South2South Learning sessions
Last May (2021) we kicked off our South2South learning sessions. Since then, the Healthy Village Ethiopia programme was officially launched! Our South2South learning sessions aim to tailor the best practices and learnings of the Healthy Village approach in Bangladesh to the Ethiopia Healthy Village programme. Through exchange of expertise, sharing of best practices, and capacity development, South2South learning enables the strengthening of the collaboration between Bangladesh and Ethiopia as well as the Healthy Village approach as a whole.
Strengthening Relationships through sharing Expertise
Two times a month, the Max Foundation team from Bangladesh, Ethiopia and the Netherlands, Plan International Ethiopia and the Netherlands, the Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara(ORDA), and International Development Enterprise (IDE) partners get together for the South2South learning sessions. A ‘lessons learned’ from the previous session kicks off each workshop: the Healthy Village Ethiopia team presents what their main take-aways are from the previous session, and how they aim to work with those in Ethiopia. Each session has a theme, for which different experts on the topic present, after which a Q&A session take place. Because of the large group of topic-experts and practitioners, these Q&A sessions are very fruitful, and the entire workshop stimulates a broad exchange of best experiences, learnings, and challenges between the Bangladeshi and Ethiopian contexts.
Themes Covered in South to South Sessions
Topics in the sessions are aligned with priorities and needs and thereby demand-driven. Themes such as child growth monitoring and courtyard sessions were presented, as well as health promotion activities and strategies, but also tools used for communication and advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, and a practical guide to drafting a Healthy Village manual.