IFMSA Programs: the complete guide [English]

IFMSA Programs: the complete guide [ English ]

Developed by the Projects Support Division Decembrer 2014

IFMSA Imprint Editor in Chief Ljiljana Lukic Projects Support Division Director Contributors Ann-Kathrin Asen (Germany) PSD Regional Assistant for Europe Karim El Sayed (Egypt) PSD Regional Assistant for the EMR Transltors David Imbago Jácome (Ecuador) General Assistant for the Americas Elias Karam (France) Moumini Niaone (Burkina Faso) PSD Regional Assistant for Africa Publications Support Division Firas Yassine - Lebanon Mikolaj Maga - Poland

The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization representing associations of medical students worldwide. IFMSA was founded in 1951 and currently maintains 123 National Member Organizations from more than 100 countries across six continents, representing a network of 1.3 million medical students.

IFMSA envisions a world in which medical students unite for global health and are equipped with the knowledge, skills and values to take on health leadership roles locally and globally, so to shape a sustainable and healthy future.

IFMSA is recognized as a nongovernmental organization within the United Nations’ system and the World Health Organization; and works in collaboration with the World Medical Association.

Publisher International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA)

This is an IFMSA Publication

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What is an IFMSA Program?

IFMSA Programs are centralized streams of different activities done by IFMSA National Member Organizations (NMOs) and IFMSA internationally. IFMSA Programs address problems within a specific field that we as medical students and global health advocates stand up for while connecting local, national and international activities and opportunities that contribute to the final outcome.

- Insight on impact we as medical students have on - health of the communities worldwide

Where are we now?

At the moment, the IFMSA Team of Officials and Executive Board are building IFMSA Programs and NMOs will have the opportunity to decide which of these programs they wish for IFMSA to adopt. Everyone can be part of development and implementation of IFMSA Programs All IFMSA Programs connect the work of NMOs locally through the IFMSA Project Support Division and with the and nationally with the IFMSA vision and mission. NMOs help of the Implementation Small Working Group. decide which programs are to be adopted by IFMSA by voting on the programs proposed by the Executive Board IFMSA Program Initiation and Team of Officials during the General Assembly.

New programs are proposed by the IFMSA Executive Programs are lead by program coordinators and Board and are voted by the IFMSA NMOs during overseen by the Executive Board to ensure their quality IFMSA General Assembly. IFMSA Executive Board of implementation, consistency and sustainability of the is guided by its Team of Officials or any NMO about programs. proposal of any new program. For more information and detailed description of initiation process, please refer to Why did we change from IFMSA Projects? the Program Bylaws and Programs Internal Operating - 15-30% of an IFMSA project‘s timeline is spent on Guidelines. applying for IFMSA recognition - Only 0.4% of projects are linked with external Structure of IFMSA Programs opportunities per year All NMOs and members of NMOs locally and nationally - Only 1.2% of projects used an external representation are encouraged to join an IFMSA Program through per year enrolling their activities, whether that be projects, - 18 projects are tabled for removal per term because campaigns, celebrations, workshops, events, trainings of the PSD bureaucracy or theme based publications (please refer to “How to - 11 projects are removed from IFMSA per term join an IFMSA program?” below). These activities are coordinated locally, nationally or internationally with because of PSD bureaucracy - Most of NMOs‘ projects could be described as the help and support from Program Coordinator and the relevant Standing Committee Director. Program campaigns, events, trainings or workshops Coordinators (1) enable and facilitate communication (*) The statistics above are not created based on random sample due between similar activities and NMOs, (2) organize to lack of archives and accordingly are subjected to bias. international activities with the support of NMOs and all general members, and (3) work with relevant Standing What do you get from it?

Committee Director and Liaison Officer on creating new - More efficiency opportunities, all with the aim of achieving the vision and - More funding opportunities for NMOs mission of the program while improving the performance - More collaboration between NMOs and activities of IFMSA. working on same problem - More external opportunities for capacity building More support to local and national activities

Internally, these activities don’t need to be just projects, campaigns, events, etc. but different research and capacity building activities as well as organized advocacy efforts

on local, national and international level.

Activities

Developing numerous activities in local, national and international communities delivered by medical students for medical students as well as the public on specific topics related to the theme of the program which contribute to achieving the overall goals of the programme.

Capacity building Building a community of medical students equipped with knowledge and skills on specific topic and providing opportunities for external partners enabled through different events, trainings, campaigns and projects. This way IFMSA externals will be contributing to national and international capacity building on specific theme.

Research Providing evidence for development of specific topic within the theme of programme. Medical students and IFMSA should use the research when delivering the change, evaluate impact and create opportunities for medical students in research while working together with academics and other stakeholders.

Advocacy Activities and research done by our members represent what medical students worldwide think and want for their future. These should be used for influencing policies on national and international level as well as to bring experts and externals back to our members to learn.

