The Exemplar Newsletter, February 2025

The following is an excerpt from the monthly newsletter from Exemplars in Global Health, a global coalition of partners on a mission to identify positive health outliers, analyze what makes countries successful, and disseminate core lessons so they can be adapted in comparable settings.

Read on to hear from Niranjan Bose, Health and Life Sciences Managing Director at Gates Ventures. You can also subscribe to The Exemplar to hear more from the program on a monthly basis.

Solutions in the face of challenges

A few weeks ago, more than 120 people from around the world tuned into Exemplars in Global Health’s annual partner summit to discuss some of the program’s latest findings. The opportunity to connect felt especially important as the field of global health faces unprecedented uncertainty. Amidst this, the summit reinforced the strength of the Exemplars in Global Health (EGH) network and highlighted a clear fact: our global partnerships are driving global impact.

Here are three highlights from the summit on what’s working in global health:

Local context matters: EGH experts on malaria and vaccine confidence explained the importance of understanding local insights to tailor solutions. Our work to boost vaccine confidence in Senegal, for example, is starting with a subnational household survey to understand which factors are tied to high or low levels of trust.

Education has powerful ripple effects: Upcoming research on family planning and adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights showed how education strategies – especially for women and girls – helped propel health improvements.

Data allows for better decision-making: Partners shared examples of where EGH-supported tools helped them gather and share timely, specific data, which drove positive changes. Implementing a low-cost performance monitoring system in Sierra Leone helped identify gaps in the country’s community health worker (CHW) program and led to the development of solutions, including a CHW map that will enable optimal allocation of health workers geographically.

These findings are contributing to a powerful evidence base that points countries toward solutions, even in the face of challenges. We are incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished with our partners, including many of you, and are, as always, grateful for their steadfast dedication to finding data-driven solutions for a brighter, healthier future for all.

Exemplars Stories

Maintaining non-communicable disease (NCD) services during the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from Thailand

Research published by the Thailand National Health Foundation , Chulalongkorn University , and Health Education England provides insight into how Thailand was able to maintain non-communicable disease services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the full article here.

Approaching the SDG targets with sustained political commitment: drivers of the notable decline in maternal and neonatal mortality in Morocco

A study on maternal and neonatal mortality in Morocco offers findings on drivers in mortality reduction, including the importance of sustained political commitment. This research was led by Morocco’s National School of Public Health, Université Mohammed V de Rabat , Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp , London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, U. of London , The Center for Global Health at the Technical University of Munich , and RTI International . Read the full article here.

Want to learn more? Visit Exemplars in Global Health.