Launching the Krishi Tarang Programme – Transforming Leadership and Livelihoods in Rural Uttar Pradesh, India.

February 2024 saw the launch of an innovative leadership development programme in Uttar Pradesh, India: Krishi Tarang. Delivered by Pepal, in collaboration with Nestlé and Progressive Foundation, the programme blends social impact with capacity building to uplift young people from agricultural communities. By cultivating entrepreneurial mindsets and fostering collaboration across sectors, Krishi Tarang will improve livelihoods in agricultural communities, and empower rural leaders to create lasting change. 

Over the coming years Krishi Tarang will bring together leaders from Nestlé’s global network with national leaders from Indian NGOs, social enterprises, for-profit organizations, government bodies, and universities. They will learn together in joint cohorts, which will nurture courageous and innovative leadership mindsets, foster skills and action-oriented collaboration, and drive purpose-driven partnerships to empower grassroots communities.

A Unique Approach to Leadership Development 

Krishi Tarang’s structure is designed to maximize impact: 

Experiential Leadership Training - Participants begin with a one- or two-day introduction to leadership. This is followed by an immersive five-day session where participants, grouped into teams with their international counterparts, apply leadership theories to real-world challenges. Six months later, a one-day refresher session provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on their projects and hand over responsibilities to the next cohort. 

Cross-Sector Innovation Projects - After the immersion, national participants team up with corporate leaders to design and implement low-budget, high-impact projects. These initiatives provide hands-on experience and solidify leadership skills while addressing pressing community challenges. 

Sustainable Partnerships - Pepal facilitates collaborations between participating organisations to build long-term partnerships and learning which lasts. Each cohort’s insights and progress are passed on to the next, creating a growing wave of innovation in agriculture – in Hindi, krishi tarang, which gives the programme its name.

Real Impact on Rural Communities 

The first, pilot, cohort in February 2024 made a tangible difference. Teams reached over 950 farmers through a variety of initiatives ranging from providing skills-based training on natural farming techniques, and empowering female farmers to launch their own YouTube channel for knowledge sharing, to distributing seeds and input materials to farmers, and establishing connections between farmers and buyers to ensure better prices.

These efforts yielded impressive results as some farmers reported a 50-80% increase in monthly income, others a 30-35% reduction in input costs, and female farmers were enabled to gain greater access to government schemes. Additionally, young leaders from agricultural universities secured employment opportunities with programme partners. 

Looking Ahead to Cohort 2 

Building on the success of the first cohort, five teams from Cohort 2, which ran in September 2024, are now piloting new innovations. These include introducing multi-layer farming techniques, expanding natural farming training, creating kitchen gardens, and experimenting with mushroom cultivation. 

The Power of Social Impact Investment: A Sustainable Path to Transforming Lives

Social impact investment is a game-changer in addressing some of the most pressing global challenges. By applying financial resources to scale projects which are both good businesses and committed to doing social good, such investments drive sustainable change in communities, creating lasting solutions to issues like poverty, health disparities, and gender inequality. One inspiring example of social impact investment comes from Muleba, Kagera, where innovative thinking is changing the lives of young girls and addressing cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is the leading cancer among women in Tanzania, particularly affecting those aged 15 to 44. Alarmingly, 68% of invasive cervical cancer cases in Tanzania are caused by human papillomaviruses HPV-16 and 18. Following the WHO's global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2030, Tanzania has prioritized the HPV vaccine for girls aged 9 to 14. However, resource constraints in low-income regions like Muleba have hindered outreach campaigns, threatening progress in preventing this disease.

To tackle this, Sister Victoria Mutatina, a district nursing officer, partnered with two leaders from Roche, all alumni of Pepal Foundation’s leadership training programmes, to launch a poultry farm. The farm produces and sells eggs, generating sustainable income to fund school-based HPV awareness and vaccination campaigns. This initiative aligns perfectly with Pepal's commitment to sustainability and innovative solutions.

Since its inception, the poultry farm has created a ripple effect of impact. By April 2024, the farm was self-sustaining, and had generated its first 5 million Tanzanian shillings in net profit. Half of this profit, combined with additional district support, was reinvested into school outreach programs, enabling the team to visit 28 schools and vaccinate 18,000 girls against HPV. The project not only provides a sustainable funding model but also empowers local communities to take ownership of their health outcomes.

2023 - Year of Impact

Reflecting on a year of impact and growth. Our programmes engaged over 100 participants impacting thousands of people across Uganda, Tanzania and India, connecting people from over 20 countries to develop their leadership skills and develop social innovations in areas such as cervical cancer screening and prevention and adolescent sexual health. Grateful for every moment, milestone and life touched. Together, we made a difference! 

The Power of Curiosity and Beautiful Questions: Cultivating an Essential Leadership Competency through Pepal Programmes

In today's complex world effective leadership requires the ability to ask beautiful questions and cultivate curiosity.  In this blog we explore why, and how the learning developed during Pepal programmes, supports this need.  Read to the end for a twist in the tale!    

Curiosity Fuels Exploration and Growth

Curiosity is the fuel that drives exploration and growth. Leaders who possess a genuine curiosity about the world around them are more likely to seek new perspectives, challenge the status quo, and drive innovation. They embrace a learning mindset and constantly seek to expand their knowledge and understanding. This open-mindedness not only encourages personal growth but also inspires their teams to do the same.  During Pepal programmes we support corporate leaders to get curious about an area outside their expertise, helping them to see how asking great questions can generate key insights quickly, and facilitate decision making. 

Asking Beautiful Questions Inspires Critical Thinking

Beautiful questions are those that are thought-provoking, open-ended and challenge our assumptions. Leaders who ask beautiful questions encourage critical thinking and foster a culture of curiosity within their organisations. By stimulating deeper reflection, these questions spark creative solutions and innovative ideas. They inspire individuals to explore new possibilities, ultimately driving progress and enabling organizations to adapt to changing circumstances.  Pepal programmes focus on complex social problems, which require new and different thinking to move towards solutions, leaders are challenged to ask the right beautiful questions to dig into what is possible. 

Navigating Uncertainty with Confidence

In an increasingly uncertain and unpredictable world, leaders must navigate ambiguity with confidence. Curiosity allows leaders to embrace uncertainty rather than shy away from it. By asking beautiful questions, leaders encourage their teams to explore various scenarios, anticipate challenges, and identify opportunities. This curiosity-driven approach helps leaders to make informed decisions and take calculated risks, even in the face of uncertainty.  Uncertainty and ambiguity are everywhere both in the countries where Pepal works, and around the social areas we focus on; curiosity is critical to navigate this. 

