A one month internship is not a common thing to do, I’m told. Just one of the many weird and wonderful quirks of MIT: every year, we take January to explore education outside of class, whether through study abroad, research, specialized courses or micro internships. I got the chance to work at TechChange just for the month, as a software engineering intern. As I found, my unusually short internship was unusually rewarding, because TechChange, too, is weird and wonderful.
What makes it
weird? Within a technical team of just 4, plus me and my fellow intern, we
spanned 4 time zones at any given time. Our daily meetings were midday for
some, wake-up calls for me, and burning the midnight oil for others. And
instead of coding side by side, we seemed to switch off, PRs and commits coming
in at every hour from every corner of the world. Because of this, I spend much
of my internship getting to explore the codebase on my own, peeling back layers
of files and discovering how much the platform truly had to offer. I also got
to work in multiple areas of the codebase, working full stack to implement a
new bookmark feature independently. This was my first ever 9 to 5, and yet with
the freedom and flexibility I had, I rarely woke up at 9 or put away my laptop
at 5. The lack of one set routine could have been demotivating- for us, it was
energizing. It was weird, but it worked.
New bookmark feature implemented by Mehek
What makes it
wonderful? Somehow, with just a 30 minute daily meeting with my team,
continents and oceans between us, the technical team quickly became a family.
Honestly, the flexibility and radical differences in our schedules actually
created a unique dynamic. Instead of a rigid work structure followed by off
time, we got to see each other living our lives. We shared our days, without
distinction between work life and our lives- kids at home played off camera, I
told them about my classes next month and they told me about the trip they were
on to see their family. We pair programmed over Zoom between one lunch break
and another, and there was always time for helping each other, even across time
zones. When you can bring your life into your workplace, without rigid hours,
it breathes life into the workplace. Truly wonderful.
I had four
weeks at TechChange. Four weird, wonderful weeks made possible by my weird,
wonderful school. I learned many things, but mostly, I learned about people. I
learned about the people who work at TechChange, and who they were, and what a
pleasure they were to work with. To me, being able to know them, after such a
short time, is a career triumph beyond any technical skills gained. For that,
thank you TechChange!
As 2021 comes to a close, the TechChange team gathered online to celebrate our busiest year yet. So busy, in fact, that we had to break our annual “State of TechChange” into multiple parts. Part one will mention general staff updates, hybrid and virtual events, and community engagement events.
General Updates
Played our Virtual Board Game at GDHF2021! While we weren’t the organizing partner for GDHF this year, we did manage to play our board game with our partners this month at GHDF2021, where we moved the entire delivery online.
Launched our new Virtual Events overview video! To celebrate the launch of our virtual events department in 2021, we created a new overview video to share more about our approach, key features, and partner highlights.
Welcomed new team members! One advantage of being a remote-first organization is that talent is no longer restricted to the DC area.
Coordinated a hybrid event in Kigali. While we had hoped to have a team onsite for the Africa Plant Breeders Association Conference this year, Covid restrictions prevented travel for core team members. Fortunately, we were able to partner with Rwanda-based partners and hybrid event experts Cube (who we had previously worked with on AGRF 2020) to deliver a successful coordinated summit experience.
Returning Events from 2021
RightsCon 2021
Every conference is an opportunity to better serve a global community unable to convene due to Covid. This year we worked with a number of 2020 partners to reflect on lessons learned, participant data insights, and speaker feedback to improve the event experiences. These included:
Global Digital Development Forum– Building on the success of GDDF 2020 with 2,600 participants, GDDF 2021 focused on multi-language delivery, virtual worlds, and networking opportunities. Co-organized by USAID, DIAL, Chemonics, Save the Children, IntraHealth, IREX, and TechChange. (May 5, 2021)
SID-Washington 2021 Annual Conference – The Society for International Development – Washington Chapter is a membership-driven knowledge organization bringing together people from diverse organizations, disciplines, and career stages in a neutral, independent forum. The 2021 Annual Conference gathered 1,000 international development professionals from around the world to learn, to debate ideas, and to network. (May 26-27)
RightsCon 2021 – Celebrating 10 years of RightsCon, we returned to a virtual format for a second year with over 10,000 human rights and technology experts including fireside chats, interactive community sessions, 24-hour programming, and more. 2021 Outcomes Report for more details. Promo video. (June 7-11)
AGRF 2021 Summit– The largest agricultural and food systems virtual event in Africa returned for a second year, with over 7,000 participants – including five African presidents. Promo video. (September 7-10)
WomenLift Health – The fifth annual Women Leaders in Global Health (WLGH) Conference and the second virtually on the TechChange platform. This once again included regional focuses by day, as well as shifting time slots to accommodate global time zones for participants and speakers. Promo video. (November 15-16)
New Online Events in 2021!
