IFMSA report on the
Youth Pre-World Health Assembly Workshop 2017
IFMSA President Omar Cherkaoui president@ifmsa.org Vice President for Activities Dominic Schmid vpa@ifmsa.org Vice President for Finance Joakim Bergman vpf@ifmsa.org Vice President for Members Monica Lauridsen Kujabi vpm@ifmsa.org Vice President for External Affairs Marie Hauerslev vpe@ifmsa.org Vice President for Capacity Building Andrej Martin Vujkovac vpcb@ifmsa.org Vice President for PR & Communication Firas R. Yassine vpprc@ifmsa.org
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 132 National Member Organizations from 124 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.
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Contents
Welcome Message Page 3
Message from the Organising Committee Page 4
Meet the Organising Committee Page 5
Acknowledgement Page 6
Introduction to the Youth PreWHA Page 8
Program and Content Page 9
www.ifmsa.org
Stream Reports Page 11
Visibility and Social Media Page 17
Data Evaluation and Outcomes Page 18
Photo Credits: Cover Copyright Š 2016 - WHO/L. Cipriani Page: 5, Copyright Š 2015 - WHO/Violaine Martin.
Welcome Message Marie Hauerslev IFMSA Vice-President for External Affairs 2016 - 2017 vpe@ifmsa.org
Dear reader, The IFMSA Youth Pre-World Health Assembly Workshop (PreWHA) is an incredible event offering the exciting nexus between theory and practice, global and local, evidence and policy, and skills and knowledge of global health diplomacy to young people from all around the world. The 2017 version was a great success with many high level speakers, great skills workshops, in depth discussion and preparations in groups for the following 70th World Health Assembly. Thus, the PreWHA is an excellent capacity building event, followed by practical external representation and advocacy during the WHA. Watching the leaders of our NMOs grow into strong global health advocates, with emphasis on equity and justice in all fields, is truly inspiring and gives me greater hope for the future. The delegates of the preWHA have tremendous potential, and by keeping the collaboration there is no limit for what we can achieve together. To me, it is crucial that IFMSA offers such opportunities to our members, and the Federation serving as a uniting body for students with interest in global health diplomacy is a desire, honour and a privilege. The Organising Committee are the people who made this possible. They deserve the largest applause and credit for establishing such a wonderful event. The programme was excellent, the logistics were smooth, the finances were stable, and the atmosphere was enthusing. I believe IFMSA can be proud of the great leadership showed by Tom Pearson and Amine Lotfi in this regard. Also, our long-standing partnership with the Geneva Graduate Institute was impeccable once again. In IFMSA we provide opportunities to medical students from all over the world, we unite, we improve ourselves, and then we create change at all levels of society. The PreWHA is one of our best examples of that. I wish all the delegates and the OC a bright future in global health, and want to express that you all have been part of improving our Federation. All the best, Marie.
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Message from the Organising Committee
Dear reader, In front of you, you will find the report of the Pre-World Health Assembly 2017 that took place prior to the 70th World Health Assembly. During this Pre-WHA workshop, the 50 participants explored contemporary issues in global health governance, practiced diplomacy and discovered how to turn ideas into policy action within the World Health Organization. Our workshop was built on these topics, made relevant by our four streams of work: adolescent health, human resources for health, migrants health and non-communicable diseases. Working together the participants created advocacy strategies for their stream, before putting their training into action at the WHA. This year’s PreWHA was fortunately attended by students from a variety of backgrounds including medical, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary sciences and public health from 24 countries. This greatly contributed to the quality and diversity of discussion, and we are very thankful for everyone’s participation. Our utmost gratitude goes out to all those that contributed to the success event: our National Member Organizations that helped shape the policy and priorities of our federation, those that contributed online via social media or asking questions, the members of the Team of Officials and the Pre-World Health Assembly Organizing Committee. We thank the World Health Organization for the unique opportunity to continue to send a large delegation of youth delegates each year. We would like to thank our partners, the Global Health Centre of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, the Global Health Workforce Network of the World Health Organization, the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Stop TB Partnership, who all contributed to making this event possible. We also thank all of the invited speakers for sharing their time, knowledge and expertise with us all. We would also like to thank all of the participants. We’re extremely proud of the successes they have celebrated, the time they have taken to support each other and their work ensuring youth meaningfully contribution to global health governance. We’re incredibly excited to see the impact they continue to have when they return home and as they journey through their careers. We hope you are as excited as we are with this year’s PreWHA and WHA, and wish you the best of luck with all of your endeavours this year. Kind regards, The Organizing Committee.
