When funding shrinks, impact must grow: the economic case for peer learning networks

Humanitarian, global health, and development organizations confront an unprecedented crisis. Donor funding is in a downward spiral, while needs intensify across every sector. Organizations face stark choices: reduce programs, cut staff, or fundamentally transform how they deliver results.

Traditional capacity building models have become economically unsustainable. Technical assistance, expert-led workshops, international travel, and venue-based training are examples of high-cost, low-volume activities that organizations can no longer afford.

Yet the need for learning, coordination, and adaptive capacity has never been greater.

The opportunity cost of inaction

Organizations that fail to adapt face systematic disadvantage. Traditional approaches cannot survive current funding constraints while maintaining effectiveness. Meanwhile, global challenges intensify: climate change drives new disease patterns; conflict disrupts health systems; demographic transitions strain capacity.

These complex, interconnected challenges require adaptive systems that respond at the speed and scale of emerging threats. Organizations continuing expensive, ineffective approaches will face programmatic obsolescence.

Working with governments and trusted partners that include UNICEF, WHO, Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and Gavi, the Geneva Learning Foundation’s peer learning networks have consistently demonstrated they can deliver measurably superior outcomes while reducing costs by up to 86% compared to conventional approaches.

Peer learning networks offer both immediate financial relief and strategic positioning for long-term sustainability. The evidence spans eight years, 137 countries, and collaborations with the most credible institutions in global health, humanitarian response, and research.

The unsustainable economics of traditional capacity building

A comprehensive analysis reveals the structural inefficiencies of conventional approaches. Expert consultants command daily rates of $800 or more, plus travel expenses. International workshops may require $15,000-30,000 for venues alone. Participant travel and accommodation averages $2,000 per person. A standard 50-participant workshop costs upward of $200,000.

When factoring limited sustainability, the economics become even more problematic. Traditional approaches achieve measurable implementation by only 15-20% of participants within six months. This translates to effective costs of $10,000-20,000 per participant who actually implements new practices.

A rudimentary cost-benefit analysis demonstrates how peer learning networks restructure these economics fundamentally.

Learn more: Calculating the relative effectiveness of expert coaching, peer learning, and cascade training

Evidence of measurable impact at scale

Value for money requires clear attribution between investments and outcomes.

In January 2020, we compared outcomes between two groups. Both had intent to take action to achieve results. Health workers using structured peer learning were seven times more likely to implement effective strategies resulting in improved outcomes, compared to the other group that relied on conventional approaches.

What about speed and scale?

In July 2024, working with Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and UNICEF, we connected 4,300 health workers across all states and 300+ local government areas within two weeks. Over 600 local organizations including government facilities, civil society, faith-based groups, and private sector actors joined this Immunization Collaborative.

With two more weeks, participants produced 409 peer-reviewed root cause analyses. By Week 6, we began to receive credible vaccination coverage improvements after six weeks, especially in conflict-affected northern regions where conventional approaches had consistently failed. The total programme cost was equivalent to 1.5 traditional workshops for 75 participants. Follow-up has shown that more than half of the participants are staying connected long after TGLF’s “jumpstarting” activities, driven by intrinsic motivation.

Côte d’Ivoire demonstrates crisis response capability. Working with Gavi and the Ministry of Health, we recruited 501 health workers from 96 districts (85% of the country) in nine days ahead of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign in November 2021. Connected to each other, they shared local solutions and supported each other, contributing to vaccination of an additional 3.5 million additional people at $0.26 per vaccination delivered.

TGLF’s model empowers health workers to share knowledge, solve local challenges, and implement solutions via a digital platform. Unlike top-down training and technical assistance, it fosters collective intelligence, enabling rapid adaptation to crises. Since 2016, TGLF has mobilized networks for immunization, COVID-19 response, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), mental health and psychosocial support, noncommunicable diseases, and climate-health resilience.

These cases illustrate the ability of TGLF’s model to address strategic global priorities—equity, resilience, and crisis response—while maximizing efficiency. This model offers a scalable, low-cost alternative that delivers measurable impact across diverse priorities.

