Doubling Down on Dialogues in Global Health & Development on Medium
I’ve never formally worked in the global health and development sector.
I spent ten years at Creative Artists Agency, four of those in the CAA Foundation working with celebrities, athletes, and corporate clients on their philanthropic endeavors. I served as both humble advisor and, as you might imagine, staunch windscreen; every non-profit wanted a piece of CAA clients’ time, money, and influence.
This endless wave of meetings and requests afforded me a dynamic view of multiple impact-driven landscapes, especially global health and development. The role exposed me to hundreds of blue chips and upstarts: Room to Read, charity: water, Malaria No More, ONE, Oxfam, the U.N. World Food Program, and many more. While they were (obviously) aware of one another’s work, there seemed to be little dialogue directly between them.
I often imagined what else these organizations could do if they were sharing ideas and building knowledge more closely with funders, policymakers, and their partners on the ground.
It was around this time that Twitter launched and Facebook became accessible to anyone with an email address. An era of consequential connections and sharing, it appeared, was upon us.
For the past ten years these social networks have seemingly enabled deeper knowledge building than at any other time in history, yet we continue to live in a world awash in mostly broadcast communication: our primary goal is to deliver our own messages as far and wide as possible. We have been hardwired to ask “how many [clicks? views? uniques?] did my content get?”
In doing so we often fail to see our friends, colleagues, and acquaintances navigating many of the same challenges we face, balancing atop their own tightropes just an arm’s length away from us.
Meaningfully interacting with one another — beyond broadcasting our own messages in parallel — might help us learn and accomplish more together, especially with matters of global health and development, social impact, and how we might do the most good in this world.
In the coming months we will be (more intentionally) cultivating these types of conversations on Medium with The Development Set, an editorial exploration launching in January with previews in the coming weeks. Please follow it here to get the latest posts and join the conversation.
The publication will be a mix of feature stories, opinion pieces, diverse first-person perspectives, and roundtables.
Some of the questions we’ll be asking: What philanthropic and venture capital bets have made the most difference in everyday people’s lives? What are the most compelling “south to north” learnings? What needs to happen to build a billion toilets in a year? What are the biggest successes in global health that are hiding in plain sight? What are the surprising new health challenges in the United States?
Our goal is to create a jargon-free yet rigorous space that resonates with global development and philanthropy insiders while attracting adjacent industries like tech, entrepreneurship, and design.
In the words of our editor Sarika Bansal, we want to make readers “productively uncomfortable.”
It’s worth noting that the global health and development community is already strong on Medium.
The International Rescue Committee is humanizing the refugee crisis with its publication Uprooted. Acumen is pushing the boundaries of how social enterprises utilize data, while Global Health Corps is empowering their fellows to share stories from the field. IDEO.org’s Shauna Ryann Carey is tackling pregnancy, TED Fellows’ Francis de los Reyes is taking on poop, and Ford’s Darren Walker is talking philanthropy. Medium’s own editorial team has been exploring these issues, from Clemantine Wamariya’s epic story to Bobbie Johnson’s endless pursuit of the truth.
The dialogue is also building.
Bono is calling for a modern Marshall Plan for Africa, and Melinda Gates is building on that with her own thoughts. Jacqueline Novogratz and Leila Janah are together giving advice to women on leadership. Rob Reich responding to pieces on effective altruism and Lucy Bernholz prompting us all to do the same:
Nearly a year ago we attempted a similar experiment within education, and the response was overwhelming. So we’re trying it again, and we are inviting you to join in by reading, writing, highlighting, recommending, and responding. Or why not start your own publication?
Let’s see what unfolds.