Cultivating Empathy and Connection

Leaders who ask beautiful questions and display genuine curiosity foster empathy and connection within their teams. By seeking to understand the perspectives and experiences of others, they create a culture of inclusivity and collaboration. Curiosity enables leaders to actively listen and appreciate diverse viewpoints, leading to stronger relationships and improved communication. This empathetic approach promotes teamwork, trust, and a sense of belonging, enhancing overall organisational performance.  Pepal programmes bring people together to form diverse teams who, within one week, must design an innovation which has impact.  Participants must build trust quickly, being genuinely curious enables leaders on Pepal programmes to do this.

Asking beautiful questions and nurturing curiosity are key competencies for leaders in today's world. In a rapidly evolving landscape, leaders who cultivate curiosity will not only thrive personally but also lead their organizations towards success and meaningful impact.  However, as easy it ‘ask beautiful questions’ might sound, leaders need practice and the space to reflect on how best to do this.  Pepal programmes provide leaders with both a challenging context, and the space to get curious. 

This blog was primarily written by Chat GPT by asking the question “write a 500 word blog about why asking beautiful question and being curious is a key competency for leaders in today world”.  I then spent 15 minutes editing the text, making it relevant to Pepal, and reflecting how Pepal programming support leaders to develop this competency.  This further highlights how questions have more value than answers in today’s world.   The rapid growth of technology, particularly AI, is giving us tools to access answers at our fingers tips…but only if we ask the right questions!

Back to Impact Through In-Person Programmes!

At the start of May Pepal delivered our first inperson programme since early 2020. Several of our corporate participants from Janssen Pharmaceuticals Companies of Johnson and Johnson had waited 3 years to travel to Uganda, here they share their reflections on the programme….

It’s our first week back in Belgium and the Netherlands and emotions are still running high after our adventures in Uganda.

Our programme mission was to contribute to reducing the HIV epidemic and the number of teenage pregnancies amongst hard to reach and vulnerable adolescents in rural Kamwenge and Kitagwenda districts.

More than a year ago, three teams composed of Janssen colleagues and leaders working in Uganda (healthcare workers, social workers and NGOs), joined forces to set up innovations (small-scale initiatives involving national partners). Each team motivated adolescents to participate in various activities near schools and health centers.

• Team Kamwenge engaged adolescents through passion fruit farming. The adolescents living with HIV learned valuable skills that could help them generate income, while at the same time being coached on taking their HIV medication.

• Team Nyabbani ran football and netball tournaments. At the tournaments, the adolescents were provided with sexual reproductive health education, access to family planning services, and HIV screening and testing.

• Team Rukunyu set up youth clubs where adolescents could make solar oven creation, take part in cooking classes, sports tournaments, make reusable sanitary pads and set up change rooms for girls to be used during their menstruation period.

The main goal of these activities was to bring the adolescents to the schools and health centers to receive reliable sexual reproductive health (SRH) knowledge, screen for HIV and provide medication where needed from health staff. The innovations also created opportunities to educate parents, teachers, religious leaders, and to organise adolescent peer coaching sessions. 

During our week in Uganda, we explored not only our own, but also previous innovations created by the Waamu programme and focussed on identifying gaps and opportunities for the future.

We had classroom sessions on different leadership concepts including the 15 elements in the leadership framework and a growth mindset. We covered curiosity and active listening, systems leadership, techniques for influence and advocacy and more. These learnings provided us with new insights that we will take back into our day jobs.  They will also not only support our Ugandan teammates in further developing sustainable initiatives in their districts, but also to become the leaders of tomorrow!

The two days of discovery visits to schools, health centers, and communities were the most impactful part of the trip for us. We learned about the impact of our innovations and had the chance to interact with many key partners: adolescents, adolescent peer leaders, parents, teachers, religious leaders, health ambassadors, local and regional health and education leaders, and other organizations working in Kamwenge and Kitagwenda districts.

We witnessed the magnificent accomplishments made by our Ugandan teammates and the increased engagement of all partners in improving current innovations and their willingness to contribute to future ones.

We concluded the week with presentations to executives from our partners organisations, including government leaders and NGOs, to get their support (and potentially some resources). We explained the changes we were able to make with the innovations, our key learnings, and our recommendations for scaling up in a sustainable manner.

After three successful pitches came the inescapable goodbye to our Ugandan teammates; it was not easy after a very intensive journey together.

We are still overwhelmed by what we learned during this journey, including the very difficult conditions in the districts we visited. We were impressed by the perseverance shown by those involved and by the will of the adolescents to work towards a brighter future. We feel it is tremendously important to continue working on these goals as there are still huge strides which need to be made and the need is extremely high. Get ready because this journey just got started! 😊

A big thank you to the Janssen caretakers and to the Pepal staff, Sarah, Dolly, Ingrid, Benita, and the whole Baylor team including Conrad, who guided us through the programme.

A big thank you to our teammates for the great work they do, for opening up to us, for sharing insights in the Ugandan culture, for laughing and crying with us.

Beatriz, Karin, Lara, Leo, Niels, Peggy, Kim (Waamu Cohort 3, May 2023)

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Pepal Programmes

Pepal programmes include participants from all over the world; a quick count showed that in 2022, our participants represented over 30 nationalities.  Through our unique leadership programmes, we build diverse teams where, for example, Tanzanian Community Health Volunteers from remote villages work alongside Heads of Procurement from global companies based in sprawling metropolises. Participants come from vastly different places and, for seasoned executives, this brings up deep questions about how they can lead in a truly inclusive way.  

A recent Harvard Business Review article stated that, ‘what leaders say and do makes up to a 70% difference as to whether an individual reports feeling included’. For this reason, it is critical that issues of inclusion are explored in today’s leadership programmes.  

Two things stood out to me last year when considering Pepal’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) journey.  Firstly, we redeveloped the leadership framework for our Waamu programme (a collaboration between Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and the leading Ugandan public health NGO, Baylor-Uganda) based on the Deloitte’s Six Signature Traits of an Inclusive Leader.  This brought traits like courage and curiosity to the forefront of the programme and helped participants both understand, and consider why, these are central to inclusion.  Secondly, we conducted a DEI audit of our NJIA programme (a collaboration between F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG and several NGOs in Uganda, Tanzania and India). There was lots of learning in this for us, from how we train our team at Pepal to the language we use; changes that we are working to implement this year.