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Meet the Organising Committee
Tom Pearson, Chair
Tori Berquist, Vice-Chair
Amine Lotfi, Program Coordinator
Larissa Padayachee, PR and Media Coordinator
Charlotte O’Leary, Logistics Coordinator
Eric Sung, Treasurer
Behrouz Nezafat, Stream Coordinator, Migrants’ Health
Aline D. Khatchikian, Stream Coordinator, Human Resources for Health
Carles Pericas Escale, Stream Coordinator, Adolescents’ Health
Skander Essafi, Stream Coordinator, Non-Communicable Diseases
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Acknowledgements We would like to thank our partners, the Global Health Centre of the Graduate Institute Geneva, the Global Health Workforce Network of the World Health Organization, the Stop TB Partnership, and UNAIDS for their continuous support to bring the PreWHA once again to a great success. Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute Geneva The Graduate Institute is an institution of research and higher education (Master and PhD). Selective and cosmopolitan, it is located in the heart of International Geneva and specialises in the study of the major global, international and transnational challenges facing the contemporary world. It also offers professional development programmes and expertise to international actors from the public, private and non-profit sectors. The Global Health Centre (GHC), established in spring 2008 at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, is unique in Europe as a research centre integrated into an institute of international relations and development. Strategically located in the heart of Geneva, the ‘health capital of the world’, the Centre focuses on combining the practice and analysis of global health at the interface with foreign policy, trade and development. The GHC examines the characteristics and mechanisms of global health governance and multi-stakeholder governance for health at the beginning of the 21st century and engages in capacity building in global health diplomacy. It also builds partnerships with a wide range of actors at international, regional and national levels. StopTB Partnership The Stop TB Partnership is leading the way to a world without tuberculosis. Founded in 2001, the Partnership’s mission is to serve every person who is vulnerable to TB and ensure that high-quality diagnosis, treatment and care is available to all who need it. Together their 1500 partners are a collective force that is transforming the fight against TB in more than 100 countries. They include international and technical organizations, government programmes, research and funding agencies, foundations, NGOs, civil society and community groups and the private sector. Global Health Workforce Network, World Health Organization The purpose of the WHO Global Health Workforce Network is to promote the implementation of the Global Strategy’s vision to: “Accelerate progress towards universal health coverage and the UN Sustainable Development Goals by ensuring equitable access to health workers within strengthened health systems through inter-sectoral engagement. The Network, in supporting WHO, will aim to maintain high-level political commitment, promote inter-sectoral and multilateral policy dialogue, including, as appropriate, through public–private collaboration, facilitate the alignment of global health initiatives to the HRH investment priorities outlined in the Global Strategy, and foster global coordination and mutual accountability.
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Acknowledgements UNAIDS UNAIDS is the leading advocate for global action against HIV/AIDS. Its mission is to guide, strengthen and support worldwide efforts to turn the tide against the epidemic. Such efforts are aimed at: preventing the spread of HIV, providing care and support for those infected and affected by the disease, reducing the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV/AIDS and easing the socioeconomic and human impact of the epidemic.
