It all comes to an end...

By Dilparinder Singh

4-amazing-weeks in Ethiopia come to an end, as I just submitted the final deliverables for my project in Ethiopia!
I can’t believe that my 3 months of super enriching summer internship has come to an end, and that it’s time to head back to AA!

I was working with PATH/MACEPA in Ethiopia to analyze and helping PATH/MACEPA build out a landscape on the case management of P. vivax malaria. Interestingly, mid-way into my 4-week project, the Government of Ethiopia released a circular on Malaria elimination that caught almost everyone by surprise, but with a calm approach and full-fledged support from my supervisors in Ethiopia and Seattle, I took the challenge head-on.

Over the next two weeks, I went on field visits to the health facilities around Addis Ababa, conducted over 30 stakeholder interviews and conducted through desk research to gather the information necessary to not only fulfill the revised scope of work but also add value to the Ethiopia’s National Malaria program!

Among the 30-odd interviews I conducted, I got a chance to visit the United Nations Africa HQ, WHO Africa Regional Office, Federal Ministry of Health etc. and interview the big-shots of the National Malaria Control Programme in Ethiopia! Satisfying? You bet!

During my four-weeks in Ethiopia, I realized how involved the Government is to tackle the pressing health needs of its citizens! It was heartwarming to see the effort and time all the stakeholders put in to address the health needs in the country. On my field visit to a health facility in a small town near Addis, I saw how politely and carefully the health personnel were attending to the patients - it was great to see!
I had heard that Ethiopia has one of the best health systems among the emerging nations in the world; I experienced it first-hand during these 4 weeks!

Time for this humbled and transformed student to head back to AA!
Thank you PATH. Thank you WDI. Thank you Michigan Ross.

PATH/MACEPA office, Addis Ababa (Thank you everyone for such warm hospitality!)

The United Nations Africa HQ

Patients waiting in line for their turn...

 

The Bishoftu Health Center, Oromia

Waka Waka, Africa!

By Dilparinder Singh
This journal was originally written on 14th August.

It’s been just a few days in Ethiopia’s sprawling commercial and cultural hub - Addis Ababa, and I’m in love with this place! The coffee, the food and the people - everything is just great!

Honestly, I did not expect that the weather in Addis would be so pleasant! I always thought it’s hot in here, but being in the highlands bordering the Great Rift Valley, the climate here is just perfect!

Due to the heavy protests and rains during my first weekend, I could not go out at all! But I got lucky this weekend, so I went out this weekend and I really enjoyed my 4-hour walk. Honestly, I felt as if I’m in India! Everyone here seems so happy, there is so much diversity here, but unfortunately the gap between the rich and the poor is clearly evident as is in India.

It's been a really nice couple of weeks thus far - after a thoroughly enriching day at work, catching up on Olympics and News before sleep sums up my day perfectly!

The Tiglachin monument, a memorial to Ethiopian and Cuban soldiers involved in Ogaden War.

View of Addis from a small hill near the Prime Minister's palace!

View from office balcony! Not bad at all, right?

Teachers and Respect

By Naomi Wilson

It’s interesting when you come back from being out of the country and then  faced with all of the things that are different.  Coming back from Ghana, I was analyzing so many things differently especially as it relates to our education system.  Ghana is predominantly low cost private schools and definitely has a public school space but it is not respected. Most families believe it is not necessary to send their students to the public schools because students would be more useful helping out at home when the schooling system is so bad. Personally, I did not experience this myself but Ghanaians around me told me the same story consistently. What’s interesting about Ghana’s case is the reverence for the teacher. Having lived in America my whole life and being immersed in our educational systems, we see regularly the lack of the respect for the teacher. This can be seen in the policies that are made without their input, the pay of teachers, and even how they are regarded as a profession. In Ghana, this is completely opposite as it relates to families and how they view teachers.

Teachers are seen as professionals who can directly impact the future of a child. Ghanaian parents see this and understand this, and therefore look to the teachers for guidance before they look to the principal. For an example, if low cost private schools are doing an enrollment drive the best way to get families to become interested is to have the teachers recruiting. In America, parents may look to the teacher when it comes to student conferences but, by and large, we see the principal as the know all and often do not defer to the teacher. In some cases, it is understandable why a family would not listen to a teacher if the teacher themselves are not interested in the child, but in Ghana it does not matter. Now, there are pros and cons to this but it was inspiring to see the regard to them.

Schooling systems, in general, are place based and culturally specific. To determine how a teacher should be treated globally is hard to say but we can all acknowledge that the work of a great teacher is immeasurable. Students spend more time in school than they do at home in most places and the teachers get a lot of time with their students. This is all to say that teachers have the opportunity to be impactful in so many ways. A part of this impact is respecting teachers as a nation and investing in the profession. Both Ghana and America do not do this enough and it would drastically affect the quality of teachers we receive and how they are treated. Unfortunately, we live in a society where the amount one makes is determinant of their worth to people and the respect they deserve. We must change this and it was inspiring to see that, at least a small level, teachers were revered in Ghana and were seen in the professional light that they deserve. 

Fueling homegrown innovation to address local health needs...

By Dilparinder Singh

Even though native to India, I have never had an opportunity to work in India before this assignment.  Being completely aware of the political, economic and cultural environment, I was therefore very nervous and excited at the same time.  India is a country of both tremendous health needs and growing health resources. In view of the rapidly growing start-up ecosystem, the opportunity to develop health solutions in India, for India has never been greater. Many of these solutions have applications for low-resource countries far beyond its borders. Despite the hyper growth inflection phase for Indian start-up ecosystem, the healthcare start-up space is still in infancy. Fewer than 100 startups listed in India who are addressing healthcare needs. Despite vast technological prowess, India fares poorly in terms of burden of disease and preventable morbidities and mortalities, and of social protection of the poof from the rising healthcare costs.