However, these two exercises also highlighted to me that having the ‘right’ approach to DEI in the context of Pepal programmes is complex: in some places we work LGBTQI communities are criminalised, in others the caste system plays into all interactions, and in many gender equality is not given the same priority that I am used to in the UK.  Yet,  what I learned from observing our programme participants is that, despite this complexity, to create more inclusive environments we can 1) generously listen to our colleagues, with patience, empathy and a desire to deeply understand their perspective, 2) respect difference, as we grow and learn about cultural context and radically different perspectives and 3) be aware, humble and accepting when our own bias leads to incorrect assumptions and/or discrimination.

Inclusion, is like leadership, and of course acting in ways that are inclusive, is a key aspect of leadership. Both leadership and inclusion are difficult to learn in a classroom, understanding theoretical models is not as important as doing it, and reflecting on the outcomes and both start from an evaluation of your own values and perspectives.  In Pepal programmes, we offer participants the chance to test both their leadership and their ability to be inclusive, in spaces a long way outside their usual day to day environments and comfort zones.  These skillsets are more essential than ever, as building diverse workforces is critical to success in business, and beyond. 

Leadership in action in Uttar Pradesh India!

In January 2022, Pepal launched the first online iNJIA Programme focused on cervical cancer in Uttar Pradesh, India. Engaging over 25 leaders from Roche, NGO partners and the frontline healthcare system, this cohort discussed effective, leadership cross-cultural collaboration to co-create innovations across three districts - Lucknow, Hardoi and Fatehpur. 

In many states across India, including Uttar Pradesh, cervical cancer is not a healthcare priority in government clinics and hospitals. As a result, very few resources are allocated to cervical cancer prevention and treatment. This, coupled with low awareness levels lead to a very limited uptake of cervical cancer screening services. 

However, Team Lucknow, from iNJIA Cohort 5, saw these challenges as an opportunity to make a change in the lives of the women in Uttar Pradesh through the power of leadership and commitment. This team’s initial plan was to implement an awareness campaign within the Sewasadan Urban Primary Health Center (UPHC) in Lucknow, but quickly realised that this would create demand for services that did not exist. To solve this, they pivoted to an innovation focused on providing these services. Team Lucknow planned to conduct the first ever screening camp ever held in Sewasadan UPHC.

Over the course of six months, the team developed and put in place the appropriate infrastructure to ensure a successful intervention, training staff on cervical cancer screening, sourcing the materials required, and setting up a physical screening room for patients. 

Dr Andleeb Rizvi, a member of team Lucknow, who is the medical in-charge at UPHC Sewasadan took a leading role among the team of national healthcare leaders to make their idea a reality, with the support of Roche leaders remotely. She was able to harness the power of leadership and use the strengths of her team effectively to set up a successful  screening camp. 

The camp proved a success! The team educated 55 women about cervical cancer, screened 43 of these women with no positive VIA cases. The team also planned for patients with positive VIA results to receive further treatment through a collaboration with  King George’s Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow.

Leadership in action!

Accelerating Cervical Cancer Impact Through Leadership

The first iNJIA Accelerator Event brought together stakeholders from across Uganda and Tanzania to share best practices on leadership, innovation and cervical cancer and reflect on the future of the NJIA Programme.

NJIA is a leadership development programme that brings together senior leaders from the corporate sector and the healthcare ecosystems in Uganda, Tanzania and India through online and in person immersions that foster cross-sector collaboration and develop impactful innovations to address the burden of cervical cancer in these countries. Pepal has worked with partners to run 10 online iNJIA immersion programmes since 2020. The Accelerator event was an opportunity to reflect on this milestone.

On October 27th, 2022, representatives from Tanzanian and Ugandan Ministries of Health, NGOs, hospitals and donor representatives came together in-person for the first iNJIA Leadership, Innovation and Cervical Cancer Accelerator Event in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Accelerator offered an important opportunity for stakeholders to network, share insights and best-practices and to reflect on the future of leadership and social impact in East Africa, as well as highlighting some of the most impactful innovations developed by participants of iNJIA virtual leadership and cervical cancer programmes. 

Dr Safina Yusuf, Head of the Reproductive Cancer Unit at the Ministry of Health of Tanzania, sharing the impact of NJIA

Dr Safina Yusuf, Head of the Reproductive Cancer Unit at the Ministry of Health of Tanzania, opened the event, outlining the impact the iNJIA leadership programme has had on building the capacity of Regional Health Management Teams to improve cervical cancer outcomes.

Sarah Galvin, Executive Director of Pepal

Following this energising start, participants learnt more about the impact of NJIA from Pepal’s Executive Director, Sarah Galvin.  NJIA innovations have ranged from mobile outreach screening to school-based sensitisation programmes, and are a true testament to the power of shared leadership and cross-sectoral collaboration in fostering better cervical cancer outcomes.

A highlight of the morning were bitesize executive leadership training sessions, which gave participants an insight into the iNJIA experience. Using ICS connect, a tool that stimulates self-awareness by offering leaders an opportunity to reflect on their leadership styles, delegates put their leadership skills into action through a Zoom In, Zoom Out activity. This not only brought out each leader’s ICS colour energies, but also the importance of communication, collaboration and shared leadership to problem-solve effectively. 

Accelerator event participants completing the Zoom In Zoom Out game

In between leadership sessions, participants had the opportunity to engage in technical discussions about cervical cancer and innovation, discussing:  embedding leadership into health programming; integrating cervical cancer screening with other health services; developing leadership skills among Regional Health Teams and delivering the leadership pillar in Tanzania’s cervical cancer strategy. These breakouts allowed leaders to share their expertise around the challenges and opportunities that they face. These insights will help shape the future of iNJIA. 

In the afternoon, participants listened to a panel discussion entitled ‘Small Budget - Big Impact: How Innovation Can Impact Health Outcomes’, featuring speakers from NGO partners and donors in Tanzania and Uganda. The panellists invited participants to shift to a resource abundance mindset, emphasising the importance of leveraging existing resources, both financial and human, to grow the impact of their cervical cancer interventions. The event closed with parting words from Dr Rashid Mfaume, the Regional Medical Officer of Dar es Salaam, who re-emphasised the importance of leadership in achieving health outcomes in Tanzania and beyond. 

