationally

Moving a global program and alliance forward

March 29, 2011

In June of 2010 I wrote about the launch of the Helping Babies Breathe Global Development Alliance and then provided some updated information here in November  and on the Global Scale-up wiki.  It has now been eight months since the original launch and another face-to-face partners meeting was held.  A few days prior to the …

International or Global?

March 8, 2011

A recurring conversation in organizations that engage internationally is “What does it mean to be an international or global organization?” These terms are often used interchangeably in the international community,  further ‘muddying the waters’.  A recent (inconclusive) discussion on a listserv I subscribe to around this question had me again thinking about a topic I …

Whither Global Health?

February 16, 2011

In preparation for a session that will be discussing global health trends, I have been thinking about how the field has changed in the past decade.  Some of the trends I have identified include:

1. Issues have become more integrated.  In the 1990’s there were issue specific conferences – Population (1994, Cairo), “Women’s” issues …

Build it and they may come….

February 10, 2011

Although the movie Field of Dreams made the line “Build it and they will come..” famous, in reality we all know it’s a bit more complicated than that.  When we’re building a community, it’s more like build it and then work out ways for people to: 1) Know about it; 2) Join and then 3) …

What did you Say? (NGOs and Internal Communication in a Technologically Driven World)

January 27, 2011

Last month I wrote about the importance of communication loops to effective internal decision making. Systematizing effective communication is hard within any organization (especially in an era of ‘information overload), but it is especially important and challenging for geographically spread or culturally diverse organizations.  The more stakeholders involved and the more diverse (including geographically spread) …