Delivering the UN Common Agenda: Action to Achieve Equality and Inclusion
This was our biggest year yet for new partners trying out the TechChange model.
2021 Global Health Practitioner Conference – GHPC is CORE Group’s annual conference. Implementers, academics, governments, donors, UN, private sector, and other community health advocates convene in this multi-day, content rich meeting that features knowledge sharing and skills building sessions, recent evidence on cross-sectoral technical areas, dialogues on community health, and professional networking. (January 27-28)
Institutionalizing Community Health Conference (ICHC 2021) – In collaboration with USAID, UNICEF, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation, ICHC 2021 aimed to renew global commitments to a decade of accelerating primary health care (April 19-22)
Global Health Science and Practice Technical Exchange (GHTechX) – Curated through a partnership between USAID, the George Washington University, and the Global Health: Science and Practice Journal. (April 21-24)
Lives In The Balance – Coordinated by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and CORE Group, the third summit, TechChange delivered this online conference with speakers including Neneh Cherry, Helen Clark, and Awa Marie Coll-Seck. (May 17-18)
2021 DRG Conference – Coordinated with EnCompass, the Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance conference includes breakout sessions designed, led, and attended by USAID staff in the field Missions and Washington D.C, and included USAID partners. The final day consists of regionally-based meetings co-led with DRG staff in USAID’s Regional Bureaus. (June 21 – July 1)
Africa Transformation Forum 2021 – More than 600 people in 47 countries gathered to discuss the ways that African countries—and all development stakeholders—can better collaborate to remove barriers to progress and address national priorities through regional solutions. Read the report (July 15)
Maternal Mental Health Technical Consultation – Hosted by USAID’s MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership, in collaboration with World Health Organization and United Nations Population Fund, this Jhpiego-led virtual conference brought together members of the maternal, newborn, child health, nutrition, and mental health communities to collaborate and inform the path forward for MMH to ensure that pregnant and postpartum women receive the respectful and nurturing care they need and deserve. (September 7-9)
USAID’s First Annual Hispanic Serving Institution/Latinx Conference and Career Expo – A three-day event with workshops designed for students, recent graduates, mid-level and transitioning career professionals, job seekers, higher education faculty and staff, and professional and affinity organizations. (October 5-7)
USAID-HBCU International Development Conference – Co-sponsored by the Harry T. Moore chapter of Black’s in Government, this year’s theme is “Increasing Diversity in International Development” and will include announcements of job opportunities and scholarships for conference participants, as well as networking. (September 15-16)
Delivering the UN Common Agenda: Action to Achieve Equality and Inclusion – This event launched a flagship report led by the Pathfinder’s Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion (September 23)
YTH Live Global 2021 – presented by ETR, YTH Live helps executive directors, funders, developers, public health professionals, and students of all ages learn about the latest trends in health, innovation, and technology. (October 4-6)
Emerging Technologies in Peacebuilding & Prevention – Organized with NYU’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC), this virtual workshop created a space for sharing successes and failures in the applications of emerging technologies in peacebuilding. (December 1-2)
Community Engagement
Greater Giving Summit 2021
Not all global events are open to the public — some are about building up skills and networks within a community. These are a few of the events that we were proud to support.