Our mission is to share such breakthroughs with other organizations and networks that are willing to try new approaches.

Resource allocation for maximum efficiency

Our partnership analysis reveals optimal resource allocation patterns that maximize impact while minimizing cost:

• Human resources (85%): Action-focused approach leveraging human facilitation to foster trust, grow leadership capabilties, and nurture networks with a single-minded goal of supporting implementation to rapidly and sustainably achieve tangible outcomes.
• Digital infrastructure (10%): Scalable platform development enabling unlimited concurrent participants across multiple countries.
• Travel (5%): Minimal compared to 45% in traditional approaches, limited to essential coordination where social norms require face-to-face meetings, for example in partnership engagement with governments.

This structure enables remarkable economies of scale. While traditional approaches face increasing per-participant costs, peer learning networks demonstrate decreasing unit costs with growth. Global initiatives reaching 20,000+ participants across 60+ countries operate with per-participant costs under $10.

Sustainability through combined government and civil society ownership

Sustainability is critical amidst funding cuts. TGLF’s networks embed organically within government systems, involving both central planners in the capital as well as implementers across the country, at all levels of the health system.

Country ownership: Programs work within existing health system structures and national plans. Networks include 50% government staff and 80% district/community-level practitioners—the people who actually deliver services. In Nigeria, 600+ local organizations – both private and public – collaborated, embedding learning in both civil society and government structures.

Sustainability: In Côte d’Ivoire, 82% sustained engagement without incentives, fostering self-reliant networks. 78% said they no longer needed any assistance from TGLF to continue.

This approach enhances aid effectiveness, reducing dependency on external funding.

Aid effectiveness: Rather than bypassing systems, peer learning strengthens existing infrastructure. Networks continue functioning when external funding decreases because they operate through established government channels linked to civil society networks.

Transparency: Digital platforms create comprehensive audit trails providing unprecedented visibility into program implementation and results for donor oversight.

Implementation pathways for resource-constrained organizations

Organizations can adopt peer learning approaches through flexible pathways designed for immediate deployment.

The strategic choice

The funding environment will not improve. Economic uncertainty in traditional donor countries, competing domestic priorities, and growing skepticism about aid effectiveness create permanent pressure for better value for money.

Organizations face a fundamental choice: continue expensive approaches with limited impact, or transition to emergent models that have already shown they can achieve superior results at dramatically lower cost while building lasting capability.

The question is not whether to change—budget constraints mandate adaptation. The question is whether organizations will choose approaches that thrive under resource constraints or continue hoping that some donors will fill the gaping holes left by funding cuts.

The evidence demonstrates that peer learning networks achieve 86% cost reduction while delivering 4x implementation rates and 30x longer engagement. These gains are not theoretical—they represent verified outcomes from active partnerships with leading global institutions.

In an era of permanent resource constraints and intensifying challenges, organizations that embrace this transformation will maximize their mission impact. Those that do not will find themselves increasingly unable to serve the communities that depend on their work.

Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2025

#costBenefitAnalysis #fundingCrisis #globalHealth #peerLearning #TheGenevaLearningFoundation #USAID #valueForMoney

Traditional conferences are obsolete because a standardized approach for education & training to support creative work is obsolete.

https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/event-design/2016/10/traditional-conferences-are-obsolete

#meetings #EventDesign #obsolescence #PeerLearning #eventprofs

L’équité compte: quand les soignants du monde entier témoignent des inégalités en santé

English | Français

GENÈVE, le 11 avril 2025 – Une initiative internationale inédite a rassemblé près de 5000 professionnels de santé pour partager leurs expériences face aux discriminations dans l’accès aux soins

« Un enfant est mort parce que sa famille ne pouvait pas déposer 500 000 nairas [environ 300 francs suisses] avant le début des soins. Le père avait pourtant supplié qu’on s’occupe de l’enfant, proposant 100 000 nairas et promettant de vendre son bétail pour payer le reste. » Ce récit glaçant d’un professionnel de santé nigérian illustre la dure réalité des inégalités d’accès aux soins dont de nombreux témoignages ont été partagés lors d’un événement international consacré à l’équité en santé.