We are also eternally grateful to our speakers for supporting our program: • Dr. Maria Neira, Director, Department of Public Health, Social and Environmental Determinants of Health, World Health Organization • Dr. Michaela Told, Executive Director, Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute Geneva • Dr. Mihály Kökény, Senior Fellow, Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute Geneva • Dr. Graham Lister, Senior Fellow, Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute Geneva Migrant’s Health Stream • Dr. Manuel Carballo, Executive Director, International Centre for Migration, Health and Development • Ms. Clarisse Delorme, Advocacy Advisor, World Medical Association • Ms. Jacqueline Weekers, Senior Migration Health Policy Advisor, International Organization for Migration Non-Communicable Diseases Stream • Dr. Bente Mikkelsen, Head of Secretariat, NonCommnicable Diseases Global Coordination Mechanism, World Health Organization • HRH Princess Dina Mirad of Jordan, President-elect, Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) • Dr. Ishu Kataria, Global Coordinator, Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network (YP-CDN)
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• Dr. Mychelle Farmer, Governing Council Member, NCD Child and Pediatrician, American Academy of Pediatrics Adolescent Health • Dr. Luiz Loures, Deputy Executive Director, UNAIDS • Dr. David Ross: Organisation
Medical Officer, World Health
• Ms. Hayley Gleeson, ACT! 2030 Coordinator, International Planned Parenthood Federation • Mr. Cecilia Zvosec, Senior Program Associate, Women Deliver • Mr. Rubén Pagés, Youth Programmes Coordinator, UNAIDS Human Resources for Health • Ms. Tana Wuliji, Technical Officer WHO Health Workforce Department • Ms. Christiane Wiskow, Health sector specialist, ILO • Dr. Amanda Howe, President, WONCA • Dr. Otmar Kloiber, Secretary General, WMA • Ms. Chiara Zanette, Health Care in Danger, ICRC • Dr. Remco van de Pas, Researcher, Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp
Introduction to the Youth PreWHA
For the past 60 years, IFMSA has been engaging with the World Health Organization to promote youth engagement in global health governance. One of the most significant events is the annual World Health Assembly (WHA), serving as the main arena for health discussions among member states and civil society. Started in 2013, the Youth Pre-World Health Assembly Workshop has become an important event for the IFMSA and the broader youth community engaged in health. The event aims to educate and empower future leaders in health while developing a collaborative approach to youth participation at the World Health Assembly. Specifically, the Youth PreWorld Health Assembly aims to: • Increase visibility and impact of youth participation and collaboration at the World Health Assembly by facilitating coordination of youth organizations, civil society, the WHO and its member states;
• Develop skills in advocacy, health care leadership, and policy engagement towards action on global health within youth; • Foster of a sense of community amongst youth coming from a variety of different, social, cultural and geographic backgrounds; • Promote joint advocacy and project ideas pertaining to global health issues at local, national and international levels between various youth organization. In 2017, the PreWHA event ran from the 17th until the 21st of May, for 5 days before the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The overarching theme was global health diplomacy, governance and leadership, with focused streams on adolescent health, human resources for health, migrants’ health, and non-communicable diseases. Working together the participants created advocacy strategies for their stream, before putting their training into action at the WHA.
• Provide youth with a better understanding of global health governance and diplomacy, and its importance at national and global levels;
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Program and Content May 17th was the arrival day, with a welcome dinner featuring an informal keynote address by Dr. Maria Neira (Director, Department of Public Health, Social and Environmental Determinants of Health, World Health Organization). The program was grouped into sessions focusing on overarching global health issues (green), stream-specific issues (blue) and skills-oriented capacity building (yellow).