But it’s not all grim! Healthcare innovation space in India has lately shown encouraging signs, for instance 57 deals were made in 2015 with total funding of $277 million.  Fueling homegrown innovation to address the health needs and gaps in a country is important as homegrown innovation provides stronger link to local needs, can significantly improve global access to technologies, enhance local to global collaborations, increasing access to technology innovations.

My task therefore was to identify strategic opportunities and partnerships in India to help PATH establish its value-add in the innovation ecosystem to improve the affordability, accessibility, and effectiveness of health technologies for the bottom-of-the-pyramid populations. As a part of the project, I got a chance to interview various entrepreneurs, advocacy partners, incubators and accelerators, and medical experts, gaining invaluable exposure to the health innovation space in India.

At the end of my engagement, receiving extremely positive response on my work was highly encouraging, and I can definitely see it translating into an actionable and impactful work for PATH.

On a personal level, it gave me a chance to connect with my family and friends whom I had not seen in a long time. I also took this opportunity to travel to nearby cities during the weekends - Agra and Jaipur.

The Taj Mahal (shot with Nikon D5100)

Being tourist in my country... atop Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur

The pink city of Jaipur!

An amazing, amazing experience indeed! Thank you WDI, PATH and Michigan Ross!
Off to Africa now…

The Role of Private Schools in Addressing the Challenges of K-12 Reform in the Philippines

By Michael Manansala
Ford School of Public Policy

The 2016-2017 academic year marks the first time mandatory K-12 education is rolled out in the Philippines. The country previously functioned on a K-10 system with few K-12 schools available for wealthier families, and prior to this rollout, the Philippines was one of only three countries along with Angola and Djibouti that ended secondary school at grade 10. Implementation is supposed to occur in two stages: this year, Filipinos will enter the 11^th grade for the first time, and then graduate its first 12^th grade class in AY 2017-2018.

However, implementation is already plagued with problems stemming from poor anticipation, the transition into a new administration, and lack of resources for schools and families. Since there are not enough public schools that can accommodate the additional 1.5 million students who would have graduated from secondary school, DepEd made vouchers available to encourage families to enroll in private institutions that offer grades 11 and 12. One of these schools is the Affordable Private Education Centers (APEC Schools), a joint venture between Pearson, the largest learning company in the world, and Ayala, one of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates. However, due to the lack of information on the voucher program, families and schools alike did not know how to access and redeem these vouchers from DepEd. As the academic year for public schools was loomed, the DepEd noted only about 340,000 of the 1.5 million students anticipated to enter 11^th grade had actually enrolled.

To respond to the alarmingly low levels of enrollment, the Ayala Group, APEC’s parent company lent one of its call centers to DepED and established the Senior High School Help Desk on May 23^rd, three weeks before the the first day of the academic year. Most of the questions asked by families were about the SHS voucher program as well as indirect costs of attending senior high school. In addition, APEC and other private schools delayed their start dates to July in order to accommodate families redeeming the vouchers after the first day of classes, June 13^th. As a result of the Help Desk, the delayed start date, and other initiatives, DepEd anticipates that about 90% of the 1.5 million students will actually enroll in SHS this academic year, with about .4 million students anticipated to drop out and not enroll.

Beyond enrollment, many challenges remain for the Philippines’ K-12 reform. Despite the voucher program, many families will not be able to support their students through SHS due to the indirect costs of education, and this will cause further drop in enrollment throughout the academic year. Furthermore, tertiary institutions will inevitably experience a drop in revenue in the next two years due to the delayed enrollment of students who are currently in 11^th grade, but would have been first years in college under the old system. Already, some universities are looking to recruit students from other parts of Asia to offset the revenue loss. All of these problems are expected to occur during landmark reforms, and the best policy response is to anticipate as many of these problems as possible before they manifest and be ahead of the curve. Otherwise, the country will be stuck patching expensive holes in the policy that could negatively impact financial resources and learning outcomes for millions of Filipinos.

Michael Manansala is a graduate student at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. As a WDI Fellow, Michael is working with Pearson Plc’s Affordable Learning Fund (PALF), where he is embedded with the Affordable Private Education Centers, the PALF’s largest portfolio company and the largest chain of low-cost private schools in the Philippines. At APEC, Michael leads two work streams: designing APEC’s annual testing plan and managing the head of academic office.

Doing well by doing good!

Dilparinder Singh
MBA Candidate, Ross School of Business
(This post was written during my last day in Seattle)

As I complete my two weeks in Seattle and prepare to head to India for first of my two projects, I would like to reflect on my experience thus far.

It has been a great couple of weeks indeed. At the PATH Seattle office, I met some amazing set of people, who despite being so accomplished in their careers are so humble and approachable.  At the end of the very first day of my internship, I knew I belonged here!  I was blown away by the amazing and relentless work PATH has been doing around the globe in providing affordable healthcare to the bottom-of-the-pyramid populations. Staff here, despite being extremely busy with multiple projects and travels, always have time to speak to you, guide you, and are invested in your personal and professional success. I am filled with pride and sweet-nervousness that I have been tasked such important projects to really make a positive difference.

To be honest, I do feel a little sad leaving Seattle. From day 1, I was made to feel at home and an integral part of the team - I did not feel for even a second that I’m just an intern! I’d miss this place!

PATH HQ, Seattle

On a personal level, this was my first visit to Seattle and experience could not have been better. Being in Seattle gave me a chance to connect with my Singapore university friends and explore Seattle - the hikes, food junctions, and must-visit places.

The Seattle Public Library

The Needle!

Seattle Glass Art Museum

Lake 22, near Mt Baker National Forest

Off to India now…