On April 10 and 11, CORE Group will convene partners in Washington, D.C. for two days to discuss pressing global health issues.

Join us to:

  • Share practical knowledge, opportunities, and lessons
  • Build capacity on emergent technologies and new skills
  • Strengthen organizations’ capacity in health emergency preparedness
  • Participate in networking opportunities

REGISTER HERE Who should attend: This event is targeted to CORE Group members and other global health practitioners. About the Global Health Institute: Building on past CORE Group events, the Global Health Institute is a practical, skills building event intended to identify best practices and key actions to address a rapidly changing world. How to register:

    • Register here
    • We encourage you to secure your spot as soon as possible as space is limited
    • Registrants can select one workshop per session (morning or afternoon)
    • Should you have any questions or experience any challenges with registration, please contact email asafi@coregroup.org
    • Pricing is as follows:

Download the Agenda

Day 1: Wednesday 10th April 2024

Time Description Presenter(s)
8:15am – 8:45am Location: Entrance gate & Yosemite Room   Registration and Light Breakfast
8:45am – 8:55 am Location: Grand Canyon   Welcome from CORE Group Lisa M. Hilmi, Executive Director, CORE Group
9:00am – 12:00pm Morning Workshops  
Location: Redwood Room     Workshop #1: Putting People at the Center of SBC Innovation: Human-Centered Design     ·        An opportunity for participants to develop new and strengthen existing skills to co-design, implement, and monitor local solutions for social and behaviour change.   ·        Identify and practice key steps involved in HCD.   ·        Participants will leave with tools and resources to apply skills in their own work to design SBC innovations.           Speakers:   HCD Exchange experts ·        Riley Auer, JSI ·        Joel Mercado, World Vision US ·        Barbara Muffoletto, Curamericas Global ·        Lisa Sherburne, JSI  
Location: Grand Canyon     Workshop #2: AI: Your Secret Tool for Social and Behavior Change?   ·        Discover the role of current and future AI applications for SBC.   ·        Panel discussion with AI experts to explore AI’s role in SBC across sectors. ·        Hands-on skill building session on using Generative AI tools accessible to all.   ·        World Café format for audience interaction with specialists.   ·        Try out AI tools for SBC topics including Chat GPT, Bard AI, Elicit AI, and others.     Moderator: Antje Becker-Benton, Managing Director of Behavior Change & Community Health, Save the Children Speakers: ·        Sarah Osman, Independent Consultant, Osman Advisory Services ·        Linda Raftree, GenAI for SBC Community of Practice, MERL Tech Initiative ·        Kerry Brown, VIAMO ·        Chris Mahony, PELORIA ·        Andrew Karlyn, International Consultant ·        Anna Pollock, Dimagi
Location: Sequoia Room   Workshop #3: Improving Equity and Inclusiveness of Access to Primary Health Care   ·        Introduce participants to tools and QI methods to improve equity and access to primary health care services.   ·        Enable participants to apply what they have learned to real-world examples in work teams.     Speakers: ·        Rachel Chaikof, Chemonics ·        Luidina Hailu, Primary Health Care Advocacy Lead, International Institute for Primary Health Care Ethiopia ·        Tirsit Mehari, Global Primary Health Care Lead, International Institute for Primary Health Care Ethiopia  
12:00pm – 1:00pm Lunch  
1:00pm – 2:15pm           PLENARY SESSION  
  Policy & Programming in a Changing World   In our rapidly changing world, challenges like disease outbreaks, climate change, and socio-economic impacts disproportionately affect women, children, and adolescents’ health. This plenary, led by policy leaders and technical experts, explores shifts in policy and updates needed to address pressing health needs effectively. We’ll discuss aligning policy and programming to build sustainable health systems and promote equity and inclusion, ensuring primary healthcare for all.   Speakers will include USAID, GAVI, UNICEF and CORE Group members   Moderator:   Rachel Wax, Senior Director of Programs, CORE Group     Speakers:   ·        Callie Raulfs-Wang, Capacity Building & Partnership Branch Chief- Office of HIV/AIDS, USAID ·        Chloë Cooney, Director US Strategy, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance ·        Elisha Dunn-Georgiou, President, Global Health Council ·        Dana Tilson, Project Director, USAID’s Frontier Health Markets (FHM) ·        Dr. Abnet Zekele, Executive Director, International Institute for Primary Health Care Ethiopia
2:15pm – 2:30pm Networking and Refreshments Break  
2:30pm – 4:30pm AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS  
Location: Grand Canyon   Workshop #4: Couple Communication and Decision Making for Reproductive Health   Participants will:   ·        Review the recently released HIP on couples’ communication and joint decision making.   ·        Provide examples of promoting couple communication and decision making with First Time Parents approach.   ·        Using an interactive/participatory method, walk participants through a recently launched couples strengthening curricula.     Speakers:   ·        Jimmy Nzau and Erica Mills, Pathfinder ·        Jill Gay, President, J Gay Associates LLC ·        Devina Shah, Senior Technical Advisor, World Relief    
                  Part 1: Health Systems Assessment for CHW Programs                                     Part 2: CHW Workload Analysis Location: Redwood Room   Workshop #5: Tools for Improving CHW Programs     This interactive workshop will take place in two parts.   Participants will: ·        Examine S-AIM tool’s relationship to CHW-AIM through a poster-sized diagram.   ·        Participants will pair up to assess sections of the S-AIM matrix for a country they know well or a provided fictitious case study.   ·        Debrief the exercise results and discuss recommendations for conducting S-AIM workshops with Ministries of Health.     ·        Focus on conducting a CHW workload analysis using USAID’s Community Health Worker Coverage and Capacity Tool (C3).   ·        Through case study examples, participants will practice data input on their laptops. We’ll reconvene to review results, discuss potential scenarios, and brainstorm solutions for addressing excessive workload revealed by the C3 tool.     Speakers:     ·        Michele Gaudrault, World Vision International ·        Melanie Morrow, Senior Manager-Health Systems Strengthening, ICF ·        Nicole Grable, MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership, USAID Grantee ·        Bill Winfrey, Avenir Health    
4:30pm-5:30pm Break  
5:30pm – 7:30pm  Open House and Networking  

