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Co-design Activities Learning Communities

Co-design Sessions with Equity Initiative

Designing a 3-day program for more than a hundred fellows across Southeast Asia might seem like a daunting task. Juggling diverse time zones, experiences, and expectations while ensuring relevance and engagement can feel overwhelming. But inviting key stakeholders into the process—allowing them to share their lived experiences from past fellowships and co-design the program—once again proved the power of participatory design.

 

The planning committee, composed of senior fellows, the Equity Initiative (EI) team, and Habi, came from different time zones and contexts. Recognizing this added challenge, we designed the co-design sessions with three guiding principles: practicality, intentionality, and respect for the committee’s bandwidth. We met them where they were.

Task

How might we co-create the annual forum to provide a collaborative and connection-filled experience?

  • Design

    A series of collaborative design sessions to craft the 3-day program for the 9th Annual Forum of the Equity Initiative Fellowship. We collaborated with the EI team and senior fellows, utilizing the Bukas-Daloy-Sarado framework to create a design that is practical yet invites imagination.

  • Client

    Based in Thailand, the Equity Initiative builds a dynamic community of change-makers across sectors, disciplines, and cultures through its holistic Fellowship Program. Working alongside strategic partners, they foster leadership and drives systemic change to advance health equity across Southeast Asia.

By the end of the co-design sessions, we had grounded the 3-day program around the concept of a bonfire—a space where people gather to celebrate, share stories of endurance and hardship, and emerge feeling energized and ready to continue their advocacy. The warmth of the bonfire fuels them to honor and share the fire with others.

How do you effectively co-design across time zones and regions?

Maximize a Central Workspace
Good design is reflected not just in the final output but in the process and tools used. We leveraged a Miro board for brainstorming, fully utilizing its features to enable remote and asynchronous contributions.

Establish your Session Norms Together
To ensure a structured and productive process, we helped committee members understand each other's design sensibilities, allowing us to tailor the sessions to the group’s needs.

Embrace All Ideas, Build on the Best Ones based on Stakeholder context
With a 15-member committee came fifteen bright ideas. Guided by Habi’s Bukas-Daloy-Sarado framework, we welcomed all inputs, asked critical questions, assessed alignment with our vision, and collaboratively drafted early versions of the program.

Advocate for a Prototyping Mindset
Before the final design, we had two previous versions. And each time we meet, we continuously refine activities based on new parameters (e.g., participant count, contexts, hotel layout, etc.) to ensure greater impact and clarity of objectives. We saw the design process as an evolving journey, not a one-time task!

Embrace Flexibility during the Implementation Phase
Even during the forum itself, we remained flexible, working closely with session leads to refine activities based on participant energy, emerging insights, and real-time feedback. 

Following the success of this program, Habi is set to design the 10th Annual Forum next year—continuing our commitment to co-designing meaningful learning experiences.

Have a project or an idea in mind? Let’s co-design them together! Email us at kumusta@habieducationlab.org.
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