Sessions on Overarching Issues: Our first session was “Introduction to Global Health Diplomacy and Governance”. Dr. Michaela Told (Executive Director of the Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute Geneva) presented and discussed the academic aspects of global health diplomacy of today. Dr. Mihály Kökény (Senior Fellow of the Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute Geneva) presented the process from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and described the process of election of the new WHO Director-General as well as the profiles of the three candidates. Tana Wuliji (Technical Officer, Health Workforce, WHO) and Christiane Wiskow (Health Services Specialist, ILO) gave a session on health workforce-related issues. They introduced the health workforce concept, and discussed challenges
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facing, and shortage of health workers in the future, including issues related to retention of health workers. The session was highly participatory and engaging. Dr. Eugenio Villar (Coordinator of the Social Determinants of Health Unit, World Health Organization) introduced the Health in All Policies (HiAP) concept and discussed its scope and relevance to the SDGs. He also presented the approach of the WHO to Social Determinants of Health (SDH) with examples relevant to the streams. Participants identified how to integrate the HiAP and SDH approach in their advocacy work, underpinned by Dr. Villar’s expertise.
Keynote Speeches Dr. Luiz Loures (Deputy Executive Director, UNAIDS) made a keynote speech thanking IFMSA for their leadership in supporting youth participation in the HIV response, as former Coordinator of The PACT, and current lead of The PACT in
Program and Content policy and legal barriers. He followed the initial remarks with a personal testimony of what it was like to be a young doctor and treat the first cases of HIV in Brazil and provided an overview of how the training and resources for medical students have evolved since the start of the epidemic. Dr. Suvanand Sahu (Deputy Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership) made a keynote speech about the progress and challenges in fighting tuberculosis and presented the paradigm shift of the partnership (reach at least 90% of all people with TB, 90% of the key populations and achieve at least 90% of treatment success). He also made parallels between TB and Migrant’s Health, NCDs and highlighted the opportunities ahead for IFMSA to engage in the global agenda (UN High Level Meeting on TB in September 2018 and the Health Ministers Meeting on TB in November 2017).
Trainings The first training session on Global Health Advocacy was conducted by Prof. Graham Lister (Senior Fellow of the Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute Geneva). The participants got an introduction to global diplomacy and how to actively advocate in international meetings.
The second session was an “Introduction to the WHA: A briefing for New Delegates”, hosted and organized by the Graduate Institute and open to participants outside of the Youth PreWHA. This event was supported by the United Nations Foundation and counted with the participation of renowned speakers, which gave a context to the new delegates about the fundamental topics that would be discussed during the WHA.
Stream Reports:
Non-Communicable Diseases Stream Coordinator: Skander Essafi, (Tunisia), lph@ifmsa.org Stream Participants: Julian Low (Singapore), Dagna Lek (The Netherlands), Sandra Stelzer (Germany), Laura Kalkman (The Netherlands), Patrick Walker (Australia), Adit Desai (India), Ming Li Chen (Taiwan), Gaelle Rached (Lebanon), Edward Appiah-Kubi (Ghana), Mozan MOhammed (Sudan), Jessica Zhang (Australia), Marie Hauerslev (Denmark).
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for 40 million deaths annually, accounting for more than two-thirds of global mortality. Perhaps even more alarming, 15 million people under the age of 70 lose their lives due to NCDs each year. WHO has described this group of chronic illnesses as a ‘slow motion disaster’, and the status of NCDs as an urgent and pressing global health issue is undeniable. Importantly, these conditions share four main risk factors: poor diet, physical inactivity, tobacco smoking, and inappropriate use of alcohol. The fact that these risk factors are common to all NCDs presents a unique opportunity for coordinated action to limit the threat NCDs pose to human health. Further, rather than individual choice alone driving poor health behaviours, systemic factors play a significant role. Socioeconomic status, educational attainment, access to fresh food, health literacy, urban layout and proximity of services all contribute to NCD risk, and must be integral to any mitigation strategy. International health bodies such as IFMSA and WHO are therefore optimally placed to deliver outcomes in this space. Accordingly, NCDs formed the basis of a thematic stream at this year’s IFMSA youth pre-World Health Assembly workshop. The WHA is an ideal forum for advocacy on NCD control, cancer prevention and treatment, and tobacco control. IFMSA delegates came together to represent the global youth on these issues, with a variety of capacitybuilding and advocacy workshops and sessions. Ending childhood obesity in particular is key to ensuring a healthy future, and through a WHA-specific policy brief (click here) , we recommended a host of interventions including a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, subsidies for healthy foods, and
