News & Events


NEWS July 1, 2024

JLN Champion -Spotlighting Stefan Nachuck, Universal Health Coverage Champion

JLN Network Manager

Over the last twenty years, since I entered the public health space at the Rockefeller Foundation, the JLN has been a big part of my life. The first round of learning collaboratives, which stretched from 18 to 24 months, taught us a lot collectively about what worked, and what didn’t, and why. In the best cases it was “magic”, and you could feel the positive energy in the air and see the results in terms of quality collective technical outputs combined with application to national reform efforts. Some of our basic takeaways regarding “how to do this right” after the first round of learning collaboratives, included: Approaches can vary, but objectives matter. Everybody in the room needs to have a north star in terms of ultimate outputs and how these might be used. Community matters in the sense that the long-term payoff is in creating a lateral community of technocrats and academics who can and will continue to collaborate, formally or informally. Facilitators matter a lot. Good facilitation means being a good combination of Einstein (technically strong) and Mother Theresa (strong social and community-building skills). Some have it, and some don’t. Co-production matters. If facilitators do all the work, then there is no sweat equity and thus little real learning happening. Collaborative membership matters. This means that one needs consistent engagement from the same people over the life of a learning effort. If individual members are bouncing in and out of a collaborative, the value of the work declines precipitously. Donors matter, to the extent that many funding streams tend to focus on discrete project-focused efforts, and not on building robust, results-oriented south-south communities. Since then, the JLN has grown massively, taking on many more members than the original six countries that participated in the very first collaboratives. And the range of topics and approaches undertaken to date is quite breathtaking. In retrospect, the smartest thing we probably did was simply to engage in active listening with country members who wanted something like this to exist. Instead of starting with “priors” in terms of “how development should work”—we asked people what would be most suitable for them, and then did our best to experiment and optimize around those basic demands. It’s been an honour to be associated with JLN all these years, and I look forward to an exciting future—this story is far from complete. Stefan Nachuck now works with Morris Brothers LLC, USA. He was with Rockefeller Foundation in 2008/2009 when he spearheaded the launch of JLN along with R4D, the World Bank, GIZ, Access Health International and country representatives from Ghana, Thailand, Vietnam, and India.

NEWS June 10, 2024

JLN Champion -Spotlighting Adolfo Martinez Valle, Universal Health Coverage Champion

JLN Network Manager

Throughout my nearly 25-year professional career in public health, I have faced achievements and challenges as a champion of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). In my own country, Mexico, I oversaw planning and evaluation agencies for designing and implementing national health and social protection policies, including the 16-year-old insurance scheme targeted to the population not covered by social security -Seguro Popular and the 22-year-old conditional cash transfer program – Progresa/Oportunidades/Prospera. These programs, despite being recently cancelled, were instrumental in significantly reducing out-of-pocket and catastrophic expenditures, a testament to my expertise in financial management. They also played a crucial role in diminishing child and maternal mortality, improving access to health services and nutrition, and reducing extreme poverty. The most recent change in government in Mexico also left me needing a policymaker or implementer space to pursue further UHC in my own country. I overcame this challenge by continuing my academic career, which I began nearly twenty years earlier when I earned my doctoral degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. I have been a professor and researcher at the National University of Mexico for the past five years, where I have published evidence on improving health systems’ performance. On the global stage, I have been an active and dedicated member of the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) since 2015. This platform, which I am deeply committed to, has provided me with the opportunity to share my health policy experiences with a diverse range of members. I am particularly proud of my service on its Steering Committee, where I had the privilege of chairing it as the Convener from 2018 to 2021. One of my most memorable experiences was participating in a 2016 Kosovo workshop funded by the World Bank, where I collaborated with colleagues from Ghana and the Philippines. Back then, we were able to offer valuable insights on our experiences implementing national insurance schemes in our respective countries, which proved to be highly relevant to the health care reform efforts in Kosovo. Affordable quality care for everyone still needs to be achieved in my country, Latin America, and many other countries, including the JLN members. Mexico needs to rebuild its health system after suffering significant setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a negligent federal government. Out-of-pocket expenditures are still high, public financing needs to be more efficient, and the Ministry of Health needs to be stronger. Fortunately, windows of opportunity still exist in the academic setting and through the JLN, where I can help set the path toward UHC both in my country and abroad. Adolfo Martinez Valle is a JLN Country Core Group (CCG) Member, Director General, Performance Evaluation, Ministry of Health, Mexico