Health Response Alliance at One Year: Building the operating layer that helps partners move in sync

A year shaped by urgency, then strengthened by time

In our first months, HRA sprinted alongside partners to get a pilot ready for peak hurricane season. The goal was simple: build something useful, test it with real partners, and be ready to support action if a major event hit.

Fortunately, a major storm did not make U.S. landfall during that window. That is a relief for communities first and foremost. It also gave us something rare in disaster work: time. We used that extra runway to stress-test assumptions, tighten workflows, tweak the underlying systems, and incorporate partner feedback in ways that are hard to do when you are responding in real time. The urgency did not go away. The quality improved.

The state of things: more complexity, the same missing link

Across the country, response capacity is substantial, but it is often separated into lanes. Public sector partners have authorities and constraints that can shift quickly. NGOs are frequently closest to communities and can move fast, but they do not always have consistent visibility into the broader picture. The private sector can bring scale and logistics, but engagement depends on clear needs, clear pathways, and trusted relationships.

When those lanes cannot share the right information quickly, the cost shows up in familiar ways: duplicated effort, missed opportunities, slower targeting of resources, and a longer tail of health impacts after the headline event ends. The gap is not effort. The gap is how we connect effort across sectors when the clock is running.

That is the space HRA was built to fill.

What I heard again and again in 2025

This year, I have spent a lot of time listening at conferences, in partner meetings, and in working sessions. One message has been remarkably consistent: people want a better way to share information across public sector, NGOs, and the private sector. Not as a nice-to-have. As a baseline requirement for modern response.

It has been close to universal in its demand.

That consistency matters because it validates the premise behind HRA. It also raises the bar. If the need is this widely recognized, then the next step is building something that is simple enough to use under pressure, credible enough to be trusted across sectors, and practical enough to support action, not just awareness.

What we focused on: convene, train, and platform NGO partners

In 2025, our work centered on three priorities that reinforce each other.

We convened partners in working sessions that focus on real constraints, not theory. Those conversations are where the friction points surface early, where roles become clearer, and where the trust gets built before the next crisis forces the issue.

We trained with an emphasis on readiness that translates into the field. That means shared habits for information sharing, clearer expectations for how partners communicate, and practical ways to develop a shared picture quickly, especially when healthcare access is under strain.

And we invested in platforming NGO partners so their capabilities and activities are easier to understand and act on without creating burdensome reporting. In disasters, visibility is not a vanity metric. It shapes where resources go, how gaps get identified, and how quickly communities can get what they need.

Looking ahead to 2026

HRA is heading into 2026 with a stronger foundation, clearer lessons, and growing momentum from partners who keep telling us the same thing: this is needed.

In year two, our focus is straightforward. We will keep improving the operating layer so that during the next emergency, partners can move faster with less friction, and communities can maintain access to the services that keep people healthy and alive.

If you have been building with us, thank you. If you have been looking for a practical way to strengthen cross-sector information sharing before the next disaster, we want to talk.