"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!