Land Innovation Fund Launch Event – Supporting Chemonics and USAID in a two-hour launch event with simultaneous interpretation in Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish (January 26)
Greater Giving Summit – the Giving By All team hosted a four-part virtual event which took place monthly from February to May, bringing together over 200 leaders from around the world to improve charitable giving by everyday donors. Archive. (February 23 – May 18)
Combat Malaria in Africa: Lessons and Opportunities – Organized by GBCHealth and CAMA, this event brought together 250 partners including representatives from private sector, government, civil society, academia, and more to share lessons learned and launch the CAMA partners’ “End Malaria Project.” (April 22)
Self-Care Learning and Discovery Series – Hosted by White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) on behalf of the Self-Care Trailblazer Group (SCTG), the series presented new knowledge, elevate self-care solutions, forge connections across issues and geographies. (June 29 – August 26)
The Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit 2021 – The signature, culminating event of the Fellowship that provides a unique opportunity for Fellows to connect and learn from current Fellows, Fellowship Alumni, and prestigious guests from U.S. institutions with an interest in Africa. (August 3-4)
CALA Leadership Forum – The Centre for African Leaders in Africa is an initiative of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and kicked off a 16-month Advanced Leadership Programme, launched in collaboration with implementing partners including the African Management Institute (AMI) and USAID’s Policy LINK (August 16-18)
AmeriCorps State and National Symposium 2021 – The annual grantee Symposium is a critical element in the AmeriCorps monitoring and oversight plan. During this internal event, AmeriCorps Agency staff will provide training on essential program functions as well as updates regarding AmeriCorps policies, administration, and financial grants management requirements for the upcoming funding cycle. (September 20-23)
2021 Global Health Leaders’ Meeting– Funded by USAID, GHLM is a 5-day summit detailing leadership and management topics, with high-level discussions, policy updates, and interactive workshops specifically designed for those working at USAID in Global Health. (September 13-17)
USAID/OHA’s 3rd Annual Local Partner Meeting – Hosted by USAID’s Office of HIV/AIDS with support from the Accelerating Support to Advanced Local Partners (ASAP) program. (November 1-5)
Please join us in welcoming Samantha Remeika to the TechChange team as the new Vice President of Partner Success!!
Samantha is an experienced leader of customer success, professional services, and support with a demonstrated history of hands-on leadership growing diverse global teams through structure, process, and industry KPIs.
She has partnered with a broad range of foundation, government, NGO, and education customers enabling organizations to support their missions through technology.
In her previous role as Vice President of Customer Success & Support, Samantha led a team of 50+ employees in supporting three product lines, increasing annual recurring revenue by 10%, satisfaction scores by 20% and doubling the upsell target.
Samantha holds an MPA from the School of International Affairs at Columbia University where she was a SIPA Fellow and a BA from Tulane University.
Lilly is a Project Assistant at TechChange, where she supports the development of engaging virtual experiences. She recently graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in International Relations and spent her summer researching distributed energy resource management systems and peer-to-peer renewable energy trading.
Q: So, tell us more about yourself. How did you end up working in Education?
During my senior year at Brown, I spontaneously registered for a course in UIUX design. Ultimately complementing my study of International Relations, my interest in UIUX allowed me to explore the intersection of design, current affairs, technology and digital media. While job hunting, my main goal was to find a role that would allow me to bridge the knowledge gap between academics and industry experts, and the diverse audiences who lack exposure to the same kind of knowledge and experience…And then I discovered TechChange!
Q: How did you first hear about TechChange?
I stumbled across TechChange on LinkedIn shortly after graduating from university. It didn’t take long to realize that my desire to find new ways to engage and inform different communities and individuals through visual and written storytelling aligned perfectly with the work TechChange was doing.
Q: What are some of your favorite parts of working at TechChange so far?
TechChange has provided me with the opportunity to explore different projects, develop new skills, and dive into the world of tech and education. My team has always been incredibly supportive of my curiosity and has been instrumental to my continuous growth over the past year.
Q: What excites you about this role?
The role is ever-changing. New projects, new challenges and new opportunities are always emerging and there is a constant, unanimous anticipation of what is to come.
Q: Anything you look forward to working on or learning at TechChange in the next year?
I’m excited to learn more about the different tools and processes that contribute to successful, human-centered design!
Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?
I can write with both hands at the same time!
