Everything we need, we learned from Sesame Street

Have you ever seen the Sesame Street skit in which a group of penguins attempt to order room service at the Furry Arms Hotel?

If you haven't seen the skit, or if it has been a long time since your last viewing, take three minutes to watch this really funny Muppet act at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPfaV8n3R_o

What in the world does the Furry Arms Hotel and penguins ordering room-service have to do with global health? Well, I think the skit captures one of the major problems with the way that we deliver aid and support. The aid is not connected together. Our efforts are not grouped in "sets" of complimentary services. Instead, multiple agencies, deliver multiple programs, in multiple locations with little coordination or collaboration.

Stepping back from services delivery and defining the various mechanisms we can "pool" to compliment resources (packaging our aid in more effective ways), is the key to ending world hunger and greatly decreasing extreme poverty. Just like the penguin ordering room service in the Sesame Street skit, we can't continue to look at our work in discrete elements. We have to choose to view the power of "sets" and influence of pooling our efforts.