Day 2: Thursday 11th April 2024

Time Description Presenter(s)
8:15am – 8:45am Location: Entrance gate & Yosemite Room   Registration and Light Breakfast
8:45am – 8:55 am Welcome/Opening for Day Lisa M. Hilmi, Executive Director, CORE Group
9:00am – 10:15 am PLENARY SESSION
9:00am – 12:00pm   Looking ahead: Prevention and Preparedness for Humanitarian Response   Amid a surge in outbreaks and conflicts worldwide, prioritizing preparedness and response efforts in humanitarian and fragile states is crucial. This session brings together experts to discuss vital skills and recommendations for addressing health concerns in these contexts. Topics include One Health approaches, community-based strategies, simulation mechanisms, and integrated response strategies. By enhancing preparedness, coordination, and programming, we can save lives, alleviate suffering, and improve health outcomes in vulnerable communities.   Morning Workshops   Moderator:  ·        Lanre Williams-Ayedun, Senior Vice President, World Relief     Speakers:   ·       Sonia Walia, Sr Public Health Advisor, USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) ·        Paul Spiegel, Director, JHU Centre for Humanitarian Health ·        Hibret Tilahun, Chief of Party/Global Director, CORE Group Partners Project ·       Amanda Catanzano, Vice President of Global Policy and Solutions, International Rescue Committee
10:15am – 10:30am Networking and Refreshments Break
10:30am – 1:00pm Morning Workshops
                                  Part 1: READY initiative digital training tools                 Part 2: Practice Applying Humanitarian Health Response Knowledge and Skills   Location: Grand Canyon   Workshop #1: “Outbreak READY 2! Thisland in Crisis”, a Digital Simulation Training Tool This interactive workshop will take place in two parts using scenario and simulation tools to help attendees work through challenges and decision making when preparing and planning humanitarian response.     Participants will:   ·       Familiarize with the READY digital simulation tools and how they can utilize these tools in their work and incorporate them into their organization’s capacity building toolbox.   ·       Play a portion of the “Outbreak READY 2!: Thisland in Crisis” simulation to explore the complex nature of humanitarian outbreak response, exposing them to the stressors, fast pace, and technical challenges and decisions involved in preparing for and responding to an infectious disease outbreak.       Speakers: ·        Laura Cardinal, READY CoP & Acting Global Head of Humanitarian Health, Save the Children ·        Fasika Gebru, READY Officer, Save the Children ·        Nicole Grable, Senior SBCC Advisor, Save the Children ·        Paul Spiegel, CHH Director, Johns Hopkins ·        Nureyan Zunong, Senior Humanitarian Health Advisor, Save the Children ·        Sean Maloney, Program Officer, Center for Communication Programs Johns Hopkins
1:00pm – 2:15pm Location: Redwood Room   Workshop #2: Women and Adolescent Girls’ Nutrition: Tools and “How-to’s” to Advance Priority Actions       Today, we are facing a food and nutrition crisis of global proportions – one exacerbated by poverty, conflict, and climate change. It is also a crisis in which adolescent girls, women and their children are bearing the brunt of its consequences.   Participants will:    ·        Reflect on the recent data and evidence prioritizing women and adolescent girls’ nutrition.   ·        Share tools, guidance, resources, and recommendations on how to advance women and adolescent girls’ nutrition in programming and policy.   ·        Highlight specific applications and successes of tool, guidance, and resource use. ARY SESSION     Speakers: ·        Shelley Walton, Co-Chair, Johns Hopkins University and Nutrition ·        Albertha Nyaku, Co-Chair, R4D and Nutrition ·        Justine Kavle, CEO and Public Health Nutritionist, Kavle Consulting ·         Joseph Gaithuma, Public Health Nutritionist, Kavle Consulting ·        Riley Auer, JSI ·        Dr. Stephanie Martin, UNC Chapel Hill ·        Deborah Ash, FHI Solutions ·        Habtamu Fekadu, MOMENTUM- Country and Global Leadership ·        Meroji Sebany, ASRH Advisor, USAID Momentum  