Dr Rashid Mfaume, the Regional Medical Officer of Dar es Salaam

Participants gave overwhelmingly positive feedback about the event, telling us that they left the day feeling energised and committed to iNJIA’s goal of strengthening leadership to develop innovations and achieve better health outcomes in Uganda and Tanzania. We look forward to continuing learning and sharing best practices with all the iNJIA stakeholders and we are excited about the future of the programme, and the potential for future collaboration as we strive to support the development of healthcare leaders across East Africa.

Networking at the event

Innovations: Scaling-Up for Wider Impact

Throughout 2021, the Pepal Tanzania team have been working to scale-up one of the exciting innovations from the NJIA programme, an initiative which aims to leverage the power of leadership and innovation to improve cervical cancer outcomes in low-resource healthcare settings. 

During Cohorts 7 and 9 of the NJIA programme which took place in 2019, two teams began to question why existing cryotherapy machines were not being effectively utilised to reduce the cervical cancer burden in Kagera region, Tanzania. 

When exploring this issue, the teams developed an action plan that involved a series of short-term outreach and treatment services that would be delivered on a rotational basis across several districts in Kagera. A key element to the teams’ plans was to systematically re-locate cryotherapy machines between health facilities in the region, so that more women could gain access to this effective treatment.   

The early pilot projects in 2019 demonstrated that this idea was effective at increasing access to treatment services, indicating that these innovation projects had great potential to create impact at scale.

Since 2020, Pepal Tanzania has been working with the Kahawa Foundation to implement rotational treatment services across several health facilities in Karagwe, Ngara and Biharamulo districts in Kagera, where previously there was limited treatment services available to women.

We are thrilled to partner on this project with the Kahawa Foundation, which was founded in 2016 by three Alumni who took part in the very first cohort of the NJIA programme, whose leadership and commitment continues to make a huge difference in supporting women in Kagera.

At the beginning of 2021, with a grant from the Kahawa Foundation, Pepal Tanzania purchased three thermocoagulation machines, which would be implemented following a similar plan to the NJIA innovation projects from cohorts 7 and 9.

Thermocoagulation machines offer a treatment technique for precancerous lesions that is user-friendly, easy to learn, and operates at a relatively low cost. The machines offer effective preventative treatment of lesions of the cervix which show potential to develop into cancer.

Throughout the year, the three machines have successfully rotated between 10 health facilities in the three districts. Each health facility has organised a screen and treat campaign, contributing to over 400 women receiving screening. 22 women were identified with precancerous lesions and received treatment using one of the thermocoagulation machines. 

In addition, 11 health workers received training on how to carry out inspections for precancerous lesions and how to treat lesions with the thermocoagulation machines. 

“The thermocoagulator machines have helped to significantly reduce time and effort needed to set up screening sites during cervical cancer community based outreach campaigns. The health workers are now even more comfortable when they perform VIA positive treatment because it is quicker and a clear self timing process.”

– Neema Kyamba, Regional Reproductive Child Health Coordinator

Moving forward, we plan to continue the rotational treatment of the machines alongside community based screening campaigns to improve reach and ensure that more women gain access to this important equipment.

“The progress we have seen in the last year has been exciting and demonstrates the vast potential of NJIA innovation projects. With the support of the Kahawa Foundation, we have been able to bring thermocoagulator machines to many women who previously would not have access to this form of treatment.”

– Festo Hezron, Project Coordinator - Pepal Tanzania

This project is an excellent example of how new ideas can grow into projects with huge potential during Pepal programmes. For more information on our innovation and impact model, click here.

Innovations: Creating Change, Unlocking New Value and Sustaining Impact

At Pepal, one of our core principles is that innovation and new ways of thinking are crucial to achieving impact. Innovation creates change that can unlock new value, which is particularly important in low-resource healthcare settings, where small changes in how things are done have the potential to make a huge difference.

During our programmes, we challenge teams of participants from all over the world to work together to test and develop their leadership skills by designing social impact projects. These innovation projects implement and test new ideas on a small scale with limited resources. 

The innovation projects challenge participants to do more with what there is and to adopt a growth mindset.

Our programmes also include knowledge sharing between incoming and outgoing cohorts. By sharing evidence, data and learnings between teams, each cohort is able to embed and build on previous teams innovations projects and implement new ideas at an even greater scale. 

This model of innovation is best visualised as a funnel:

New innovation projects are created and tested during the ideation phase, which are then refined and tested on a larger scale during the proof of concept phase. Finally, after rounds of testing and data gathering, we then advocate for NGOs and governments to implement the idea once it has proved that it can create sustained change.

How does this model work in practice?

One example of how this model creates impact can be demonstrated through our work to improve adolescent sexual health outcomes in Rwenzori Region, Uganda.

In 2019, in partnership with Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson and Johnson (Janssen) and Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation-Uganda, we launched a programme to improve adolescent sexual health health outcomes in Kamwenge and Kitagwenda districts.

The Innovation teams were made up of adolescent peer leaders, healthcare workers, NGO staff and Janssen colleagues who spent several months testing innovations to improve access to and the quality of adolescent-friendly health services.

One of the teams designed a project to harness the influence of the church and the voices of its leaders to encourage more adolescents to access sexual reproductive health services. Through careful and sensitive planning, members of the team trained 16 church leaders on the importance of sexual health for adolescents and designed specific action plans so the churches leaders could share their new knowledge and spread awareness.

Although the project was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and its restrictions, it showed great promise. Post-programme, there was a 20% increase in knowledge among adolescents (measured through a knowledge test), as well as an increase in adolescents accessing HIV testing.

Recently, two new teams have commenced projects drawing inspiration from the original innovation, both with the intention of creating a greater impact at a greater scale.

Team Kitagwenda identified an opportunity to scale-up the original project by working with leaders from different religious groups and Christian denominations. They also intend to organise sexual health out-reach clinics at new religious institutions they are work with.

Team Kamwenge identified challenges facing adolescents in hard-to-reach; services are even more difficult to access in rural areas. The team plans to focus their innovation project on improving knowledge and awareness of safe practices by training peer leaders and health workers, alongside the religious leaders.

What started as a small idea, using the influence of religious leaders as a way to spread awareness of adolescent sexual health services, has grown into three larger projects that are creating sustained change.

