ISQua Emerging Leader

Rita Okonkwo's Learning Journey

My first impressions of Geneva and the WHO Headquarters

My first morning in Geneva was a cool one. Arriving late evening on Sunday the 12th I did not get to appreciate the beautiful city of Geneva. Early morning the next day I made my way to my first destination, the World Health Organisation commuting through a public bus. As the bus drove I was looking from right to left looking out for a signpost with WHO. At last, we got to the last bus stop OMS, I disembarked not sure of what direction to go however a WHO staff also in the bus pointed out to me the WHO building about 200meters away.

Getting into the magnificent building beautifully decorated with flags of different countries, I felt intrigued about the various notices of ongoing meeting, people going in and out, I felt interested in everything happening and lost in thoughts imagining all that happens here and what my role would be.  “How may I help you ma” the front desk officer called out. “Good morning” I exclaimed as though I had been concentrating. Still reflecting on my thoughts, something came strongly that WHO HQ must be a hub and centre of activities and great learning place to spend 12 weeks.

The next 4 hours got me settled in and introduced to the entire the Quality System and Resilience (QSR) unit by Katthyana. She was helpful at coordinating with Monica to see I get a work station, connection to the WHO intra-mail and devices.  In the following days, I met with different members of the QSR unit to understand their work and gain insight into the ongoing activities of the QSR unit.

Meeting with the Boss

The feeling you have when you are meeting your new boss for the first time and you want to ace the first impression. As I stepped into Shams office on Wednesday the 25th at about 11 am, I was greeted with a big smile and given a seat. “Rita tell me what you think about our hospitality since you resumed” fantastic came my response. Narrating my experience and encounter with team members since the past 2 days, I was amazed by how keenly he listened with interest to identify opportunities for improvement.

“Rita this feedback matters to us”. It dawned on me at this moment that the light was not on me but rather on the organisation. That I was going to be working with a unit coordinator who strongly believes in organising the unit in a way that ensures the quality of work is guaranteed. It was a warm discussion with Shams and I felt so relaxed and not under any pressure to impress as I did plan to. Shams guided my wandering thoughts wanting to be everywhere and learning everything, distracted by the several activities happening. We ended the discussion with assigning me 3 areas of responsibility.

Something that surprised me

The willingness of the QSR team members to share key documents with me not considering my contract as a volunteer was impressive. With my curiosity to understand the work of the team, I approached various members of the team and everyone was willing to share relevant work document as I needed to understand WHO strategic activities within the context of the Quality system and resilience for universal health coverage.

The effectiveness of the team huddle as I experienced within the QSR team was impressive. Weekly huddle characterises Shams style of leadership of QSR. It was a way of keeping check with various project activities. These meetings were very effective and not lasting beyond 30mins for most cases. With my years of experience in technical area program implementation, keeping check weekly with various team members on key activities by team leads is quite challenging. To find that the QSR unit has multiple weekly huddles on each activity was impressive and a strong take-home lesson for me.

What I have learned in my first month

I was assigned to work on a joint project aimed at Strengthening health security and health systems linkages and its relationship to quality health services in emergencies. My task within this project was to conduct a desk review of key health security and health systems documentation of selected countries. This country analysis entails cross-mapping of health security assessment plans, including National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS), self-assessment reporting such as SPAR; external evaluations, for example, Joint External Evaluation JEE; and health systems assessments such as Service Availability and readiness assessment  SARA. I spent the remaining weeks of my first month engaging with key staff in the QSR unit to under the scope of the work and gather all relevant documentation to aid my understanding of the subject matter. This was a new area of work for me and I was eager to learn from the process.

Within this month, I explored the contents of the WHO Global learning laboratory to understand how this helps links the experiences and expertise of people across the world on important issues relating to quality in the context of UHC.  I learnt about the WHO National Quality policy and strategies and the various recommended elements to be considered when developing such a strategic document. I have linked up with the WHO team back in Nigeria and would be willing to lend support to the Government of Nigeria as discussions are ongoing to develop NQPS.

I participated in the WHO orientation program for Interns. That afforded me the opportunity to learn about WHO General Program of Work (GPW) and WHO role in coordinating health globally.

My favourite moment

My favourite moment in my first month of work was the internship orientation organised monthly for new interns and volunteer. Learning about the work of WHO and how Global health diplomacy is used as a tool to shape and manage the global policy environment for health. The relationship between health, foreign policy and trade and practical examples of diplomacy has been used by WHO to bring about change was an Aha moment for me.

What I have learned in my second month

The days that followed by in my 2nd month of internship were very busy and my mind occupied with conducting desk review of health security and health system documentation of selected countries identifying findings from these documents (Joint External Evaluation JEE, National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) and Service availability and readiness assessment mapping (SARAM) relevant to answering identified key questions as contained within the approach paper for the project I was assigned to work on. The chance to participate in this despite my limited knowledge of health system resilience and health security was a privilege and took on the challenge with a determination to put in my best to this work. I focused most of my time to work through the weekend. Learning the subject matter and developing the required writing skills needed that I devoted extra time.

Working on the project gave me a good understanding of the health security architecture, how countries are mandated by the international health regulation IHR 2005 to build core competencies required to be able to prepare, detect and respond to any health security threats. Scooping through health system and health security documentations from different developing countries, I gained an understanding of how countries are responding to the mandate and strengthening their health security architecture vis-à-vis what is expected.  The disparity in the efforts by countries and the opportunities for quality improvement within the health system and health security context triggered concern and interest in me to take on this work forward and contribute to building resilient health system.

I enjoyed my time on this project as I learnt a great idea and I also identified an opportunity for career growth. I wished I had the opportunity to contribute to the final output of the project however my time with WHO was getting to an end.  I look forward to applying the skills gained from this work to support an integrated approach to HIV programming and health system strengthening. I have started discussions on this within the WHO HIV team and my organisation. 

Within my 2nd month of volunteer assignment, I got connected to the works of the Alliance for Health Systems and Research (HPSR) within WHO. I have been following HSPR via social media for over 2 years. HPSR works to support health in Low middle-income countries LMIC by supporting the generation and use of evidence that strengthens the health system. I was delighted to meet with Dr Ako Kwamie a technical officer in HSPR who exposed me to workings of the HPSR and shared relevant publications with me. Most important was linking me to the network of HPSR actors within Nigeria.  I have connected with this team and looking for