Le 11 avril dernier, la Fondation Apprendre Genève a créé un espace de dialogue sans précédent, rassemblant près de 5 000 professionnels de la santé de 72 pays, dont 1 830 francophones. Intitulé « L’équité compte: une approche pratique pour identifier et éliminer les biais », cet événement a permis à des médecins, infirmiers, agents de santé communautaires et autres acteurs du terrain de raconter, dans leurs propres mots, les discriminations qu’ils observent quotidiennement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hq_xCffbCE

Des récits convergents malgré la diversité des contextes

« L’originalité de cette rencontre réside dans sa capacité à faire émerger des expériences habituellement invisibilisées », explique Reda Sadki, directeur exécutif de la Fondation. « Des praticiens qui n’ont jamais accès aux tribunes internationales ont pu témoigner des réalités qu’ils affrontent chaque jour. »

Ces témoignages, remarquablement similaires malgré la diversité des contextes, révèlent que le statut social détermine encore largement la qualité et la rapidité des soins. « Nous avions amené un enfant gravement malade à l’hôpital », raconte Neville Kasongo, du Corps des jeunes contre le paludisme en République démocratique du Congo. « Pendant que nous attendions plus de six heures, j’ai vu notre voisin arriver avec son enfant malade. Comme il avait des relations particulières dans cette institution, les cadres soignants se sont précipités pour s’occuper de son fils. Pour nous qui n’avions aucune connexion, quand ils sont finalement venus, l’enfant était déjà très affaibli. Une heure après, il est décédé. »

Brigitte Meugang, point focal du Programme élargi de vaccination au Cameroun, a observé un phénomène similaire lors d’une visite à l’hôpital: « J’avais un malade hospitalisé et je suis arrivée un peu en retard pendant les heures de visite. Le vigile m’a dit: “Tu n’entres pas parce que l’heure de visite est déjà passée.” Quelques minutes plus tard, un cousin militaire est arrivé en tenue. Le vigile a ouvert le portail et lui a dit d’entrer. » Quand elle a demandé pourquoi, on lui a répondu qu’il était en uniforme. C’est seulement après avoir présenté sa carte professionnelle qu’elle a été autorisée à entrer.

Les intervenants ont également souligné comment des groupes entiers sont systématiquement laissés pour compte. « Dans les zones de conflit au Burkina Faso, les femmes, les enfants et les personnes âgées déplacés subissent des violences basées sur le genre car leurs besoins spécifiques ne sont pas pris en compte », témoigne une spécialiste genre et inclusion sociale. « Les enfants souffrent de malnutrition, les femmes enceintes n’ont pas accès aux consultations prénatales, et les personnes âgées ne bénéficient pas de soins adaptés. »

Quand l’injustice touche même les soignants

Particulièrement frappants sont les témoignages de professionnels de santé ayant eux-mêmes subi des discriminations. Le Dr Balkissa Modibo Hama, coordonnatrice du programme mondial d’éradication de la poliomyélite pour l’OMS en Guinée, raconte: « Lors de l’accouchement de ma seconde fille, le personnel ne s’est pas occupé de moi jusqu’à ce que la sage-femme responsable arrive et leur dise qui j’étais. Soudain, tous se sont mobilisés autour de moi en me reprochant de ne pas m’être présentée. Après mon accouchement, j’ai convoqué tout le personnel pour les sensibiliser sur le fait qu’on ne devrait pas avoir besoin de dire qui on est pour recevoir des soins de qualité. »

Dans certains cas, c’est l’expérience personnelle de l’injustice qui a motivé l’engagement professionnel. « À 13 ans, j’ai accompagné ma mère à l’hôpital », poursuit le Dr Hama. « L’infirmière, qui connaissait ma mère, a voulu me faire passer avant une femme Bororo dont l’enfant était plus mal en point. J’ai refusé, mais j’ai ensuite constaté que cette femme et son enfant avaient été négligés. Cette expérience m’a profondément marquée et a motivé ma décision de devenir médecin. »

