Latin American Stories, from Latin American Filmmakers: Solutions Inside Out, Season Two
What happens when skilled visual storytellers and inspiring nonprofits from the same regions come together to document positive change in their communities? As an ongoing collaboration between the Video Consortium and…
No Excuses: Universal Health Coverage is Possible Even in the Toughest Settings
As the world recognizes Universal Health Coverage Day on December 12th, two Skoll community members reflect on their partnership’s progress towards achieving UHC in one of the world’s most challenging…
Dr. Nancy Messonnier on Philanthropy’s Role in Strengthening Global Health Systems to Prevent the Next Pandemic
Dr. Nancy Messonnier began her public health career in 1995 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the Childhood and Respiratory Diseases Branch of the National Center for Infectious Diseases. She went on to hold a…
How EYElliance is Accelerating the Inclusive Optical Sector in Latin America
Scaling a solution is not the same as solving a problem at scale. Nearly 1 billion people around the world live with blindness or vision impairment that is correctable with…
Calling for a New Multilateral Fund for Global Health Security and Pandemic Preparedness
As the Delta variant surges and suffering continues around the world, Pandemic Action Network (PAN) and its partners are calling for a significant multilateral mechanism for sustained investment in pandemic prevention and preparedness. “This…
Protecting the Community Health Workforce During COVID-19: Getting PPE to the Last Mile
As the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic bore down in Democratic Republic of Congo in December 2020, Bébé Bola, a community health worker (CHW) in the Pakadjuma township of…
Rethinking Possible Episode Seven | Priti Krishtel | A ‘Patent Detective’ Investigates Access to Medicine
Getting the right medicine at the right time can mean the difference between life or death. Yet until COVID-19, there hasn’t been widespread recognition of the importance of creating easy…
Dr. Nancy Messonnier Joins Skoll Foundation as Executive Director for Pandemic Prevention and Health Systems
We are excited to welcome Dr. Nancy Messonnier to the Skoll Foundation as the Executive Director for Pandemic Prevention and Health Systems! Jeff Skoll has long supported efforts to prevent…
This nonprofit is helping communities stop pandemics in their tracks
In 2016 — years before the COVID-19 pandemic — Cambodia launched a toll-free hotline to enlist the public in monitoring and tracking the spread of disease among both humans and animals. People can call 115 to…
Unpacking EYElliance’s Role as a Systems Orchestrator
Social change is a team sport. We hear that a lot these days. The scope and scale of a problem that impacts billions of people demands deep, systemic collaboration and coalition building. Never will a single organization—or…
Protecting Community Health Workers Through COVID-19 and Beyond
No health worker should have to choose between treating their patients and keeping themselves and their families safe. However, as the global shortage and inequitable distribution of personal protective equipment…
Bipartisan Assembly of Governors Support Call to Action to Defeat COVID-19
Governors represent 1 in 3 Americans Recommendations call for common, comprehensive action across states COVID Collaborative also released review of state vaccine distribution plans The nation needs a uniform…
Noora Health Delivers Rapid Response in a Time of COVID-19
COVID-19 Health Education and Caregiver support Reaches Millions The pandemic has reached all corners of the globe, hitting the world's most vulnerable populations hardest. India and Bangladesh were no exception.…
Resilience Beyond COVID-19 in West Africa
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about big changes for Tostan, the West Africa-based organization that has partnered with communities at the grassroots for almost 30 years to…
A Pandemic Surveillance System for the Planet
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it abundantly clear that the world is underprepared for the global spread of infectious diseases, but new technology is creating opportunities for the development of…
The Best Antidote to COVID-19? A Collective Approach
Collaboration and coordination are the only way to overcome COVID-19, says Don Gips, CEO at the Skoll Foundation, a private foundation working to drive social change through innovation and social entrepreneurship. “I…
mothers2mothers Launches Virtual Mentor Mother Platform to Confront COVID-19 Health Disparities
Today, we’re excited to share that mothers2mothers (m2m)—an African not-for-profit that trains and employs women living with HIV as frontline health workers has launched a new, interactive WhatsApp platform to provide…
Answering the Call: How VillageReach’s COVID 411 Campaign Fights the Pandemic with Innovative Mobile Solutions
At the end of June, the African continent had 400,000 COVID-19 cases, with local transmission increasing significantly. By the end of July, that case count had more than doubled. Health…
How Amazon Conservation Team Approaches COVID-19 Response With Vulnerable Indigenous Communities During the Worsening Pandemic
Marginal access to healthcare, limited hygiene resources, and weak government support in deterring potentially contagious intruders put even the most remote communities in the Amazon at risk of the spreading…
African and global philanthropists team-up to manufacture COVID-19 medical equipment in Africa
African and global philanthropists have teamed up in an effort to help African nations secure cost effective ventilators, breathing support devices and other medical equipment. Strive Masiyiwa co-founder of…
Emily Bancroft of VillageReach on What Health Equity Looks Like
Emily Bancroft is President of VillageReach, an organization that works to transform health care delivery to reach everyone. VillageReach won the Skoll Award in 2006. Its initiative in Malawi, Chipatala…
COVID Near You: How You Can Fight the Pandemic in 30 Seconds from Your Home
How are you feeling? Before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that was a simple question. Today, posed on the COVID Near You website, it’s a question with life and…
Scaling Pearls of Wisdom
One component of the Scaling Pathways series is Scaling Snapshots, which are glimpses into one organization’s scaling journey, including the strategies pursued, implications of those strategies and “Pearls of Scaling…
Levers to Unlock New Capital
What internal and external levers can social enterprises activate to finance impact at scale? Root Capital on the challenges of blending colors of money inside an organization: Willy Foote, the…
Evolving Your Talent
How do your talent needs evolve as you drive toward scale and how can you evolve with them? Health Leads on actively navigating talent through strategic shifts Alexandra Quinn, CEO…
How Mad Libs Helped Share Insights of Scaling Through Government
Last week as we prepared for a panel on transitioning health solutions to government, Skoll Principal Liz Diebold introduced me to the word game Mad Libs. While I’d never filled…
Bringing Community Healthcare to the People
There is an urgent challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa: people are dying from treatable illnesses like malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea. The traditional model is that families find their way to a…
Can Liberia Teach Us How to Create a Universal Healthcare System That Works?
