We are a diverse community, which means that sometimes we use words differently. These are not absolute definitions, but rather how we understand the words we use. Learn more about us.
| Adolescents | Adolescents are people aged 10–19. |
| ASRH | Adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health. |
| Community | Short for the HCDExchange Community of Practice. The community includes youth implementers and advocates, funders, evaluators, designers, academics, health ministries, technical agencies, and others working together to share learning, generate evidence, create public goods, and advance the HCD+ASRH field. |
| Ecosystem | The ecosystem includes the HCD+ASRH community, youth who are in need of ASRH services and policies, and the dynamic collection of individuals, initiatives, and organisations that influence them. |
| HCD | Human-centred design is a set of evolving processes and tools — a structure that helps people think differently about problems and collaboratively generate solutions. Grounded in humility and empathy, an HCD mindset seeks diverse perspectives, is curious about the human factors and contexts surrounding complex challenges, and uses prototypes to explore ideas, test assumptions, and gather feedback. HCD processes are led by design facilitators or strategists — we call them “designers” for short — who typically guide teams through a series of workshops, helping them reframe, synthesize, co-create, and iterate. To learn more about HCD in the context of global health, please see the Design for Health Glossary of Design Terms and overview of Design for Health — as a spark, ingredient, or end-to-end process. |
| Member | HCD Exchange members are those individuals who have signed up to join the HCDExchange community; they have provided basic basic details about themselves and — most importantly — have agreed to follow the Community Participation Guidelines. People do not need to be invited to become members. While anyone can contribute or access resources, members can also join to working groups and apply for opportunities like grants, fellowships, and exchanges. |
| Secretariat | The HCDExchange Secretariat is the team of people who work with and for the community. See full description in our governance section. |
| Youth | Youth are people aged between 18–24. |