Learning Strategy
About
The WHO Academy proposes a transformational change in the way WHO will support learning and training for the achievement of public health goals. WHO has embarked on a consultative process to develop the Organization’s first-ever Learning Strategy. This Strategy will shape and frame the ambitious work of the WHO Academy and will be a point of reference for Member States, education institutions and anyone who is involved in or contributes to training in the public health domain. Our ambition is to develop a Learning Strategy that contributes significantly to achieving public health goals and ambitions for us as individuals, as countries and as the world. We want to shape the future of learning for public health. We want to help create a cultural shift so that lifelong learning to be the norm in health.
We have been consulting a wide variety of experts and stakeholders to collect all ideas for how learning and training for public health will look like in 10, 20 or 30 years.
Goal and objectives
The goal of this Strategy is to shape the future of learning in public health to support the achievement of international, national and individual public health goals ensuring equity and access; harnessing the potential of digital and technologies, and using adult learning and behavioural change know-how.
The following mutually re-enforcing objectives are proposed as a means to achieve the goal of the WHO Learning Strategy:
1. Ensure fair access to learning in health
Ensure fair and transparent access to LLL by removing barriers to learning and ensuring all persons working in public health, health care and associated disciplines access essential, high-quality, relevant, appropriate learning opportunities to help achieve strategic health goals and that the public benefit from enhanced health literacy.
2. Build, sustain and energize learning ecosystems
Proactively shift to an ecosystems’ approach for establishing the norm of LLL for health by convening and supporting existing and new knowledge networks, institutions, partners, agents and other stakeholders from within and outside public health and education around a set of agreed values and ground rules and create an enabling and mutually respectful environment to further the big idea of LLL for achieving health goals.
3. Transform into learning organizations
Proactively support relevant stakeholders to integrate lifelong learning into their organizational strategies as appropriate and work to evolve WHO into a learning organization so as to act as champion and multiplier of lifelong learning in public health, and support Member States, agencies, institutions, partners and other stakeholders to do the same.
4. Use science-based approaches
Ensure learning activities and accreditation offered by entities that relate to the achievement of public health goals are based on the latest science, evidence and know-how.
5. Ensure ownership of stakeholders
Enable stakeholders to act at the most immediate (or local) level yet supported by expertise and knowledge held at a different location and that stakeholders have reasonable opportunity as appropriate to voice their learning needs, prioritization, content development, learning delivery, learning evaluation, learning research and are given due recognition for their collaboration and inputs.
6. Innovate continuously
Promote, pilot, share and scale up innovations for learning for public health and ensure learners’ access without discrimination viewing learning for health as a global public good.
The strategic shifts expressed by these objectives can be summarized as below:
| From | To |
| Limited access to LLL for public health | Universal and fair access to LLL for public health based on core values including equity |
| Education is a commodity | Learning is a global public good |
| Dispersed learning initiatives | Learning movement orchestrated around values and organized into coalitions delivering learning adapted to local context and knowledge areas |
| Implementation of learning activities | Support for building of learning organizations |
| Primary focus on individual development of knowledge, skills and competencies | Sharing of knowledge and alignment of capacity development at individual, team, community, national, regional and global capacity to achieve health goals |
| Use of traditional techniques for education for public health | Boost public health education and life-long learning by harnessing and facilitating access to innovation on a global scale and using Education 3.0 |
| Knowledge flows from expert to learner and is dependent on a power gradient | Knowledge is increasingly democratized, less power-dependent, accessible, adaptable and flows in multiple directions including feedback loops to allow inputs of learners and practitioners to experts who codify new knowledge |
| Learning is primarily based on educational (formal learning and informal learning) approaches of teaching | Learning incorporates and has ways to measure and accredit experience (on-the-job/in daily life learning also known as non-formal learning) and exchange (social learning) |
| Learning approaches are didactic, based on pedagogy and teaching | Learning approaches are based on andragogy, heutagogy and draw on neuroscience, behavioural science, game theory, psychology and other relevant fields of science |
| Learning is geographically or institutionally isolated except for a few instances (accredited educational degrees or professional certification) | There is a conscious effort for establishing cross-border, cross-institutional accreditation and certifications systems |
Values
In defining the future of learning in public health, the Learning Strategy should be based on:
Equity: Learning opportunities are available and accessible to all public health personnel and users, regardless of location, their level of education, their role in public health, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, or age. Lifelong learning (LLL) opportunities should involve and benefit all public health personnel, and the public should have access to trusted and actionable health promotion information.
Collaboration: The creation of a culture of LLL for health requires a shift from linear pathways of education in the past from expert to learner to see a much more interlinked ecosystem of stakeholders actively supporting the shift towards the new norm of lifelong learning for the mutual benefit of achieving health goals. Each actor contributes their unique expertise and mandate; and puts it at the disposal of the learning community in an effort of filling knowledge gaps and eliminating duplication and overlap.
Transparency: All processes pertaining to the Learning Strategy are transparent to stakeholders, are building and maintaining trust in lifelong learning in public health.
Participation: Public health workers, managers, decision-makers, institutions and individuals should actively participate and promote lifelong learning, in the fulfilment of their responsibilities, and be supported by professional associations, public health institutions, donors, and other enablers and multipliers. All stakeholders – users, producers of knowledge, enablers and decision-makers – have a voice to prioritize needs, preferred methods and channels and are enabled to engage in sharing their ideas with each other, in line with their organization’s goals and objectives.
Excellence: Excellence is pursued proactively so that LLL approaches, materials, resources, experts, processes, assessments, evaluations, certifications, accreditation are of the highest quality, drawing on the latest science; and that knowledge gaps in the area of LLL for health are proactively researched and shared with all stakeholders.
The process
We started scoping the Learning Strategy in the latter part of 2019. First we completed several literature reviews to discover what evidence-based knowledge existed to inform the Strategy.
An initial literature search was designed to capture leading examples of in-service training and continuing professional development, with a focus on onsite, online, simulated, mobile delivery and hybrid learning environments.
Full literature review 2019 – Learning Strategy
A second literature review, produced in collaboration with IÉSEG School of Management, highlights successful elements shaping organizational learning, collective learning and individual learning, with a focus on practices in public and health-related organizations.
Read the second literature review
In addition, WHO worked with learning focal points across the UN system to gather examples of learning policies implemented by sister agencies and learn from those experiences. In total, 48 learning documents were collected and analysed for common themes.
Then we convened a group of experts from across the United Nations system to draw from their experience and expertise. They remain a valuable and active group that supports the development of the Learning Strategy.
Read the list of members in the UN Group supporting the WHO Learning Strategy
Next, we convened a group of world experts to advise us on the development of the WHO Learning Strategy. Each expert serves as a temporary adviser to WHO for a limited period drawing on their expertise, experience and their networks to help build a robust and useful strategy to shape the future of learning for public health.
Read the terms of reference for the Advisory Group
Read the list of members of the Advisory Group supporting the WHO Learning Strategy
We briefed WHO Member States on 17 June 2020 through their Permanent Missions to the United Nations in Geneva.
Here is an overview of the process going forward:
Our partners
Many stakeholders from the education, public health, sustainable development, technology and other sectors have already contributed to the Learning Strategy by submitting their ideas and by engaging their networks. Professional associations and networks have also been very active and youth are engaging in increasing numbers to shape the future they want.
View a presentation you can use to start off a consultation in your network.
Email us if you would like the Secretariat to help set up an online consultation or speak at your webinar ([email protected]).
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