When looking at complex societal challenges, perinatal death is a highly pressing issue in the Netherlands that unequally affects vulnerable groups. Eritrean immigrants are one of the groups most at risk. Striving for Systemic Change, the project started by exploring a design approach that scaled up the impact of designers’ creative efforts. Building on theories from the domains of Systems Thinking, Leadership and Design, we developed a theoretical framework to help designers navigate Complex Societal Challenges.
We used the Systemic Design Leadership framework to design the Caring Pregnancy Toolkit. This toolkit supports care professionals and social workers working to improve antenatal care for Eritrean women at risk.
The toolkit embodies three types of interventions: Healthcare Maps, Translation Cards, and Pregnancy Passports. All of the tools are fitted with a QR code that connects to an online co-design platform. This platform connects a community of experts and creatives around a common purpose: to facilitate continuous improvement of the tools to adapt to the complex reality of the challenge.