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restrictions on the advertising of unhealthy food and drink to children. Further, we were privileged with the opportunity to write statements on cancer prevention and control, the importance of strengthened tobacco control, and the 2018 UN High Level Meeting on NCD prevention and control, to be read to WHA delegates from around the world. Together with an acute sense of urgency and motivation for change, this preparation equipped us with the knowledge and skills to take us into the pre-WHA workshop and the WHA itself. Several sessions of the youth pre-WHA were dedicated to NCDs. Additionally, there was time available for participants in the NCD stream to prepare their advocacy strategy for the WHA. One of the keynote speakers present was Dr. Bente Mikkelsen, head of the Secretariat for the WHO Global Coordination Mechanism, who explained why NCDs are a public health disaster in slow motion. According to Dr Mikkelsen, there is a need for additional resources, advocacy and social mobilisation regarding this issue. We also heard from Dr. Cherian Verghese, who taught us more about resources allocated towards cancer control, fiscal food policies such as sugar taxing and the need for a stronger international treaty for tobacco control. Finally, he gave us the advice to always make sure public health policies relate to practice, and emphasised the need to go into the field, talk to people working on the ground, and find out the best way to empower them to create change. During a fascinating panel discussion on NCDs, Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, Dr Mychelle
NCD Stream Panel Discussion
Farmer from NCD Child, and Dr Ishu Kataria from Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network discussed how rapid distribution of unhealthy food in rural areas and increased urbanisation cause the prevalence of obesity to grow rapidly. Several ways to reverse this trend, such as banning unhealthy products from school zones and promoting physical activity were mentioned. Additionally, Princess Mired spoke about the need to find creative ways to communicate with youth in order to prevent NCDs and explain to people how they are currently victims of commercial determinants of health. We were advised to participate in intergenerational collaboration and help think of new and fun ways to engage young people in NCD prevention. NCDs remain the biggest cause of death worldwide, but continue to suffer from chronic underfunding and a relative lack of attention. The prominence of NCDs in this year’s WHA is a promising start, but tangible action is required if we are to reverse the increase in premature death that these illnesses cause. The time for action is now, and IFMSA is well placed to play an important role in this next big public health challenge of our generation.
NCD Stream Participants
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Stream Reports: Migrants’ Health
Stream Coordinator: Behrouz Nezafat, (UK) Stream Participants: Marian Sedlak (Slovakia), Hiba Ghandour (Lebanon), Aya Jamal Mohamed (Egypt), Alice Claeson (Sweden), Rosie Herrington (UK), Pei Xi Agnes Yip (Hong Kong), Charles Litwin (Quebec), Khaled Abdul Jawad (Lebanon), Reem Gouda (Egypt), Aisyah Jamil (Russia), Vivan Tam (Canada)
More people are on the move now than ever before. The overwhelming majority of migrants leave their countries of origin voluntarily, in search of better economic, social and educational opportunities and a better environment. At the end of 2015, there were estimated to be over 244 million international migrants (about 3.5% of the world’s population), representing an increase of 77 million – or 41% – compared with the year 2000. However, the world is also witnessing the highest level of forced displacement in decades due to insecurity and conflicts. At the end of 2015, there were estimated to be over 21 million refugees and 3 million asylum seekers worldwide, in addition to 763 million internal migrants (about 11% of the world’s population), of whom over 40 million were internally displaced persons. Although migration is one of the old phenomenons recorded in history, it still presents challenges that need to be addressed, especially within health. Research on the health of migrant groups has shown that in many cases they display worst health outcomes compared to non-migrants. There are many reasons behind this inequity and it is necessary for the relevant
stakeholders, including the leaders and health professionals of tomorrow, to ensure migrant’s health is treated as a priority and as a step towards Universal Health Coverage. The Pre-WHA stream aimed to discuss the current situation of migrants worldwide as well as the work that WHO and other organisations are carrying out in the field. Dr Manuel Carballo, executive director of International Centre for Migration, Health and Development, delivered a presentation on the history and future of migration. In addition, through a panel discussion with speakers from World Medical Association (WMA) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) we explored the current global health agenda in migrant’s health, the role of youth and how health system preparedness, innovation and research can improve the situation at a global scale. Participants then worked on the agenda item 13.7 from WHA70 in order to prepare a policy brief to advocate for future guidance from WHO to include promotion of research on migrant’s health, protection of human rights for those in detention as well as protecting the welfare of child migrants.