New Website to Showcase Resources for Cervical Cancer Prevention in Low Income Countries

The NJIA Team are delighted to announce the launch of a new website to share strategies for cervical cancer prevention. The website is a collaborative platform that aims to consolidate different ideas and tools being used by health charities, NGOs and governments to reduce cervical cancer in low resource settings.

The website can be accessed here: www.cervicalcancerresources.org/ 

The website  showcases solutions that have been developed through the NJIA collaboration in Tanzania, India and Uganda, and to showcase ideas and tools that have been developed by other organisations working on cervical cancer around the world.

Since 2015, Pepal’s NJIA programme has made a huge contribution to cervical cancer prevention through leadership and innovation in Kagera Region, Tanzania. Our success in Tanzania inspired us to broaden our horizons; in 2019 NJIA arrived in Varanasi Division of Uttar Pradesh State, India; more recently expanding to Rwenzori Region, Uganda, in 2021. 

NJIA is a cross-sectoral collaboration between Pepal, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, McBride & Lucius, several NGO partners, and government health leaders working in the public health sectors in India, Tanzania and Uganda.

Throughout the NJIA journey we have noticed a common theme surrounding a general lack of easily-accessible resources, strategies, solutions and tools relating to cervical cancer prevention, specifically in low-resource settings. 

Therefore, the intention behind the website is to draw together a wide range of resources that relate to all aspects of cervical cancer prevention. The site is intended to be an accessible hub for people operating within the space at many different levels, ranging from service providers to policy makers, and many others

We would like to extend the invitation to any organisation or NGO that operates in the cervical cancer space to share any ideas and resources that can be beneficial to increasing knowledge on prevention strategies in low-resource settings. 

Visit the website to find more information on how to get involved!

www.cervicalcancerresources.org/

Transforming Challenges into New Possibilities

How can leadership skills be harnessed to achieve social impact?

How can teams of leaders from all over the world come together to improve the cervical cancer landscape in Tanzania?

How can the challenges of the pandemic and the shift to virtual working be transformed into exciting new opportunities?

These are the key challenges posed to leaders at the beginning of Pepal’s iNJIA programme, which is a collaboration between Pepal, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Roche), the Government of Tanzania, ICAP and McBride & Lucius.

Sister. Victoria Mutatina, Head of Nursing for the Muleba District in Kagera Region, Tanzania, was one of the leaders who rose to this challenge. As part of a diverse and energetic team of leaders from all over the world, named Team Muleba, Sister Victoria co-created an innovative project designed to integrate cervical cancer prevention within schools in Tanzania.

“The commitment from participants from all over the world has been inspiring and it has been wonderful to witness the passion of all NJIA participants to help women in Kagera.”

— Sister Victoria

Team Muleba, alongside three other highly motivated teams, began their journey by connecting as a team and deep-diving into the journeys they had been on to make them the leaders they are today.

Through a series of leadership development workshops, the teams identified various competencies that they would like to improve on to become more effective leaders, and to develop agile and creative mindsets that can mitigate the challenges and uncertainties within their work.

Participants then had the opportunity to test themselves by co-creating and implementing innovative projects that contribute to improving cervical cancer prevention and treatment throughout two regions in Tanzania. The projects had a low-budget to maximise innovation, and the teams needed to draw on their individual and collective leadership skills, and their motivation to make a difference. 

Sister Victoria and her Muleba team decided to focus on schools through an education and awareness project. So far, the team have designed materials to disseminate information regarding cervical cancer treatment and prevention, which have been tailored to target the individual roles that pupils, parents and teachers can play. The team have successfully engaged with three schools who have confirmed their involvement with the project.

“I learnt a lot of things, I gained great experiences by working with lots of people from different countries. I feel empowered and passionate about going into communities and educating women of all ages to prevent this problem (cervical cancer). ”

— Sister Victoria

Similarly, Team Ngara’s innovation project centred around integrating cervical cancer prevention and treatment within the education system, utilising teachers as multipliers. They have successfully piloted their project and vaccinated girls with the HPV vaccine, screen teachers for pre-cancerous lesions, and hold meetings with parents.

Team Kagera, focused on integrating cervical cancer within current breast cancer prevention and treatment services by empowering and mentoring community health workers to engage with women and advise them on the benefits of accessing screening services for both forms of cancer. In the past four months, the team have created awareness and communication materials as well as screening manuals. Team Kagera have also begun to pilot community health worker mentoring at two health centres.

Team Karagwe created a recognition project designed to reward and thus incentivise women to attend cervical cancer screening sites. The team have conducted interviews at screening sites to learn more about their current situations and challenges. They have also successfully on-boarded several sites to align staff with the specific award process.

All four teams have made promising progress. The solutions that the teams have designed are low-cost and innovative, with leadership at their core. Participants from all teams highlighted the value of patience, connection and unity to their team’s successes. They also learnt to “break the mindset of scarcity”, shifting towards a creative mindset that focuses on leveraging what they have, rather than worrying about what they don’t.

“I learned to not worry about money. I learnt to take a step and try, regardless of the limited resources we may have.”

— Sister Victoria

Moving forward, the teams have two months remaining to finalise their projects and consolidate their impact.

We're Hiring!

For more information about the roles and how to apply, click here: https://www.pepal.org/work-with-us

Fighting Anti-Mircobial Resistance in Low-Resourced Health Settings

At the beginning of 2020, the Pepal Team brought a new health focus area to our Uganda Leadership Pioneers Programme, combatting anti-microbial resistance (AMR). This programme was the first of its kind in Uganda, with the teams supporting efforts around AMR stewardship in the Rwenzori Region.

In July 2021, Dolly (Project Manager at Pepal) caught up with Dr. Dennis Ojok, a Medical Officer at Rukunyu Hospital in Uganda, to reflect on his experience on the programme.

Dolly: Can you tell me more about the AMR programme you were involved with?

Dr. Ojok: “My team undertook training on leadership and AMR for one week, which gave us a lot of insight and knowledge into what we are expected to do as far as AMR is concerned.

As a result of the programme we are more focused on CMEs (Continual Medical Education) to remind ourselves of guidelines on different diagnosis and treatment areas. We launch different investigations, especially where we suspect resistance. These investigations look into microbial culture and sensitivity, and we send data to the lab. We also remind ourselves about the right kinds of antibiotics and medicines after making a diagnosis, for the right number of days.”

Dolly: What were your key leadership learnings from the programme?