Marion joined the TechChange team as a Program Coordinator, where she helps the Events team to create meaningful and engaging virtual conferences for a worldwide audience. Before joining the Events team, Marion explored her own research on the importance and impact of virtual communication as a Psychology major and Communications minor at Davidson College and served as a TechChange Fellow.
Q: So, tell us more about yourself. How did you end up working in events?
I’ve always been interested in how we communicate in a virtual world. I explored this question at Davidson College through my research in Communication Studies — from gendered toy marketing to social justice advertising and movie consumption trends. However, it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that I was exposed to virtual events as a tool for communication. As a college student studying remotely, I quickly became familiar with the insights (and oversights) of a virtual classroom. I saw an opportunity for higher education and many other fields to utilize the advantages of a virtual world that companies like TechChange had refined (and wrote about it in the TechChange blog here). I wanted to play a part in TechChange’s goal to build innovative and engaging virtual events with a mission.
Q: How did you first hear about TechChange?
Davidson College offers an amazing opportunity called Gig-hub consultancy, where a group of students are offered access to several remote, short-term job offerings in fields of their interest. I first heard about TechChange through the Gig-hub program, and once I started working there, just absolutely fell in love with the company and its mission. Every time my short-term contract would come to a close, we kept on renewing it! Now, as a full-time member of the Events team, I couldn’t be more grateful to the Gig-hub program for first introducing me to my career.
Q: What are some of your favorite parts of working at TechChange so far?
The people! While I really do love the work at TechChange, it’s the people on my team that inspire me to work harder and to produce a product that I am proud of. We collaborate to produce and facilitate the most amazing conferences, and TechChange wouldn’t be the same without them.
Q: What excites you about this role?
It’s a great feeling to be able to support so many different projects at once – there’s always something new to try or work on! One day I’ll be building out the DRG platform for a conference in democracy assistance and the next I’ll be stepping in to moderate a SID-W meeting about writing your own memoir. The day after could be spent brainstorming with a new partner organization, editing conference recordings, or networking with experts in a vast array of fields. I think it’s amazing to meet so many different people working towards a similar mission – and to act as a real contributor towards making that goal come to life!
Q: Anything you look forward to working on or learning at TechChange in the next year?
The TechChange Events team is always looking for ways to improve its process to become more efficient and invaluable to its partners. I’m incredibly excited to be a part of the team’s efforts to innovate and streamline the way we build out, facilitate, and review our events. Not only am I working to produce the amazing and vital global conferences happening now, I’m also helping to establish the systems that will improve conferences like these in the future (and building up the creative thinking skills to do this)!
Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?
I’m a pretty good beatboxer! It surprises a lot of people when I tell them, but I was the beatboxer for my a cappella group in high school and for a couple groups in college. Really, anything in the performing arts is a passion of mine, from beatboxing to ballet. I believe that the arts provide a space to connect and communicate on a deeper level, and that the stage is a catalyst to broadcast that message.
Emma Demers joined the TechChange team as a Summer Education Fellow! Emma graduated from Brown University and recently completed a service year with AmeriCorps. We sat down virtually with Emma to learn more about her background and experience. So excited to have you on the team, Emma!
Q: So, tell us more about yourself. How did you first hear about TechChange?
I’m originally from Boston and recently graduated from college with a degree in English and Creative Nonfiction. In my spare time, I volunteer at the Red Cross, meet with local writer’s groups and read a lot. I also enjoy dairy-free baking and weight lifting.
I heard about TechChange when I was looking for jobs in the education/nonprofit sector. I’ve been living in DC for the last year (first Hill East and now Dupont) and really wanted to stay in the area because I have found such a wonderful community here.
Q: How has your past experience prepared you for this fellowship position?
I just finished up an awesome year of teaching as an AmeriCorps volunteer with the local organization Literacy Lab. My year of teaching and learning about educational equity has primed me to get even more involved in questions about how we as educators and designers can create meaningful learning experiences for people everywhere.
In addition to teaching, I’ve also previously worked for a higher education nonprofit in DC and I’ve worked as a UX/UI designer for the last 5 years. Human-centered design and design thinking are at the heart of productive learning experiences and I’m excited to apply that knowledge to my fellowship!