Location: Sequoia Room   Workshop #3: Non-Communicable Diseases in a Post-Pandemic World: Leveraging Existing Tools and Opportunities for Global Impact   Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for two-thirds of all deaths each year. They include chronic conditions such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, mental health, and neurological disorders, among others. This interactive workshop session will provide an overview of the landscape of NCDs in the current political climate with a focus on the implications of NCD prevention and control post-pandemic. Participants will learn about advocacy tools to advance and elevate NCD-focused programming in their communities and beyond.     Participants will:    ·        Learn about advocacy tools to advance and elevate NCD-focused programming in their communities and beyond.   ·        Participate in small group exercises that will focus on advocacy approaches, including crafting key messages to drive the NCD agenda.     Speakers:   ·        Annie G Toro, President & Executive Director, What to Expect Project ·        Arti Varanasi, Advancing Synergy ·        Mychelle Farmer, Advancing Synergy  
1:00pm – 2:00pm    Lunch  
2:00pm – 4:40pm AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS  
Location: Grand Canyon   Workshop #4: Complexity Aware Methods to Monitor and Evaluate Health Systems   This session will focus on complexity-aware monitoring, evaluation, and learning (CAMEL) methods. Participants will be able to appreciate the importance of such non-traditional approaches to answer health systems questions; and understand the pros and cons of alternative CAMEL approaches and choose the method fit for-purpose.   presenters will introduce a variety of methods for conducting evaluations of health systems questions in complex environments, leaning heavily on robust qualitative methods.   Participants will:    ·        Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of specific methods and practice using them during the workshop.   ·       Engage in how to disseminate and discuss using qualitative methods to influence policy, given researcher and policymaker preference for quantitative analysis.     Speakers:   ·        Taylor Williamson, Director of Health Systems Strengthening, Abt Global ·        Ekpenyong Ekanem, Director of Performance Monitoring and Learning, Abt Global ·        Yordanos Molla, Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Lead, Abt Global ·        Soumya Alva, Senior Evaluation Advisor, JSI ·        Chinwoke Isiguzo, Monitoring and Evaluation Director, Palladium Group    
  Part 1: Health Systems Assessment for CHW Programs                                                             Part 2: CHW Workload Analysis   Location: Redwood Room   Workshop #5: Are Health Systems Working for People?   Healthcare’s focus must be on people, emphasizing primary healthcare (PHC), community health workers (CHWs), and other community-based services to foster trust in healthcare systems. This workshop will delve into Systems Thinking, highlighting the interconnectedness within the Health System and with other service-providing systems.   Through case studies and breakout groups, speakers will discuss tools and processes to integrate diverse perspectives into health system responses. These include SCONE, a development guide focusing on Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, Needs, and Effectiveness; Quality Improvement processes for adaptive management; Breakthrough ACTION’s provider behavior change ecosystem tool; and the Social Accountability Reporting Checklist.     ·        Focus on conducting a CHW workload analysis using USAID’s Community Health Worker Coverage and Capacity Tool (C3).   ·        Through case study examples, participants will practice data input on their laptops. We’ll reconvene to review results, discuss potential scenarios, and brainstorm solutions for addressing excessive workload revealed by the C3 tool.       Speakers:   ·        Nilufar Rakhmanova, FHI360 ·        Patience Ndlovu, The Bantwana Initiative at World Education (a division of JSI) ·        Ligia Paina, Johns Hopkins University ·        Kristen Mallory, Child International ·        Lauri Winter, Consultant ·        Alison Pack, Breakthrough ACTION ·        Lisa Sherbourne, JSI  
4:40pm-5:00pm   Closing Remarks Lisa M. Hilmi, Executive Director, CORE Group