In the wake of a long and brutal civil war, Liberia had one of the world’s worst shortages of doctors—51 physicians to serve the entire country. The health of millions…
Raj Panjabi on Health Inequity and Lasting Systems Change
During West Africa’s devastating Ebola epidemic in 2014, the Liberian Ministry of Health and Last Mile Health—an organization that delivers primary health care to some of the most remote corners…
How Social Entrepreneurs Brought Hope to 2018
Much of the news from 2018 doesn't paint a pretty picture of the world. But we won't dwell on that. Instead, we'd like to wrap up the year by turning…
From Theirs to Ours: Proximity and the Power of Relationship
Izizi ndi Zathu Zomwe. This is ours. That’s the name my team of adolescent researchers has given a groundbreaking public health initiative—a close study of their peers’ needs, behaviors, and…
Sustainable Health Solutions for the Last Mile: VillageReach Builds Them and Lets Them Go
Access to quality healthcare for all communities in a scalable and sustainable way—that is at the heart of VillageReach’s mission. VillageReach (2006 Skoll Social Entrepreneur) focuses on the lowest levels…
How Collective Action Will Amplify Impact of Community Health Worker Models
We know that large-scale social change is a team sport—no one social entrepreneur can create a new status quo on her own. This reality is evident in the global effort…
My Health, My Right: Turning an HIV-free Vision into Reality
In 2006, Juliet was 26 years old and six weeks pregnant when her feelings of joy sank into anxiety and fear. The HIV test she had taken during an antenatal…
How VisionSpring Experiments with Distribution to Expand Its Reach
VisionSpring began with the guiding principle, “If you can’t see, you can’t work.” Since then it has evolved to include “If you can’t see, you can’t be safe”, and “If…
Bending the Arc: Setting the Bar High for Social Change
Thirty years ago, as horrific disease like AIDS and tuberculosis ravaged much of the world, three remarkable young people—Jim Yong Kim, Paul Farmer, and Ophelia Dahl—came together in a squatter…
Raj Panjabi’s TED Wish and the Power of Storytelling for Social Change
No condition is permanent. That’s the refrain of tough-minded optimism that Raj Panjabi, founder of Last Mile Health, grew up with in Liberia. It’s the mantra often repeated by his…
Michael Franti and Bono Celebrate Our 2017 Skoll Awardees
Invest. Connect. Celebrate. This is the Skoll Foundation’s mission and deep commitment to the field of social entrepreneurship. The Skoll World Forum is one of our greatest opportunities for the 'celebrate'…
Skoll World Forum 2017 Reflection: Global Health, from Innovation to Implementation
"Global health is a marathon, not a sprint." -- Barbara Bush, Global Health Corps The race often starts with great excitement over big breakthroughs: new vaccines and treatments, new technologies…
Highlights from Skoll World Forum 2017
The annual Skoll World Forum was, as always, an inspiring, energizing, and at times dizzying week of conversations and celebrations in the hallowed halls and cobblestoned streets of Oxford. Stephan Chambers…
UNDP is Walking the Talk Towards Greener Healthcare Procurement
Public health is the core of medicine. It entails that we, as health care professionals, need to ensure public goods are delivered in a safe and sustainable way. Public procurement…
Investment Needed to Fix Global Mental Health Crisis
A major traumatic experience changed Muhammad’s life and he grew increasingly bitter, angry, and paranoid. Things escalated to the point where his family life began to suffer. Muhammad had been…
One More Look at Rio: The Necessity and Complexity of Systems Change
Over the course of the 2016 Olympics in Rio, we’ve delved into some of the challenges facing Brazil. We began with the Social Progress Index’s (SPI) assessment of Brazil’s performance…
“During The Olympics, There is Great Joy Among Us”: An Interview with Rio Social Entrepreneurs
At the Skoll Foundation, we have seen time and again the importance of the deep connection and inspiration social entrepreneurs get from working with and staying close to people and…
No Small Feat: How a Social Entrepreneur Helped Defeat One of the World’s Worst Diseases
This week The Task Force for Global Health was awarded the 2016 Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Hilton Humanitarian Prize, an inspired choice for this wonderful award. Since its inception in…
South Asia: Skoll Awardees Drive Change in Health and Gender Equality
Last month I traveled to Nepal and India to meet with Skoll Awardees and partners and learn about their progress in deploying mobile health solutions, fighting gender bias, and expanding…
Disease Surveillance App Wins Converts in Thailand
Recently I joined the pandemics team from the Skoll Global Threats Fund (SGTF) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to spend a week learning about disease surveillance and how it’s used to detect…
