Spring in Oxford brought a certain stillness to the streets, but inside the venues of the Skoll World Forum 2026, a different energy vibrated through the halls. Alongside fellow global innovators, DRASA’s Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Program Manager spent the week engaging in meaningful conversations surrounding community health, AMR, and pandemic preparedness.

At DRASA, every time a speaker mentions an outbreak or a health crisis, we do not think of abstract data points or distant policy briefs. We remember the face of Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh. We remember her choice to stand between Nigeria and a potentially catastrophic Ebola outbreak in 2014. We carry her legacy of swift, decisive action into every room we enter, and that history drives our insistence on a fundamental rule: you cannot build a lasting health system for a community unless you build it directly with them.

Often, global development strategies treat communities as mere beneficiaries, passive recipients of aid or top-down instructions. The conversations at Skoll challenged this dynamic. Frontline practitioners pushed for a renewed perspective, providing compelling stories that showcase the need for international agencies and governments to include local populations as active, equal leaders in disease surveillance and emergency response efforts.

During a spirited panel on community power, Luiz Cláudio Lopes da Silva, Regional Executive Director, Amazon Conservation Team, cut through the comfortable jargon with raw honesty:

"We spend millions designing elaborate tables in capital cities and inviting community leaders to sit at them. We need to stop. We need to dismantle the tables and go build where the people already live, sleep, and survive."

When a new public health concern appears, it comes from a local healthcare provider who spots an unusual cluster of symptoms, a neighborhood leader who calms public anxiety, or a youth champion who steps up to drive behavioral change. When these individuals are equipped with structural support and formal integration into government frameworks as Health Champions, they move from the fringes to the center of public safety.

At the 2026 Skoll World Forum, DRASA contributed to the global conversation on resilient health systems through a thought-provoking session on One Health: Protecting People, Animals and the Planet. Presented by Oluwatoni Akinola, the session drew on DRASA's experience in strengthening health security across Nigeria, highlighting how community-led disease surveillance, cross-sector collaboration, and sustainable government ownership can build systems capable of preventing and responding to future health threats. The presentation reinforced that resilient health systems are not built in isolation but through integrated approaches that connect human, animal, and environmental health.

Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, another panellist summed up this interconnected vulnerability during the One Health collaborative sessions:

"The forest, the livestock, and the child drinking from the stream sleep under the same sky. You cannot heal the child while the forest burns and the livestock are pumped with compromised medicine. We either build an ecosystem of care, or we inherit an ecosystem of collapse."

The most meaningful progress of the week happened away from the microphones, over shared coffee, where practitioners from health, education, conservation, and legal justice realized they were working towards the same goal: global health security for all.

DRASA is taking these global reflections and channeling them into our national and subnational programs. As no single organization can solve complex health challenges alone, building health systems that last requires that governments, communities, practitioners, and partners move forward together with clarity, deep trust, and a unified vision to safeguard our future.

DRASA's presence at the Skoll World Forum also reflects a valued partnership with the Skoll Foundation, whose support has helped strengthen our efforts to build resilient health systems. The partnership has advanced community-led health security, strengthened One Health approaches, and supported the government to improve disease prevention, preparedness, and response. It has created opportunities for shared learning, enabling us to bring practical lessons to global health conversations while learning from other social innovators tackling complex challenges around the world.