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RDN and Australian Centre for Health Access (ACHA) attended Toward Unity For Health’s (TUFH) 2026 Conference in Manila, Philippines, held from 4 to 7 August 2026.
TUFH 2026 brought together people and organisations from around the world who are working to improve health access in their communities. The conference theme, Bayanihan for Health Equity: Co-Creating Social Innovations for Responsive and Resilient Health Systems, focused on how communities, organisations and health professionals can work together to improve access to health care.
For RDN and ACHA, the conference provided an opportunity to share ideas and learn from organisations working to improve health access in different communities and health systems around the world. Many discussions focused on how to support and retain health professionals, work more effectively with communities, and build stronger local health services. These are all areas that closely align with ACHA's work.
RDN’s Chief Operating Officer Mike Edwards presented Introducing ACHA's Health Access Framework: A Practical Blueprint for Community-Led Health Access. The presentation introduced RDN's Health Access Framework as a practical model developed through RDN's work with rural and under-resourced communities. It explored how working alongside communities can help design health services that better respond to local needs.
RDN’s Head of International Ally Squires-McCarthy presented Building Global Health Access Networks Through Capability and Collaboration. This talk explored a question that sits at the centre of RDN's work: is filling a workforce gap the same as fixing access? The presentation outlined why workforce numbers alone do not always create lasting access to care and why health professionals need more than a job vacancy to stay in a community. Professional support, workplace culture, local connections and opportunities to develop skills all play an important role in helping people build sustainable careers in rural and under-resourced communities.
RDN’s Chief Executive Officer Richard Colbran presented Healthy Organisations for Sustainable Health Impact, sharing RDN's experience with organisational performance measurement and the role organisations play in delivering better outcomes for communities and the people they serve.
Together, the presentations shared lessons from RDN's work in rural and under-resourced communities and sparked conversations about how similar approaches might be applied in other parts of the world. They also contributed to wider discussions about health access, workforce challenges and the importance of working alongside communities to improve health outcomes.
The conference highlighted the value of learning from partners facing similar health access challenges in different parts of the world and sharing practical approaches that may be adapted to local needs. Existing partnerships in Canada and Indonesia also demonstrated how organisations can learn from one another while recognising that every community has different needs and priorities.
For ACHA, participation in TUFH was not only an opportunity to share Australian experience but also to learn from global partners working to improve health access in under-resourced communities. The discussions reinforced the importance of bringing together research, practical experience and strong partnerships to improve access to care. These insights will continue to inform ACHA's work to translate evidence into practical health access solutions in Australia and beyond.
ACHA is a social enterprise of RDN - The Charity for Health Access.
