Member Spotlight:
Supporting USAID/Philippines Office of Health to Pivot to Virtual Management of its COVID-19 Response and Ongoing Health Programming
April 9, 2020
When the COVID-19 crisis emerged and developed into a global pandemic, Panagora’s CLAimHealth team in the Philippines—trusted within the Filipino health community for delivering successful virtual meetings and webinars prior to COVID-19—was able to quickly leverage their expertise to support USAID/Philippines Office of Health and implementing partners in pivoting to virtual management for both its COVID-19 response and ongoing health programming.
CLAimHealth, a USAID activity that stands for Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting for Improved Health, provides technical assistance, advisory services, capacity building, and related logistical support to USAID/Philippines Office of Health to strengthen strategic collaboration with partners, scale up good practices, and adapt programs based on data-driven recommendations.
Our CLAimHealth team facilitating a TB cluster workshop, which included 48 participants from the Philippines Department of Health National TB Control Program, USAID/Philippines Office of Health TB Cluster, and WHO.
A trusted partner in building capacity for using virtual platforms for effective collaboration. As a leader in CLA (collaborating, learning, and adapting), CLAimHealth has had broad experience leveraging virtual platforms for activity management. We engage the audience by using the full functionality of the platform. In this way, we foster a culture that supports CLA and builds capacity of USAID/Philippines Office of Health and implementing partners for collaborative virtual work.
In the current environment of “digital first” meetings, our CLAimHealth team is supporting the USAID/Philippines Office of Health and other implementing partners in adapting their work cultures and management for more effective full-time remote work.
Using our CLA capabilities to advance COVID-19 responses and other health program management on virtual platforms. Using virtual platforms for our activity management has been a best practice for CLAimHealth. To keep client and partners engaged and keep work efficient, the team is leveraging the functionality of trusted video conferencing software to best emulate face-to-face meetings, trainings, and workshops.
Our team is using virtual breakout rooms and polls—along with CLA and knowledge sharing best practices—to engage attendees, spark discussion, and document conversations.
For COVID-19 response support, CLAimHealth hosts two weekly virtual meetings for USAID and all its partners to coordinate response information and actions, with one meeting for health partners and one for all other USAID partners. Our CLAimHealth team also supported a training on Infection Prevention Control Training as well as a Q&A that USAID/Philippines Office of Health held with its partners on their COVID-19 response. Tomorrow, our CLAimHealth team will support the USAID/Philippines Office of Health host the 7th CLA technical work group meeting with its implementing partners, with around 50 participants expected. The focus will be reviewing how implementing partners are maintaining health services and collecting data during COVID-19, challenges they are facing, and solutions to adapt to this unique situation. This work group meeting is typically held in-person, so our team is working hard to support USAID/Philippines virtually organize this important opportunity to share knowledge and adjust to meet targets for the next quarter during these uncertain times.
To support other health programming for the USAID/Philippines Office of Health during this period, in late March our team supported two major workshops with USAID, the Philippines Department of Health, and implementing
partners. CLAimHealth facilitated a virtual Tuberculosis Gender Analysis Workshop for a USAID implementing partner, TB Interventions and Health Systems Strengthening, and we piloted successfully both Zoom’s breakout room and in-meeting polling functions to engage participants and spark discussion. We also facilitated a TB Cluster Workshop for the Philippines Department of Health National TB Control Program. This workshop involved 48 participants from the Philippines Department of Health National TB Control Program, USAID/Philippines Office of Health TB Cluster, and WHO. One WHO participant deemed it a huge success: "I am attending many telemeetings these days. These telemeetings of the NTP are the best compared to them by a huge, huge margin."
Supporting USAID/Philippines Office of Health to collaborate remotely in critical partnerships for combatting COVID-19 while continuing its health programming. CLAimHealth’s role as a leader in CLA and virtual facilitation has helped USAID/Philippines Office of Health continue its work to address critical health challenges. Collaterally, CLAimHealth is establishing best practices and building capacity within USAID/Philippines Office of Health and among implementing partners in using remote communication and management tools effectively. USAID and its implementing partners will be able to use the tools and best practices that CLAimHealth has provided as proven resources for successful CLA practices in a virtual environment during this current crisis and beyond.