Christian Kpoyablé Clahin, infirmier en Côte d’Ivoire, a partagé un cas tragique: « Une femme est venue avec son enfant gravement malade. Elle n’avait pas d’argent pour payer les analyses. L’enfant a été mis à l’écart au laboratoire et cela a traîné jusqu’à ce qu’il soit trop tard. L’enfant est mort. J’ai interpellé le directeur de l’hôpital, mais les sanctions n’ont été que verbales. »

Des initiatives locales qui font la différence

Au-delà du constat, les participants ont partagé des solutions concrètes qu’ils ont développées face à ces inégalités. Arthur Fidelis Metsampito Bamlatol, coordinateur d’une association de santé au Cameroun, explique: « J’avais observé que les enfants Baka [pygmées] étaient insuffisamment vaccinés. Après avoir signalé ce problème au médecin-chef de district, nous avons cartographié les campements dans la forêt et institué des stratégies spéciales. Lors des campagnes suivantes, nous marchions parfois plusieurs heures à pied pour atteindre ces communautés isolées. »

D’autres adaptations créatives ont été mentionnées, comme celle rapportée par Bouréma Mounkoro, assistant médical au Mali: « Le planning des activités de vaccination n’était pas synchronisé avec la disponibilité de la communauté. Nous avons reprogrammé les jours de vaccination en tenant compte des réalités locales, ce qui a amélioré la couverture vaccinale et réduit considérablement les cas d’abandon. »

Pour Brice Alain Dakam Ncheuta, responsable de l’engagement communautaire à Médecins Sans Frontières au Niger, comprendre les dynamiques culturelles est essentiel: « Dans le Grand Sahel, pour réduire les biais dans la prise en charge des violences basées sur le genre, nous travaillons étroitement avec les leaders communautaires. Nous proposons des soins médicaux sans heurter la sensibilité culturelle, car cela fait partie de l’identité des personnes que nous accompagnons. »

Les solutions peuvent parfois être simples mais révolutionnaires, comme l’illustre l’initiative de Dayambo Yendoukoua, délégué de programme santé à la Croix-Rouge au Niger: « Dans les villages et hameaux agricoles, nous avons constaté que les femmes ont trois fois moins accès aux soins obstétricaux que les femmes urbaines. Nous avons créé des Clubs de Mères, offert des formations d’alphabétisation, mis en place des activités génératrices de revenus, et établi des ambulances traditionnelles gérées par les femmes elles-mêmes. »

Vers un partage de savoirs plus équitable

L’originalité de cet événement réside également dans sa méthodologie même. Plutôt que de suivre le schéma classique des conférences internationales où les experts occidentaux partagent leur savoir avec les praticiens du Sud, la Fondation Apprendre Genève a délibérément inversé cette logique. « Ce sont les professionnels de terrain qui ont pris la parole en premier », souligne Reda Sadki, directeur exécutif de la Fondation.

« Les agents de santé communautaire peuvent voir des obstacles que les chercheurs manquent. Les décideurs comprennent les contraintes systémiques qui affectent la mise en œuvre des politiques. C’est lorsque ces perspectives se connectent que nous trouvons de meilleures solutions », poursuit-il.

Pour faciliter l’analyse de ces expériences, Brigid Burke a accompagné la rencontre en tant que Guide. Burke est une chercheuse spécialisée dans le cadre BIAS FREE, un outil développé par Mary-Anne Burke et Margaret Eichler, permettant d’identifier différents types de biais. Cela a permis d’aller au-delà des constats en proposant une grille d’analyse des échanges entre participants qui ont constitué le cœur de la rencontre.

Le succès de cette approche pourrait conduire à la création d’un programme de formation international, dont le lancement sera discuté lors d’une nouvelle rencontre fin avril. « Nous souhaitons développer un espace où les connaissances circulent véritablement dans toutes les directions, plutôt que du Nord vers le Sud », précise M. Sadki.

