By looking beyond our borders to learn how our peers abroad are improving health and well-being, we can uncover valuable lessons, build relationships, inspire action, and find new ways to improve policies, programs, and systems.
That’s why the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is exploring different ways to learn with communities around the world.
For several years, the Foundation has led, supported, and participated in a variety of global learning activities, including global study tours.
This issue brief:
The power of global learning is ‘blue marble thinking’—the idea that, like an astronaut looking down at the Earth, by leaving our own home, we can see it differently. It’s understanding that the vast majority of our society is a social construct, which means we have the power to change it, sometimes in radical ways. The way we do things isn’t the way we have to do things. That is, at its heart, the power of global learning.
Karabi Acharya, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Move away from the idea that the purpose of a study tour is to extract information or knowledge. Instead, think about this as a reciprocal, two-way kind of experience. You want to share, listen, and absorb.
Jason Corburn, University of California, Berkeley
Use global study tours to support grantees and leaders your foundation has begun to cultivate—including those with lived experience of the challenges being addressed. Convene foundation program staff and grantees with expertise and varying perspectives to work together to address issues.
Consider global study tours that address cross-cutting themes so that staff from the sponsoring organization and its grantees can maximize learning across sectors, disciplines, and areas of focus.
Identify and be clear about desired outcomes and invest sufficiently and flexibly in evaluation of both short-term and longer-term outputs and impacts of study tours.
Leverage resources and expertise by fostering collaboration across philanthropic organizations. For example, convening funders with similar interests could harvest learning, align powerful players, and encourage participation from foundations that are curious but not yet working in this space.
Reflect on your own thoughts of learning from abroad, and discover how the rest of the world may shape what you do and how you think.
When it comes to health, good ideas have no borders. To build a Culture of Health, we’ll need the best ideas that the world has to offer.
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