Q: What is your research topic and what are you most looking forward to when conducting this research?
I am taking a look at three different synchronous courses at TechChange, each surrounding public health education. I’m super excited to 1) learn more about public health and international development on an instructional design level and 2) learn more about how to extract important insights from the data I’m reviewing — it’s a part of the UX research process that’s the most unfamiliar to me, so I’m excited to get to dig into that area more this summer.
Q: What excites you about this fellowship and research opportunity?
I’m excited to have the opportunity to conduct in-depth research on topics I care about. This fellowship also gives me the flexibility to explore so much of TechChange’s philosophy regarding human-centered research and design. I’m also excited to receive guidance and mentorship from the insightful, caring people on the Education team — already they’ve been very supportive of my fellowship goals and I feel very welcomed!
Q: What is something you look forward to while a fellow at TechChange?
I look forward to getting to know the other team members at TechChange and gaining more insight from them in regards to career paths in education and international development. And making connections with others in and out of the office is something I miss from pre-Covid working conditions. I’m already impressed and excited by TechChange’s commitment to remote collaboration and I’m looking forward to producing high-quality research with the virtual and in-person support of my coworkers and mentors.
Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?
I am an avid Minecraft player! The game allows users to stretch our design-thinking imagination and provides a delightful user experience. I love the emphasis on user creation and world-building.
Nick join Impact Boom‘s Thomas Long to discuss the importance of effectively marketing your impact as a social enterprise as well as the positive and negative implementations of technology progressing rapidly. Read the blog and listen in on the conversation.
“We’ve had many twists and turns in a 10-year journey, but my core team on the leadership side were patient, and it wasn’t easy. Waiting for that product-market fit was certainly worth it.”
Nick Martin – Founder & CEO, TechChange
Our Founder & CEO, Nick Martin, recently appeared on Endurance Learning’s Train Like You Listen series. Nick held a conversation with Brian Washburn on leveraging technology like the TechChange Platform to Make Virtual Fell Less Virtual. Read more and listen to the conversation!
TechChange’s courses, events, and learning experiences are designed to “not just build skills, but build relationships and share knowledge in ways that make all of our lives and work more effective.”
Before working at TechChange, my professional experience existed almost exclusively outside: as a ski instructor, a field research assistant, and a trip leader and co-president of my college’s outdoor organization. In my first few weeks as an Education Team Consultant at TechChange, it was intimidating to be in a setting with so many individuals well-versed on topics that seemed unfamiliar to me. However, in the past seven months, I’ve come to realize that while I didn’t know the terms for these concepts, I was already quite familiar with them. As it turns out, having experience in the outdoor industry has prepared me well for a job in the tech industry, and having a job in the tech industry has helped me build on these skills even further. Here’s why:
1.You have to be ready for the unknown and make quick decisions.
Images by Melanie McKenzie
What if you’re on a backpacking trip and someone twists their ankle? Or worse, someone is stung by a bee and has an allergic reaction? As much as we stress the importance of risk management in the outdoors, there’s no way to control what might happen. We have to be ready for whatever obstacles come our way, and if there is an accident, we must act fast.
I’ve utilized this skill a lot at TechChange. Working with clients on projects that have courses with various elements, several stakeholders, and hard deadlines requires effective planning and quick thinking, especially if a roadblock comes our way. For example, what if we hear from clients that ten video clips for a course (which were supposed to be completed by the end of the day) are missing a piece of formatting? Sometimes a new plan and a new approach can be helpful in stressful times. In cases like this, I used the same skills of scoping out the scene and making plans for action in an entirely new environment.
2. There’s always something to do, even when it seems like there’s a lull in tasks.
Hours of preparation go into every outdoor trip planned, and some tasks are more difficult to recognize than others. Sometimes it takes a lull in time between tangible action items to find the tasks that might not be done otherwise, like double-checking that everyone’s dietary restrictions are accounted for in the meal plan, or that the paperwork is in the correct folders.
