The Value of Human-Centered Design in Global Health – Case Studies in Reproductive Health | March 16, 2021

Bay Area Global Health Alliance members JSI and IDEO.org have a long history of working in the adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) field, employing human-centered design (HCD) to shift norms, craft effective and desirable solutions, and push the edges of what’s possible in this space.

In this panel discussion held on March 16, IDEO.org and JSI shared their learnings from working at the intersection of HCD and AYSRH, how they’ve worked together with the HCD Exchange, and how they’re continuing to evolve our work given new constraints.  (More information below the video.)

WATCH THE RECORDING:

SPEAKERS:

Courtney Chang, Senior Program Lead, Billion Girls CoLab

Courtney leads the Billion Girls CoLab, a new initiative to drive cross-sector and cross-stakeholder collaboration and innovation for adolescent girl health and wellness in East Africa. Courtney started at IDEO.org as a Business Designer, rallying her team and partners to think carefully about the feasibility and viability of newly designed interventions. She has worked on increasing access to contraception for girls in rural Ethiopia, launching a network of youth-friendly pharmacies in the DRC, and increasing the uptake of HIV services among Zimbabwe’s MSM community. Full bio + image

Michelle Kreger, Managing Director, IDEO.org 

Michelle works closely with IDEO.org‘s designers and leads a portfolio of US and Global work at the intersection of health equity, economic prosperity & justice, wellness and belonging. Michelle has collaborated with the Global Health team to design programs, products and services in over a dozen countries. She believes deeply in the power of design to transform and energize the social sector, and has designed adolescent reproductive health programs in Zambia, Kenya, Benin and Cote D’Ivoire, vaccine delivery innovations for the global context, and mental health service experiences in the United States. Full bio + image

MaqC Eric Gitau, Director, HCDExchange

MaqC provides strategic and technical direction, team leadership, and membership development in the community of practice that is fostering the advancement of learning in human-centered design (HCD) and adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH). He builds upon his vast experience working with various stakeholders including philanthropy, media, the UN, governments and young people in various countries to design and implement adolescent health and youth programs in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Anne LaFond, Director of the JSI Center for Health Information, Monitoring and Evaluation

Anne LaFond has engaged with global health monitoring, evaluation & learning (MEL) for 30 years to maximize the use of evidence in addressing health challenges for people in low-income settings. Anne has led comparative case study research on the role of human centered design (HCD) in MNCH programming, developing the first influence pathway analysis of HCD. She is committed to advancing the practice of Human Centered Design (HCD) in global health and the integration of measurement into HCD practice. Anne is a member of the Board of Advisors for the Design for Health community of practice, collaborates on MeasureD Design, a guide to integrate measurement and social design, and teaches M&E approaches to design students. Anne has published on health system sustainability; HCD in global health; health sector capacity building; immunization acceptability; and qualitative methods.

The session was co-moderated by Sara Anderson, Executive Director of the Bay Area Global Health Alliance, and Margot Fahnestock, Vice President, Strategic Development at Medicines360, who also was instrumental in the founding of the HCD Exchange while at the Hewlett Foundation.

RESOURCES:

• SSIR Guide to Design Thinking, 10 Years Later

  • The Next Chapter in Design for Social Innovation

• Decolonizing Design Thinking – The Conversation Factory
• Human-centred design in global health: A scoping review of applications and contexts
• Advancing the Appropriate Use of Design in the Global Health Context
• Designing for Choice 
• Directory of designers and design researchers in East Africa