Dr. Ojok: “When I returned from the training, I mentored other staff within my health facility. Firstly, to increase and broaden their knowledge and awareness of AMR as an issue. Secondly, for them to be more vigilant around gaps in the management of patients.

Combatting AMR requires a multi-disciplinary approach. We need attention from hospital management and interventions from nurses, midwives, doctors, health clinicians and laboratory staff. We also need cooperation from the communities and the beneficiaries of the health service. Making all these people work together for a common cause requires leadership. I am very glad to have been part of the team that was trained and now I feel empowered to train others.”

Dolly: How has the programme impacted Rukunyu Hospital?

Dr. Ojok: “I would say that the programme resulted in reduced workload for the health workers. Because, after you make an accurate diagnosis and give the right treatment, this in turn reduces the length of time that a patient spends in the hospital. I now have more time for all patients that are admitted, this is because of the impact of the programme.

AMR goes hand in hand with infection prevention and control. This means that the learning from the programme is very necessary during the pandemic. When I look at our operations, rates of sepsis infections have steadily declined. Before the programme, 5 people in every 100 contracted sepsis. As I talk now, this rate has dropped to just 2 out of 100 people.”

It was fantastic hearing Dr. Ojok reflect on his experience with the programme. His key learnings embody one of our main beliefs at Pepal; that empowered leaders with the right skills can achieve a huge impact, even in low-resource settings. Dr. Ojok is a champion for AMR protection in Uganda and it is incredible to hear about his efforts to spread the message in Rwenzori.

Anti-microbial resistance threatens to un-do progress within areas such as global health security, poverty, food security and economic growth. Strong leadership is critical for combatting the negative implications of anti-microbial resistance and to build resilient health ecosystems that prevent infection spread.

AMR is a serious threat to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Anti-microbial resistance is a significant global health challenge. AMR is defined as “the resistance of bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal microorganisms to antimicrobial medicines that were previously effective for treatment of infections” (WHO). AMR occurs naturally over time, but is accelerated by:

• The inappropriate use of anti-biotics.

• General lack of access to health services.

• Antimicrobial residues in soil, crops and water.

If urgent action is not taken, it is predicted that by 2050, AMR will contribute to 10 million deaths and an economic cost of $100 trillion. In Uganda, the threat is heightened by the challenges of a low resource health system. Globally, a collaborative and multi-sectored approach that is grounded in strong leadership is crucial to reduce the threat posed by AMR.

““Without urgent, coordinated action by many stakeholders, the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill.”

— Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Security

On the programme which took place in February 2020, four teams consisting of leaders from the National Health Service (NHS) UK, Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Uganda and five hospitals in Rwenzori Region came together with the shared vision of building strong partnerships for improved AMR awareness, and infection protection and control measures. The teams received leadership training from the Cross Sector Leadership Exchange (CSLE), and visited 29 health facilities across Rwenzori to understand the day-to-day challenges AMR places on the health system in Uganda.

Moving forward, we hope to resume our AMR programme in the near future and continue building on the impact already established.

Going beyond our own imagination: Virtual Leadership and Social Impact Programmes

"When we say 'leaders', we don’t just mean the policymakers and elected officials who are in charge of big portfolios within the government system. We’re also talking about the healthcare workers who endure trauma during adverse situations like the COVID-19 pandemic on the frontlines. The iNJIA program on leadership is a great tool to arm our frontline workers with skills so that they can ensure uninterrupted access to critical nutrition services to women and children who need it the most." - Ruchika Chugh Sachdeva, Vice President Nutrition, Vitamin Angels

In 2020, the Pepal team pivoted our ways of working to embrace the new global reality of social distancing. With health systems overwhelmed, we knew that our work on developing agile and confident leaders capable of driving change across corporate and public sectors was more important than ever, but we questioned how we could achieve the same level of impact that face-to-face programmes have in a virtual setting.

Following test runs in 2020, we ran our first full virtual leadership and innovation programme in January and February 2021 in partnership with Roche, McBride and Lucius, Progressive Foundation, Jhpiego and PATH in Uttar Pradesh State, India. Renamed iNJIA, the programme harnessed the power of the virtual world to develop leaders and make social impact with cross-sectoral leaders from across the globe. In just over 40 hours of online engagement, two teams developed their leadership skills, explored the health system in India through live discovery visits and co-created sustainable social impact ideas.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put immense pressure on the public healthcare system in India. We have been working in Uttar Pradesh with our partners Progressive Foundation, Jhpiego, and PATH since 2019 focused on improving cervical cancer outcomes. However, the devastating impact of the pandemic prompted our partners to ask us to change the focus of our online programme to an escalating problem - infant and child malnutrition.

Team members from India, Greece, the US, Switzerland, Germany and the UK worked remotely on Zoom for 2.5 weeks - and the relationships that were formed, and the impact the experience had on the participants was beyond what we could have imagined.

“Normally we work with checklists. iNJIA gave us the opportunity to experience powerful collaboration and focusing on root causes and think outside of the box.” - Vaibhao Ambhore, Program Manager, PATH India

“I'm so inspired by whom and what I am exposed to here. This is such a humbling experience, and such an amazing and huge opportunity to go beyond the usual and do something that really matters. My friends and family are flabbergasted and fired up as much as I am.” - Ulrich Schworer, General Manager, Roche Greece

Focused on building effective collaboration skills online, design thinking, and creative and reactive leadership, the programme brought participants close together despite being miles apart. The two teams co-created innovative ideas: a low-cost recipe calendar for literate and illiterate families in rural Shravasti District and a viral Youtube campaign where community health workers (ASHAs) share best practices and encourage each other to be champions of child nutrition. Our colleagues at PATH have already scaled their Youtube idea to other health focus areas in their organisation.

At the end of the 2.5 weeks, we engaged a wide range of executive panellists and subject experts to give feedback on the teams’ ideas, made possible by Zoom! Senior leaders from UNICEF, King George's Medical University, Vitamin Angels, PATH and Jhpiego from across India dialled into the final pitch where the teams presented their ideas online. It was an incredible finale to a special programme, which opened our eyes even further to the reach and impact that online programming can have.

The second cohort of iNJIA, focused on cervical cancer in Tanzania, concludes this week. We look forward to sharing the outcomes with you soon!