Images by Melanie McKenzie
As my time at TechChange increased from ten hours a week to twenty, I started to comprehend the processes behind the scenes and to prioritize the must-do action items, all building on my previous experiences as a trip leader. For example, if there are a few days where we’re waiting to hear feedback from clients, we can work on quality assurance, create new graphics, or organize our shared folders and files to maintain our workflow. There’s always something that you can do! Further, I was able to learn new skills, like creating graphics on Adobe Illustrator, that I have now applied in several other contexts, from creating infographics for my outdoor organization to crafting a model building and its circuitry in my physics class.
Images by Melanie McKenzie
Image caption: Infographics I made this year for the YouthMappers course (top) and for the Financing Community Health Programs for Scale and Sustainability seven-course program (bottom).
3. It is essential that you teach effective lessons.
Images by Melanie McKenzie
I’ve gone through several months of outdoor training and each one taught a different structure for giving lessons. I learned to teach kids how to ski by having them follow me or by playing games so that they form a muscle memory of the proper movements. I learned that I could show someone how to tie a knot with three different approaches before I tell them to try it themselves (an example of the Universal Design for Learning). In the outdoors, it’s essential that lessons are catered to the audience so that they absorb the information because there can be high stakes if a skier doesn’t know how to stop, or if a rock climber can’t tie a knot correctly.
When my colleague Nat led an “Introduction to Instructional Design” session for the summer interns, the term instructional design was just one of the many buzzwords that I hadn’t yet grasped. Nat asked if we’d had any prior experience with instructional design, and I initially said no. But in her session, she helped me realize that I had been practicing instructional design for the past four years and I just hadn’t known it. Not only had I been using different instructional design frameworks in the outdoors, but I’d been using them during my time at TechChange. I helped onboard new members of the team through platform tutorials and brainstormed a format for interactive activities. Well-thought-out instructional design has a major role in TechChange’s success.
This session revealed to me how much my previous experience teaching lessons connect to my time at TechChange, and why I’ve come to enjoy my job here so quickly. This time for reflection was essential to my understanding of how TechChange has helped me learn new skills while expanding on my old ones. And as it turns out, my previous experience in an outdoors setting helped ease the steep learning curve as I started working in a tech-centered office setting (particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic). What’s more important is that TechChange has taught me how to build on and reimagine these skills in an entirely different setting. The TechChange community has facilitated my growth as an employee and for that, I am grateful.
The challenges in 2020 reminded us that unity cultivates success. Returning from Peace Corps Madagascar, moving to a new city, and starting a new job – while each daunting on their own – seemed manageable with enough preparation. But like the rest of the world, I did not expect the unprecedented times that the coronavirus unleashed. 2020 tested our ability to endure and adapt – both as individuals and as communities, but for me and perhaps for others, 2020 exercised what I understand to be the key to endurance – approach with intention.
Joining TechChange was a light in the darkness of 2020, as it allowed me to employ action with purpose and recognize that though apart physically, communities can still flourish. The emphasis TechChange puts on nurturing meaningful relationships inspires me to emulate deliberate interactions with those around me. I remain thoughtful about the development and improvement of partnerships through growth and expansion, as it is the core of how TechChange conducts work. From bi-weekly game nights and annual Company Retreats to tailoring our cognitive coaching skills and building goal-setting frameworks – connection is at the forefront of our practice.
This new, virtual environment presented ambiguity in how courses – typically developed for in-person delivery – would fit within the constraints of our pandemic world. How would we ensure optimal user experience and retention? Connections, collaboration, and creativity forged together courses to achieve their desired impact. Flexibility and intention accomplished these goals – building a foundation for trust, alignment, and confidence from partners. In particular, project success at TechChange showcases how intentional communication (such as kick-off meetings and ideation workshops) builds not only trust but new opportunities for expansion and growth.
In 2020, I supported projects that built the capacity to mobilize community health resources, empower and strengthen health systems, improve health management, and foster collaboration and coordination to promote improved changes in health policies. All while bringing together global communities virtually, providing a space for learning, knowledge, and curiosity to prosper. Scroll to the bottom to learn more about some of the projects from 2020!
The paradox of 2020 was how we remained connected while seemingly apart. By approaching interactions with intention, we adapted, we innovated, and most importantly – we endured. If any silver linings result from this pandemic, it is that we will no longer take for granted the connections we share with others and go to new lengths to continue to develop them.
