Project Overview

From 2014-2016 I had the privilege of leading a range of activities to help the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region internally and externally understand and increase buy-in to the concept of UHC. Through this work I:

  • Produced a video animation that internally provided a centralised understanding of what UHC was and externally sought to promote UHC adoption
  • Undertook perceptual change activities to shift the perception WHO staff had of UHC internally to a more consistent understanding
  • Created a UHC Engagement Strategy framework resulting in an annually recurring UHC TAG
  • Edited the 'Accountability' chapter of the Regional Action Framework, ‘Universal Health Coverage: Moving Towards Better Health’ document.
  • Launched an online platform making the regional action framework more easily accessible and interactive.
  • Designed branding and print collateral for UHC promotion and communications throughout the region.

An Unexpected Start

With the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) finishing in 2015, much work and debate was happening over what should form the next global agenda from 2015-2030. The World Bank and World Health Organization both wanted the focus to include something called Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The problem was, there was confusion over what UHC was. Some didn’t understand it, others disagreed over UHC's scope. This formed a problem even inside the World Health Organization itself. Some saw it as simply Service Delivery, others as about just Health Financing. Mindful of all this, in 2014 the Director of Health Systems, Professor Vivian Lin, engaged my services to look at aspects of this problem. She had seen my work unpacking ‘Knowledge Exchange’ for The Lowitja Institute and wondered if I might be able to do something similar for UHC.

I was initially reticent. Whilst I had worked in development for nearly a decade, my work in health had been limited to private practice management, medical waste management and WASH. Hardly the resume required to have confidence contributing to tackling the scale and complexity of UHC at the global level. Thankfully, Penelope Smith, who had worked and lectured in public health for two decades volunteered to give me a crash course. In addition to this, I was fortunate to stay with Professor Lin during my 6 weeks in Manila where most evenings after work we would discuss public health and UHC over wine and good food. Both Penny and Vivian are incredibly good teachers, practitioners, academics and enjoyable people to be around. It was a great time for me and I thoroughly enjoyed soaking up so many new concepts and perspectives, many of which still serve me to this day.

UHC VIdeo

Initially Vivian wanted a UHC video, and so I began working with her team to explore what this would look like. Talking widely to different staff across WHO and different countries gave me an initial sense of how people thought about UHC and felt towards it as a concept. 

What resulted was an animated video explaining UHC both literally and through the use of the analogy of an orchestra. Because UHC is a principle-based approach, and the audience was technocratic, it was important to me to ensure we didn't get bogged down in technical details. Rather than target the logic centres of their minds, which were often already conditioned to react in a variety of disparate and silo'd ways, I instead focused on targeting the imagination centres of their brains. Doing this, I could more easily create a unifying vision and elevate this to form an overarching neurological node of influence. This node could then in turn be leveraged to reshape the brains reasoning structures. Whilst this is a common practice I developed years prior, the challenge for this project was to do it in a way that spoke to all cultures and a broad array of technical fields and professions. It was a somewhat impossible task to achieve this in one video, yet I'm happy with the attempt.

UHC Regional Action Agenda Framework

At the same time as working on the video, Vivian had her division working on a UHC regional action agenda strategy. She understood that whilst UHC was a powerful health and economic concept, countries needed support to make it both tangible and practically achievable. As the framework evolved, I was requested to turn it in to an interactive online version to make it more accessible and useful. 

One of the challenges with UHC communication and adoption is that it’s not a linear approach. It’s not as simple as improving one or two indicators like for example progress towards the MDG's. Because of this, the regional framework as a written document was proposing a non-linear solution using a linear medium. Because of how our brains work, the medium of communication was in itself causing cognitive dissonance that could create a barrier to more easily grasping these interconnecting concepts. By repurposing this document into an online environment we could move away from a linear format and allow users to instead become curious about the interconnections between different parts of the strategy rather than framing it as a sequence of activities. 

To do this, I worked closely with the heads of each unit in Vivians division, along with many of their sub teams, to distill how the different parts of the document did in fact connect. This work not only helped provide a strategic user experience to the UHC eModule, but it also shaped how the entire division understood and communicated the framework. 

Engagement Support

At the same time, Penelope Smith was contracted to develop an Engagement Strategy for the UHC rollout. For the theory component of this she came to me for support. The existing literature she had looked at had some flaws and she wanted to explore a more robust solution that would apply to WHO’s unique application. Developing a number of simulations to test our theories we brainstormed new models eventually resulting in something she was happy to build on. Whilst I only helped with the underlying framework, this work was hugely enjoyable and the framework was applauded for a refreshing approach to more effective engagement.

Framework Editing

Incredibly familiar with the action agenda at this point, I was asked to help edit the document in its final state. I worked particularly with Ke Xu and Annie Chu to go through the Accountability chapter and help better communicate the technical details more effectively. 

UHC Framework Adopted

The UHC Framework was presented to all countries at the Regional Committee Meeting (RCM) in 2014 and received overwhelming support. Countries suggested only minor edits and the approach received resounding support. Many country delegates also noted the effectiveness of our video to help them better understand the importance and design of UHC. I feel very privileged to have been part of this unique work and milestone and witness the team working behind the scenes to achieve it. It was this teamwork and approach that also laid the groundwork for the successful roll out of the SDG's in the region at the following years RCM.

UHC Branding

With all countries having signed up to the framework, WHO commissioned a UHC TAG to form a significant annual touchpoint for member states. This event would allow them access to some of the worlds brightest minds, profile successful work, and provide annual checkins to measure progress. Building on the work I had done for the video I worked with my team at Lantern to supply much of the initial branding for this event including the design of the front cover for the published framework. 

Working on UHC with the staff at WHO over those years was a blast and I will always remember the team and work we did with great fondness. 

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