How to join IFMSA Program For you to join IFMSA Program, you should have an interesting activity (project, event, conference, workshop, campaign, celebration, etc.) that is in line with goals of one of the IFMSA Programs. You will be able to find the list and descriptions of IFMSA Programs on ifmsa.org after March Meeting 2015 and the list will be updated after each General Assembly.

Any activity, local, national or international, can join IFMSA Program by filling in the Activity Enrolment Form and signed support by your NMO President. This form should be submitted at least one month before the activity will start. Application will be reviewed by the Program Coordinator and Activity Coordinator will be informed in two weeks about whether its activity has been accepted to join IFMSA Program.

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This is a manual to help you enroll your activity in an IFMSA Program.

IFMSA Activities must be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.

This template has been made to give everybody a solid starting point when they want to carry out an official IFMSA Activity. It is meant to help you cover all aspects of the activity before you start working.

And remember: less is more, so make sure the entire document is concise and to the point.

To have feasible and measurable impact on the society that is in line with the program to be affiliated with

Activity Enrollment Form The description below explains what to expect when you open the Google form that is necessary to be sent as part of the application for affiliation with an IFMSA Program.

Activity name This does not have to be a catchy title, but this will Affiliation of an Activity with an IFMSA be the name we use when referencing the activity.

Program

For an activity to be affiliated with IFMSA program, the Activity Coordinator has to send the application to the Coordinator of the respective IFMSA Program one month before the starting date of the activity.

Contact Details Name of the activity coordinator Mail of the activity coordinator NMO of the activity coordinator

The application for the affiliation of the Activity to Information about Activity Standing Committee (one or multiple) the IFMSA Program shall include: Category (project, campaign, event, workshop, Activity Candidature Form signed and stamped training, other) by the NMO President Level (local, national, or international) Filled in Activity Enrollment Form Number of NMO(s) involved Activity Enrolment Form will be explained below, Expected date of the start of the activity but you should submit it through an easy to use Expected date of the end of the activity Google Form that will be made available to you just after the next IFMSA General Assembly.

Reasoning for joining the IFMSA Program Which IFMSA Program do you wish to affiliate/ The Enrollment Form is assessed by the Program enrol you Activity with Coordinator and relevant Standing Committee Director within two weeks after its submission and then, the applicant will be notified with the results.

How does this activity contribute to goals and expected outcomes of the IFMSA program.

What is the problem to be tackled?

What problem in the society or health do you want to address? There can be more than one purpose, To be organized by members of at least one but make sure this section is concise. Please note NMO that this section is not meant to be a summary of To work on a topic related to the IFMSA Program the description. the activity is applying to be affiliated with Target groups

For activity to be affiliated with an IFMSA Program, it shall fulfill the following:

To have clear goals, objectives and outcomes Who will benefit from this activity? You may have that are in line with goal and objectives of the two or more target groups. In that case, you should program to be affiliated with divide them into primary, secondary and maybe

even tertiary target groups. This prioritisation of target groups is important because it will determine the expected outcomes and objectives of the activity and your success indicators.

The evaluation is based on the objectives and indicators you define in this activity description.

In the evaluation form you will, for each indicator, briefly explain whether the activity reached its goal or not. If not, you should explain what challenges General description of the activity In this section you describe and explain your the activity team encountered that rendered you activity. What is the rationale behind it? Is there a unable to meet the goal defined by that particular historical, cultural or political context to it? What indicator. If you identify more ways to evaluate the is its structure, e.g. a general agenda for the activity, in the course of the activity period, naturally workshop, or the events you want to carry out as those should be included in the evaluation as well. part of the campaign. All in all, this is where you Activity Evaluation Form explain what the activity is about, why it is needed Organization of Activity etc.

Number of people in organization of the activity, Objectives and success indicators including the number of volunteers Include the objectives and their respective success indicators here. Objectives must be specific, and Beneficiaries How many people from target group of activity the indicators must enable you to gauge whether did you reach you have reached your objectives. So, indicators are there to enable you to gauge the success of Did you reach and how many people outside of your activity, and consequently, they must be your target group measurable. Often the indicators cannot directly Recognition measure whether you have reached your objective Number and names of partners (local, national, or not. In these cases, you may need to use sointernational) called proxy indicators.

Details concerning the visibility of your activity Plans for Evaluation and Monitoring (press releases, other media coverage be itlocal, Explain how will you be doing an evaluation, national, or international) including pre. and post evaluation and how will Details concerning recognition of your these be comparable. Name the indicators you will activity (awards, grants, official forums be it assess and monitor that will be able to show you governmental, non-governmental, WHO, or how much impact your activity has made on your other international agencies) target group and community.

Impact To what extent did the activity achieve own Evaluation of the Activity within an IFMSA goals Program In order to get a feedback from the Program Coordinator and to be able to get help and support for your activity through the IFMSA Program, the activity coordinator shall submit an Activity Evaluation Form the latest two weeks after the completion of the activity.

Explanation of impact based on indicators and objectives described in the Activity Enrollment Form