Check out Courses from 2020 below!
Financing Alliance for Health and The Community Health Academy, Last Mile Health
Financing Community Health Programs for Scale and Sustainability [Self-paced] course series: A seven-course track series on health financing that targets individuals working in government, NGOs, academia, or other institutions to design, scale, and/or sustain strong community health systems- focusing on learners in LMICs. This course series provides an in-depth analysis of the financing value chain needed to understand resource needs as well as to mobilize resources for community health. The courses are entirely self-paced and were developed through the collaboration with Financing Alliance for Health (FAH), The Community Health Academy (CHA)- Last Mile Health (LMH). Development also included leading stakeholders within Ministries of Health (MOH), Ministries of Finance (MOF), global health institutions, private sector organizations, and academia, and the expertise of content delivery and refinement by TechChange. The courses are offered predominantly in English, though some content has been translated and is offered in French. This course series launched on October 20, 2020.
Financing Community Health Programs for Scale and Sustainability [Guided Journey] course series: A seven-course track series on health financing that targets individuals working in government, NGOs, academia, or other institutions to design, scale, and/or sustain strong community health systems- focusing on learners in LMICs. This course series provides an in-depth analysis of the financing value chain needed to understand resource needs as well as to mobilize resources for community health. Courses were developed through the collaboration with Financing Alliance for Health (FAH), The Community Health Academy (CHA)- Last Mile Health (LMH), subject matter field experts (SMEs), and the expertise of content delivery and refinement by TechChange. The courses offer a blend of self-paced and facilitated learning, with up to 2-3 hours per week of live-events that occur on the course platform. This provides the learner the opportunity to connect with their global peers, SMEs, and course facilitators to further enhance their learner and retention of course content. The courses are offered predominantly in English, though some content has been translated and is offered in French. This course series will launch on January 11, 2021, until April 4, 2021. The cohort will be available to the first 150 learners around the world who enroll.
Primary Care Development Corporation
Small Practice Management Essentials course series: This is a five-course series that covers a variety of topics that relate to improving small primary care practice management essentials in related workforces. The courses are a blend of both self-paced and facilitated learning and were designed through the collaboration of Primary Care Development Corporation officials and TechChange. These courses are offered in English with 100% of learners based in the United States. The course series launched on September 23, 2020, and will continue to be delivered to two pilot cohorts (46 total cohort count) until December 31, 2020. Next year, this partnership is expanding to
Chemonics
Global Health Supply Chain Technical Assistance Francophone Task Order course: This course aims to strengthen supply chain systems in African Francophone countries and Haiti to ensure timely access to quality essential health products and services, improve in-country and regional collaboration and coordination, and support the Global Health Security Agenda. The course was developed in collaboration with USAID’s Global Health Supply Chain program, and partnership between Chemonics, including TechChange to provide the expertise of content delivery and refinement. The course targets learners in ECOWAS countries and sets to empower regional actors to strengthen health systems and foster collaboration and coordination between relevant regional and global initiatives. This course launched in March of 2019 and will continue to be accessible until March 31, 2022. This course is offered only in French. Next year, this partnership will expand, including the West African Health Organization (WAHO) to begin the development of additional courses, live events, webinar series, platfrom/course revamp, and course translations. This development will be designed through a series of partner collaboration events including kickoff meetings and ideation workshops.
Capacity Building for Malaria activity, HRH2030 (Human Resources for Health in 2030) course: This course supports the President’s Malaria Initiative’s (PMI) priorities by capitalizing on the significant investments of USAID and other donors by expanding on existing programs and materials. Its goal is to improve countries’ performance on Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (GFATM) grant through changes in policies or guidelines, improvement in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems, and reduced stockouts. The course aims to connect related technical filed advisors supported under previous USAID mechanisms in Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Niger. The target audience also includes the connection of additional technical advisors in other priority countries such as Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Togo. This course was launched in March 2018 and is expected to continue through 2021. This course was developed in partnership between USAID, Chemonics, and included TechChange to provide the expertise of content delivery and refinement. This course is offered only in French.