La participation massive à cet événement – bien au-delà des attentes des organisateurs – témoigne d’un besoin urgent d’aborder ces questions. « Votre participation aide à déterminer si nous développons un programme plus complet sur ces questions », a expliqué la Fondation. « Quand près de 5000 personnes participent, cela montre qu’il y a suffisamment d’intérêt. »

« La meilleure stratégie pour corriger tous les biais reste l’installation partout dans nos pays d’une couverture maladie universelle », suggère le Dr Oumar Traoré, médecin de santé publique en Guinée. Une vision à laquelle fait écho Amadou Gueye, président du Malaria Youth Corps en Guinée: « Ces témoignages nous rappellent que l’équité en santé n’est pas qu’une question technique, mais aussi une question de justice fondamentale. »

Image: Collection de la Fondation Apprendre Genève © 2025

#bias #equity #français #globalHealth #peerLearning #specialEvent

Patterns of prejudice: Connecting the dots helps health workers combat bias worldwide

English | Français

“I noticed that every time he went to appointments or emergency services, he was often met with suspicion or treated as if he was exaggerating his symptoms,” shared a community support worker from Canada, describing how an Indigenous teenager waited three months for mental health services while non-Indigenous youth were seen within weeks.

This testimony was just one of hundreds shared during an unusual global gathering where frontline health workers confronted an uncomfortable truth: healthcare systems worldwide are riddled with biases that determine who lives and who dies.

“Equity Matters: A Practical Approach to Identify and Eliminate Biases,” a special event hosted by the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) on 10-11 April 2025, drew nearly 5,000 health professionals from 72 countries. What made the event distinctive wasn’t just its scope, but its approach: creating a forum where community health workers from rural Nigeria could share insights alongside WHO officials from Switzerland, where district nurses from South Sudan could analyze cases with medical college professors from India.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=623zkqfxGz4&t=100s

When healthcare isn’t equal: Global patterns emerge

Despite working in vastly different contexts, participants described remarkably similar patterns of bias.

“A pregnant woman was about to deliver in the hospital, but the doctor said they need to deposit 500,000 naira before she can touch the woman,” recounted Onosi Chikaodiri Peter, a community health worker with Light Bringer’s Outreach in Nigeria. “The husband was begging, pleading, with 100,000 naira, telling the doctor that he could sell all his livestock to make sure that the wife was okay. But the doctor wouldn’t attend to the woman. Along the line, the woman gave up. The child died.”

Dr. Tusiime Ramadhan, who works with Humanitarian Volunteers International in Uganda, observed the same pattern: “People with money are referred to private clinics and hospitals for better health services often owned by the same government workers who sent them there.”

Some biases manifest in subtler ways. Hussainah Abba Ali, who works with Impact Santé Afrique in Cameroon, described seeking treatment for malaria during her university years: “Because I was a young woman, the nurse assumed I was just exaggerating. She barely examined me, gave me paracetamol and told me to rest. I later found out that several men who came in after me with similar symptoms were tested immediately for malaria.”

The stories came from everywhere—a physiotherapist in Nigeria whose expertise was ignored in favor of a male colleague; a nutritionist in DR Congo whose albino neighbor avoided vaccination clinics because of stigma; a public health specialist in Ethiopia’s Somali Region who explained how healthcare systems are designed for settled communities, leaving pastoralist populations behind.

Alina Onica, a psychologist with Romania’s Icar Foundation working with domestic violence survivors, noted: “Victims are often judged for ‘not leaving’ the abuser, as if staying means it’s not serious. This bias ignores the complex trauma and fear they live with every day.”

A framework for sense-making beyond single-issue analysis

What united these diverse testimonies was the application of the BIAS FREE Framework, a practical tool that helps identify and eliminate discriminatory patterns in health systems.

“Margaret Eichler and I started this work back in 1995 after developing some gender-based analysis tools,” explained Mary Anne Burke, the framework’s co-author. “We realized we had created something that could be applied to all social hierarchies. We’ve workshopped it on every continent but Antarctica and found it applicable everywhere.”

Unlike approaches that focus exclusively on gender, ethnicity, or disability, the BIAS FREE Framework examines how these factors intersect. Brigid Burke, a researcher who’s used and taught the framework for 15 years, explained how to identify three distinct problem types:

• H problems: Where existing hierarchies are maintained
• F problems: Where relevant differences between groups are ignored
• D problems: Where different standards are applied to different groups

“It is easier to understand a hierarchy when you’re experiencing the oppression,” Burke told participants. “You can feel that you’re being treated in a way that takes away your dignity. It’s harder when you might be the one who is either consciously or unconsciously oppressing other people.”

