Go to the People: 40 Years of Improving Health

From community health workers in Haiti, to drug shop owners in eastern Tanzania, to midwives in western Afghanistan, the impact of Management Sciences for Health (MSH) has been felt throughout the developing world. Now, after 40 years of hands-on work helping build strong health systems, Go to the People tells the stories of the philosophy, the motivation, and the strategies used by MSH staff and local partners to improve the health of vulnerable people.

Go to the People is written by John Donnelly, an award-winning writer specializing in global health and development issues. His work as a journalist included assignments for The Boston Globe in Washington, DC and Africa and for the Miami Herald in the Middle East and Haiti. Donnelly teamed up with former Boston Globe staff photographer Dominic Chavez. Chavez has won many awards for his work. For more than a decade, Chavez has covered global health issues in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

These stories give insight on how an organization’s approach to development can be a critical factor in failure or success. MSH’s approach is underscored by the title of the book, Go to the People, which is the first line of a Taoist poem about showing respect to others, developing trust, imparting knowledge, and leaving the work in the capable hands of the community.