Leadership Development and Social Impact in 2021

2020 was a year of turbulence and rapid change both here at Pepal and for the wider world. Earlier this month we reached out to some of our friends and colleagues working in the leadership development space to gather their reflections around the impact 2020 has had on leadership development and social impact and where Pepal programmes are relevant in this emerging and increasingly virtual future.

"In today's volatile operating context, leaders need more than ever to be able to adapt their approach while staying true to themselves. Pepal's programmes provide leaders with a space to lead, collaborate with diverse local teams and innovate in very challenging and dynamic situations. And in doing so, provide simple and effective solutions to complex health and social development issues in lower-income countries. Even in its virtual version, while not providing 'on the ground experience', leaders from our corporate clients have a profound and deeply human experience while building close partnerships and leading virtually."

Ed Marsh, Former Global head of talent and organisation development, Nestle and Pepal Trustee

“Given the changing times due to the effects of COVID-19 and increased demand for service continuity and efficient delivery, good governance and leadership are critical to achieving the intended outcomes. Through the Pepal leadership development model, creating virtual leadership and governance skills modules for public and private healthcare is relevant to strengthen staff skills to enable them to cope with volatile times. There is a need for increased staff motivation, supervision and management to build a generation of self-driven leaders with the ability to perform under minimal supervision, a need the virtual Pepal programmes aim to address.”

Michael Musiime Koima, Governance & Leadership Manager, Baylor Uganda (Partner NGO)

"We are living in an increasingly volatile and complex world – and the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to drive global uncertainty for some time -  now more than ever, we need agile and resilient leadership.   Pepal programmes offer a unique approach to developing the leaders we need for the future while also having measurable social impact.  I feel privileged to have been part of these genuinely transformational programmes."

Jane Waterman, Executive Coach, Aesara Partners

“At Progressive Foundation we observe gaps and challenges in the healthcare system in Uttar Pradesh. On the one hand there are obvious solutions and there are clear benchmarks available for learning and adapting successful models. However, we still fail to fix our problems. The reason is a clear lack of leadership at different levels. Pepal programmes provide a platform to collaborate among corporate, NGOs, and government partners to practice leadership, create and enhance impact. The programmes demonstrate how people can collaborate without hierarchical order and with respect for ideas. Pepal programmes allow teams to achieve ambitious goals in the most effective ways.”

Vinod Yadav, Director Progressive Foundation, India (partner NGO)

"There has never been a time where the need for innovative approaches to addressing social issues has been more pressing. What Pepal have achieved is to create a platform for leadership growth whilst addressing real-world challenges through a unique and immersive virtual experience. This hybrid approach has a significant impact both in the development of tomorrows leaders but also in addressing serious challenges in volatile healthcare communities where the need for resilience is high."

CJ Green, Co-Founder & Executive Director, BraveGoose, Pepal Trustee

“Leadership - in a pandemic-affected world - has already shifted its perspectives. From control to enabling guidance, from managing to coaching-based support and from fixed agendas to responsive and coherent actions. Moving from crisis to complexity has necessitated this. Pepal, and its virtual adaptation - provides these elements and more. Working with local and international leadership collaborators, discovery, design, and deployment helps people make lasting changes whilst they are learning to lead.”

Perry Timms, Founder and Chief Energy Officer, People & Transformational HR Ltd

Emerging from all of the comments is the need to be adaptive and responsive in a world of volatility and unpredictability. Reflecting on the last 12 months, we have faced many challenges, from pausing in-person programmes to staff being unable to travel to our project areas. At the same time, many opportunities have arisen and we have developed our knowledge base and skill set rapidly. Through harnessing the power of technology in our programming, we continue to create sustained change from a distance whilst simultaneously maintaining our ambition to bring more diverse stakeholders together for even greater impact.

NEW two minute film about Pepal!

At Pepal we believe cross-sector collaboration and leadership are key to solving the world’s greatest social issues. Watch and share our NEW two minute film about how we work…

NJIA contributes to Roche’s rise in Access to Medicine Index!

The Access to Medicine Foundation works to stimulate and guide global pharmaceutical industries to increase health equity for people living in low-and middle-income countries. In January 2021, the Foundation released their annual Access to Medicine Index which reports how 20 leading pharma companies make medicines, vaccines and diagnostics more accessible for people in low- and middle-income countries. 

We were thrilled that the NJIA programme is featured as a best practice on the Access to Medicine website, and to also have NJIA’s scale up to India in late 2019 reflected as one of eight contributors for Roche’s rise in the Index ranking to number 9!  

NJIA is a unique collaboration between Pepal, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, McBride and Lucius, NGOs and government partners in Tanzania, India and Uganda to develop leaders and drive innovation in the context of improving cervical cancer outcomes. Since 2015, hundreds of leaders have come together to improve access to cervical cancer screening and treatment and ultimately, to save lives. Through solving urgent challenges on the ground, participants enhance agility, strengthen inclusive behaviours, identify root causes of issues, apply problem-solving skills and create “early wins” in cervical cancer prevention solution testing, leveraging peer-to-peer networks. 

The programme has shown sustainable success - for example, leadership development is now a strategic objective in Tanzania’s 5 year National Strategic Plan for Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control. 

NJIA’s classification as best practice for improving global access to medication also shows the sustainable impact the programme can have for our corporate partners. The programme supports the development of leaders at Roche who are more aware of, and better able to, collaborate with healthcare ecosystems who are serving the patients of today and tomorrow, fulfilling the Roche company purpose of ‘doing now what patients need next’.

Together with Roche, Pepal are using the unprecedented global change, and huge need for leadership, we saw in 2020 to make our programmes more sustainable, scalable and impactful for all partners. We have respond to leadership and governance needs in real time and launched an online programme, iNJIA. We hope that our efforts and the continued success of both NJIA and iNJIA will contribute to Roche’s rise in the Index in the future!

Sustainability: Corporate Alumni Networks and Innovation Projects

A recent coming together of corporate alumni to both celebrate project achievements and re-visit their leadership journeys inspired the Pepal team to reflect on one of our key programmatic strengths - sustainability.  The impact of Pepal programmes are sustained in several ways 1) through maintaining long-term partnerships 2) through the affinity alumni form with the programme, often viewing it as a key moment in their journey as a leader, and 3) through the continuation of impactful innovation projects.    

Corporate Alumni Networks:

At the close of 2020, 34 alumni from Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen), gathered online for the bi-annual ‘Friends of Pepal’ meeting.  Over the last 10 years, 100+ Janssen colleagues have contributed to leadership and social impact programmes in Uganda and Myanmar. Their feedback, advocacy and support for the partnership has ensured that it flourished.