During the event, participants first shared their own experiences, then began to analyze them using the framework. Abdoulie Bah, a regional Red Cross officer from The Gambia, offered his analysis: “Oppressive hierarchies suggest that certain groups experience more oppression than others, often leading to a competitive dynamic among marginalized groups.”

Solutions from the ground up

What distinguished this event from typical global health conferences was its emphasis on solutions developed by frontline workers themselves.

Dr. Orimbato Raharijaona, a medical doctor from Madagascar, described his team’s efforts to reach children in remote areas: “We prioritized areas with low vaccination coverage and strengthened birth follow-up to target zero-doses. Community dialogue helped raise awareness of the need for vaccination.”

In Mali, Bouréma Mounkoro, a public health medical assistant, discovered that simply rescheduling vaccination days to align with community availability dramatically improved coverage rates and reduced dropouts.

Dayambo Yendoukoua from Niger’s Red Cross developed an integrated approach addressing rural women’s exclusion from maternal care: “Women from villages and farming hamlets have three times less access to obstetric care than urban women. We grouped women into Mothers’ Clubs, provided literacy training, set up income-generating activities, and established traditional ambulances managed by women.”

This emphasis on community-based solutions resonated with Esther Y. Yakubu, a health worker with the Health and Development Support Programme in Nigeria: “This program will surely be of great value in the health sector. If put in place, it will make a huge difference and patients will receive quality treatment without any segregations.”

Practical action – not academic debates – to decolonize global health

The event itself embodied the principles it aimed to teach. Rather than positioning Western experts as authorities, TGLF structured the event to value diverse forms of expertise.

“Community health workers can see barriers that researchers miss. Global researchers spot patterns invisible at the local level. Policy makers understand system constraints that affect implementation,” explained Reda Sadki, TGLF’s Executive Director. “It’s when these perspectives connect that we find better solutions.”

On 24-25 April 2025, this community will reconvene to determine if there is enough interest and momentum to launch the Foundation’s Certificate peer learning programme for equity in research and practice. An inaugural course could be launched as early as June 2025.

“Your participation helps determine if we develop a full program on identifying and removing bias in health systems,” TGLF explained in its materials. “When more than 1,000 people participate, it shows enough interest to create a more comprehensive learning opportunity.”

The certificate program will bring together participants from across professional hierarchies—community health workers, district managers, national planners, and global researchers—creating a rare space where knowledge flows in all directions.

Across time zones and contexts, the conversation highlighted a shared understanding: addressing bias in healthcare isn’t just about fairness—it’s about survival. As Haske Akiti Joseph, a radiographer from Nigeria’s National Orthopaedic Hospital, reflected: “These issues are happening everywhere because governments will not provide free medical services to the people, and medical considerations come due to who you are, not based on priority.”

In a world where your chances of receiving timely, appropriate healthcare often depend on your gender, ethnicity, wealth, or location, the BIAS FREE Framework offers a practical way forward—one that begins with recognizing patterns of oppression that transcend borders and cultures.

Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2025

#bias #equity #globalHealth #peerLearning #specialEvent

Welche guten Praktiken gibt es für die Organisation einer Veranstaltung im #Barcamp Format? Welche anderen #PeerLearning Formate sind empfehlenswert?

Im #KCLO Podcast spreche ich mit @joeran über seine über 15-jährige Erfahrungen mit dem Format. Eine gute Stunde mit geballter Sammlung von Know-how: https://podcasts.cogneon.io/@kclo/episodes/barcamps-und-andere-peer-learning-formate-mit-joran-muus-merholz

Peer learning for Psychological First Aid: New ways to strengthen support for Ukrainian children

This article is based on Reda Sadki’s presentation at the ChildHub “Webinar on Psychological First Aid for Children; Supporting the Most Vulnerable” on 6 March 2025. Learn more about the Certificate peer learning programme on Psychological First Aid (PFA) in support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Get insights from professionals who support Ukrainian children.

https://youtu.be/ba702Ehdgtk

“I understood that if we want to cry, we can cry,” reflected a practitioner in the Certificate peer learning programme on Psychological First Aid (PFA) in support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine – illustrating the kind of personal transformation that complements technical training.

