In his Offline column this week, Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, says: "Twitter remains the closest one can get to a global conversation about science and medicine, health equity, and social justice. It connects countries, communities, and generations. But Twitter has also evolved into a playground for acts of strangely performative narcissism... What a waste"
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01879-7/fulltext
I am not sure that Twitter is the right tool for 'a global conversation about science and medicine, health equity, and social justice'. I believe that global health communities of practice like HIFA potentially have a greater role to play in hosting such conversations. A few years ago HIFA started a collaboration with PATH and Jhpiego to promote communication and collaboration between global health CoPs. We have started a directory of CoPs here: https://leadernet.org/resource/communities-of-practice-for-global-health/ and we have held a series of webinars for CoP managers to share experience.
I say 'potentially' because the budgets of CoPs are minuscule compared to that of Twitter, and indeed to any large international face-to-face conference. With modest investment, including investment in research into how to improve even further the effectiveness and impact of CoPs, we look forward to a more inclusive, more sustainable, and more impactful future for communication for development.
Best wishes, Neil
Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Global Coordinator HIFA, www.hifa.org neil@hifa.org
Global Healthcare Information Network: Working in official relations with WHO