“The whole Pepal initiative started with a crazy idea and almost unreachable goals. Over the years, a large group of motivated and dedicated people have added their two cents and what we realised; this is magic.”

— Bernadette Clement, 2013 Janssen Alumni

Pepal programmes have had a significant impact on Janssen alumni: many alumni tell us they return to work with a new mindset, increased self-awareness and a drive to seek new professional opportunities. However, one recurrent theme is the motivation to continue supporting Pepal's work and to advocate for our unique leadership approach, the motivation behind establishing the ‘Friends of Pepal’ network.

“I’m very happy to see many Janssen colleagues joining the Pepal challenge and inspiring others to cross borders.”

— Jos Noben, 2010 Janssen Alumni

In 2020, Pepal mobilised the alumni energy from within Janssen to sustain our leadership initiatives in Uganda. The COVID-19 pandemic meant that face-to-face programmes were postponed, therefore, o support Baylor-Uganda (Janssen’s long-term NGO partner in Uganda) through the evolving crisis, 13 Janssen alumni dedicated significant amounts of their time to support leadership and crisis capacity building alongside Baylor’s Human Resources and Leadership and Governance departments.

Innovation Projects:

Each Pepal leadership cohort develops a set of projects which are tested for six months.  When projects show signs of success, Pepal works with our NGO partners to try to scale them.  Innovations requiring little to no external investment can quickly be scaled and sustained for many years – achieving real impact. Sustainable innovations often don't introduce anything radically 'new', but instead encourage leaders to change or adapt how they approach work, collaborate and leverage existing resources.

Caring Together, was a programme run between 2015 – 2018 in partnership with Baylor-Uganda and Janssen. The associated innovations continue to be some of the most successful and widely used among Pepal’s NGO and government partners.

Above: A ‘Team Performance Monitoring Tool’ in use at a health centre in 2020, two years after the project ended.

The Caring Together innovations are very simple. For example, tracking and monitoring staff late arrivals by drawing a red line in a health facility registration book. Simple ideas like this are highly effective because they both strengthen management and work practices, and are little to no cost. The Caring Together innovations have become a set of tools which are now a central feature of Baylor's health system strengthening approach in Rwenzori region, Uganda. The number of facilities utilising the tools is tracked across 140 health facilities every quarter:  

The above data monitors the use of the Caring Together tools from the end of 2020. It shows that several of the tools are still being used by almost all of the 140 health facilities.   

The innovations have proved so successful that senior Baylor staff have attributed progress in maternal-child health outcomes in Rwenzori to the strength of leadership and governance structures at the health facilities. Baylor continues to have ambitious plans for leadership in 2021 and intends to further scale the Caring Together tools to new health facilities in other regions.

In 2021, Pepal will continue to focus on sustainability through partnerships, profound leadership journeys and impactful innovation projects in our virtual programmes!

Pepal in India: Leadership and COVID-19

Thanks to Batu Bertok for this photo in Varanasi.

COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across India. As the world's second most populous country with a population of nearly 1·4 billion, India risks having the largest share of COVID-19 infections and deaths worldwide if outbreaks are not contained. As well as its large population, other challenges like densely populated urban areas, non-universal access to water and soap, high proportion of co-morbidities, widespread poverty and a large migrant population, are exacerbating infection control efforts.

India’s health care system was under pressure before the pandemic began; COVID-19 is now pushing the system to its limits. The pandemic adds an additional disease burden on top of a myriad of others pressing issues: heart and pulmonary diseases; malnutrition related illnesses; TB; diabetes; kidney diseases; and asthma.

Pepal’s key NGO partners in India, PATH and JHPIEGO, are on the frontlines of the health response there, particularly supporting women’s health and disease prevention and treatment. PATH and JHPIEGO are key technical partners for the Pepal, Progressive Foundation and Roche ‘NJIA’ programme which focuses on leadership development in the context of reducing the cervical cancer burden in India (and Tanzania).

As Pepal cannot deliver in person programmes this year, we asked our partners how else we could support them. Together we developed two leadership focused initiatives to strengthen the health system response and support our NGO partners amidst COVID-19.

PATH

We work closely with PATH India’s maternal and family health team as part of the NJIA programme. Since the pandemic began, the team have noticed an alarming increase in the number of low-birth weight babies, infant and child malnutrition and drop in postnatal care visits by new mothers. PATH India provides essential health care interventions for mothers and babies to improve health outcomes, including supporting milk banks for babies who cannot access their mother’s milk, and lactation management centres for new mothers.

Ruchika Sachdeva, the Nutrition Team Leader at PATH, identified two drivers for these emerging issues: lack of knowledge of COVID-19 safe breastfeeding guidelines, and a leadership gap amongst frontline providers to advocate for increased access of services by new mothers.

Together, we developed two videos: one focused on safe breastfeeding guidelines and leadership and the other on effective leadership styles for the COVID-19 crisis. Produced in both English and Hindi, the videos have been shared by state government bodies and donor networks like UNICEF to thousands of frontline healthcare providers in India.

Leadership and Breastfeeding video developed with Progressive Foundation and PATH.

Leadership and COVID-19 video developed with Progressive Foundation and PATH.

JHPIEGO

JHPIEGO has been our partner since the launch of the NJIA programme in India in 2019. JHPIEGO India supports the provision of primary health care in India, especially in maternal, child and adolescent health. Our partners at JHPIEGO, including Dr. Vineet Srivastava, Program Director, share our belief that leadership development and management soft skills are incredibly important during times of crisis and increased workload.

JHPIEGO senior management nominated 28 leaders in the organisation to join a two part training series on ‘Personal and Team Resilience’. As part of this training, participants learned about resilient mindset shifts and practical team management skills to improve teamwork and collaboration during times of stress and crisis.

100% of participants who took part would recommend the training to a colleague, and 100% also felt more resilient as a result of taking part. Many have put their new management tools into practice with their teams as they juggle increasingly pressurised deadlines and workloads. We are currently exploring ways to scale up leadership training for more staff in the organisation.

Through these two initiatives, we are supporting the health heroes on the frontline of this devastating pandemic in India. Leadership and health systems strengthening are critical to resilient health systems, and we are grateful that we can continue to create meaningful collaborations with our partners during this time.