IFMSA Programs:the complete guide

[ English ]

Developed by the Projects Support Division

Decembrer 2014

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.

This is an IFMSA Publication© 2014 - Only portions of this publication may be reproduced for non political and non profit purposes, provided mentioning the source.

DisclaimerThis publication contains the collective views of different contributors, the opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of IFMSA.

The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the IFMSA in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

Imprint

Editor in ChiefLjiljana LukicProjects Support Division Director

ContributorsAnn-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 DivisionFiras Yassine - LebanonMikolaj Maga - Poland

IFMSA

Notice All reasonable precautions have been taken by the IFMSA to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material herein lies with the reader.

Some of the photos and graphics used in this publication are the property of their respective authors. We have taken every consideration not to violate their rights.

PublisherInternational Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA)

International Secretariat:c/o Academic Medical CenterMeibergdreef 15 1105AZ

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Phone: +31 2 05668823Email: gs@ifmsa.orgHomepage: www.ifmsa.org

Contact Us publications@ifmsa.org

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.

All IFMSA Programs connect the work of NMOs locally and nationally with the IFMSA vision and mission. NMOs decide which programs are to be adopted by IFMSA by voting on the programs proposed by the Executive Board and Team of Officials during the General Assembly. Programs are lead by program coordinators and overseen by the Executive Board to ensure their quality of implementation, consistency and sustainability of the programs.

Why did we change from IFMSA Projects?15-30% of an IFMSA project‘s timeline is spent on applying for IFMSA recognition

Only 0.4% of projects are linked with external opportunities per year

Only 1.2% of projects used an external representation per year

18 projects are tabled for removal per term because of the PSD bureaucracy

11 projects are removed from IFMSA per term because of PSD bureaucracy

Most of NMOs‘ projects could be described as campaigns, events, trainings or workshops

(*) The statistics above are not created based on random sample due

to lack of archives and accordingly are subjected to bias.

What do you get from it?

More efficiency

More funding opportunities for NMOs

More collaboration between NMOs and activities working on same problem

More external opportunities for capacity building

More support to local and national activities

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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 through the IFMSA Project Support Division and with the help of the Implementation Small Working Group.

IFMSA Program InitiationNew programs are proposed by the IFMSA Executive Board and are voted by the IFMSA NMOs during IFMSA General Assembly. IFMSA Executive Board is guided by its Team of Officials or any NMO about proposal of any new program. For more information and detailed description of initiation process, please refer to the Program Bylaws and Programs Internal Operating Guidelines.

Structure of IFMSA ProgramsAll NMOs and members of NMOs locally and nationally are encouraged to join an IFMSA Program through enrolling their activities, whether that be projects, campaigns, celebrations, workshops, events, trainings or theme based publications (please refer to “How to join an IFMSA program?” below). These activities are coordinated locally, nationally or internationally with the help and support from Program Coordinator and the relevant Standing Committee Director. Program Coordinators (1) enable and facilitate communication between similar activities and NMOs, (2) organize international activities with the support of NMOs and all general members, and (3) work with relevant Standing Committee Director and Liaison Officer on creating new opportunities, all with the aim of achieving the vision and mission of the program while improving the performance of IFMSA.

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

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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.

Affiliation of an Activity with an IFMSA 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.

The application for the affiliation of the Activity to the IFMSA Program shall include:

Activity Candidature Form signed and stamped by the NMO PresidentFilled in Activity Enrollment Form

Activity Enrolment Form will be explained below, but you should submit it through an easy to use Google Form that will be made available to you just after the next IFMSA General Assembly.

The Enrollment Form is assessed by the Program Coordinator and relevant Standing Committee Director within two weeks after its submission and then, the applicant will be notified with the results.

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

To be organized by members of at least one NMO To work on a topic related to the IFMSA Program the activity is applying to be affiliated withTo have clear goals, objectives and outcomes that are in line with goal and objectives of the program to be affiliated with

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 nameThis does not have to be a catchy title, but this will be the name we use when referencing the activity.

Contact DetailsName of the activity coordinatorMail of the activity coordinatorNMO of the activity coordinator

Information about ActivityStanding Committee (one or multiple)Category (project, campaign, event, workshop, training, other)Level (local, national, or international)Number of NMO(s) involved Expected date of the start of the activityExpected date of the end of the activity

Reasoning for joining the IFMSA ProgramWhich IFMSA Program do you wish to affiliate/ enrol you Activity with 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, but make sure this section is concise. Please note that this section is not meant to be a summary of the description.

Target groupsWho will benefit from this activity? You may have two or more target groups. In that case, you should 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.

General description of the activityIn this section you describe and explain your activity. What is the rationale behind it? Is there a historical, cultural or political context to it? What is its structure, e.g. a general agenda for the workshop, or the events you want to carry out as part of the campaign. All in all, this is where you explain what the activity is about, why it is needed etc.

Objectives and success indicatorsInclude the objectives and their respective success indicators here. Objectives must be specific, and the indicators must enable you to gauge whether you have reached your objectives. So, indicators are there to enable you to gauge the success of your activity, and consequently, they must be measurable. Often the indicators cannot directly measure whether you have reached your objective or not. In these cases, you may need to use so-called proxy indicators.

Plans for Evaluation and MonitoringExplain how will you be doing an evaluation, including pre. and post evaluation and how will these be comparable. Name the indicators you will assess and monitor that will be able to show you how much impact your activity has made on your target group and community.

Evaluation of the Activity within an IFMSA 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.

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 the activity team encountered that rendered you unable to meet the goal defined by that particular indicator. If you identify more ways to evaluate the activity, in the course of the activity period, naturally those should be included in the evaluation as well.

Activity Evaluation Form

Organization of ActivityNumber of people in organization of the activity, including the number of volunteers

BeneficiariesHow many people from target group of activity did you reachDid you reach and how many people outside of your target group

RecognitionNumber and names of partners (local, national, international) Details concerning the visibility of your activity (press releases, other media coverage be itlocal, national, or international)Details concerning recognition of your activity (awards, grants, official forums be it governmental, non-governmental, WHO, or other international agencies)

ImpactTo what extent did the activity achieve own goalsExplanation of impact based on indicators and objectives described in the Activity Enrollment Form