During the ChildHub “Webinar on Psychological First Aid for Children; Supporting the Most Vulnerable”, the Geneva Learning Foundation’s Reda Sadki explained how peer learning provides value that traditional training alone cannot deliver. The EU-funded program on Psychological First Aid (PFA) for children demonstrates that practitioners gain five specific benefits:

First, peer learning reveals contextual wisdom missing from standardized guidance. While technical training provides general principles, practitioners encounter varied situations requiring adaptation. When Serhii Federov helped a frightened girl during rocket strikes by focusing on her teddy bear, he discovered an approach not found in manuals: “This exercise helped the girl switch her focus from the situation around her to caring for the bear.”

Second, practitioners document pattern recognition across diverse cases. Sadki shared how analysis of practitioner experiences revealed that “PFA extends beyond emergency situations into everyday environments” and “children often invent their own therapeutic activities when given space.” These insights help practitioners recognize which approaches work in specific contexts.

Third, peer learning validates experiential knowledge. One practitioner described how simple acknowledgment of feelings often produced visible relief in children, while another found that basic physical comforts had significant psychological impact. These observations, when shared and confirmed across multiple practitioners, build confidence in approaches that might otherwise seem too simple.

Fourth, the network provides real-time problem-solving for urgent challenges. During fortnightly PFA Connect sessions, practitioners discuss immediate issues like “supporting children under three years” or “recognizing severe reactions requiring referrals.” As Sadki explained, these sessions produce concise “key learning points” summarizing practical solutions practitioners can immediately apply.

Finally, peer learning builds professional identity and resilience. “There’s a lot of trust in our network,” Sadki quoted from a participant, demonstrating how sharing experiences reduces isolation and builds a supportive community where practitioners can acknowledge their own emotions and challenges.

The webinar highlighted how this approach creates measurable impact, with practitioners developing case studies that transform tacit knowledge into documented evidence and structured feedback that helps discover blind spots in their practice.

For practitioners interested in joining, Sadki outlined multiple entry points from microlearning modules completed in under an hour to more intensive peer learning exercises, all designed to strengthen support to children while building practitioners’ own professional capabilities.

This project is funded by the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of TGLF, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

Illustration: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2025

#CertificatePeerLearningProgrammeOnPsychologicalFirstAidPFAInSupportOfChildrenAffectedByTheHumanitarianCrisisInUkraine #ChildHub #children #globalHealth #IFRC #InternationalFederationOfRedCrossAndRedCrescentSocietiesIFRC_ #MHPSS #peerLearning #PsychologicalFirstAidPFA_ #psychosocialSupport #TheGenevaLearningFoundation #Ukraine

Here's how to hold simple successful workshops that create memorable learning experiences and connections.

https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/event-design/2018/07/simple-workshops

#meetings #EventDesign #workshops #SolutionRoom #PeerLearning #connection #eventprofs #assnchat

Aktives Lernen – mit und voneinander: Das kennzeichnet das Peer Learning.

Jetzt im Blog lesen:
💪 Aktives und eigenverantwortliches Lernen
🤝 Learning Circles: Selbstorganisiertes Lernen in der Gruppe
🛠️ Wie funktionieren Learning Circles?
💡 Warum ist das Peer Learning in LernCircles so wertvoll?
🫶 Moderation / Facilitation der Selbstlerngruppe

„Gemeinsam stark: Peer Learning & Learning Circle“
https://doschu.com/2025/02/gemeinsam-stark-peer-learning/

#peerlearning #lernos #lernen

Traditional conferences are obsolete because a standardized approach for education and training to support creative work is obsolete.

https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/event-design/2016/10/traditional-conferences-are-obsolete

#meetings #EventDesign #TraditionalMeetings #obsolescence #PeerLearning #eventprofs