Stream Reports: Adolescents’ Health
Stream Coordinator: Carles Pericas Escale, (Catalonia, Spain), lra@ifmsa.org Stream Participants: Sarah Sobka (UK), Tabea Leusser (Germany), Hatem El-Sheemy (Egypt), Sukhdeep Singh Arora (Germany), Yazeed Khrais (Jordan), Elizabeth Pillai (UK), Eman Hassan Soliman (Egypt), Firas R. Yassine (Lebanon), Chia Yen Sung (Taiwan)
Adolescents (between the ages of 10 and 19 years) are often thought of as a healthy group. Nevertheless, many adolescents do die prematurely due to accidents, suicide, violence, pregnancy related complications and other illnesses that are either preventable or treatable. Many more suffer chronic ill-health and disability. In addition, many serious diseases in adulthood have their roots in adolescence. For example, tobacco use, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, poor eating and exercise habits, lead to illness or premature death later in life.
The adolescent health stream had the following main objectives:
Classical healthcare approaches weren't too keen on acknowledging the specific needs of those aged 10-19 years, treating them either as young adults or older children and subsequently overlooking many of the health needs throughout such a key period of developmental landmarks. Thanks to all the mechanisms supporting The Global Strategy, adolescent health and rights have managed to achieve their own spaces in discussions. Topics such as autonomous decision making, mental health issues arising during this stage of life, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and access to friendly services have slowly taken over more outdated approaches. Still, in the IFMSA we recognise that many fields remain neglected and for the past 4 years, we’ve been pushing at all levels to make Adolescent Health a priority for health policy makers and other stakeholders. Added to that, May 2017 was the month in which the Global Guidance for Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA! Framework) was launched, following a set of official consultations, so it was a key moment for IFMSA to show its commitment towards the topic and the Pre-WHA and the WHA were really optimal setting to do that.
To achieve the abovementioned objectives, both the stream participants and the whole Pre World Health Assembly group attended a different set of sessions.
• Why is adolescent health important and how does it relate to SRHR? • What are the challenges and missteps to carry out interventions that aim at protecting and improving the health of adolescents? • What are the most relevant topics to consider when addressing adolescent health issues?
• Adolescent Health, Implementation Challenges: Dr. David Ross from WHO joined us for a presentation on the implementation challenges present when it comes to
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Stream Reports: Adolescents’ Health
Adolescent Health Programming. • Challenging current Standards of CSE: As part of the UNESCO Comprehensive Sexuality Education Guidelines update, IFMSA worked together with Hayley Gleeson from IPPF to collect the views medical students have on the necessary standards of CSE. • Adolescent Health Panel Discussion: The panel discussion with two wonderful speakers from UNAIDS and Women Deliver worked around the topics of meaningful youth and adolescent participation, SRHR and Adolescent Friendly Services. Added to this, participants also worked actively on the advocacy strategy including the creation of two policy briefs on Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Ending AIDS as well as on a support letter to show our commitment towards the AA-HA! Framework.
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Stream Reports: Human Resources for Health
Stream Coordinator: Aline D. Khatchikia, (Quebec, Canada) Stream Participants: Zineb Bentounsi (Morocco), Ayilkin Çelik (Bulgaria), Alan Patlan Hernandez (Mexico), Vanessa Chen (Singapore), Batool Al-Wahdani (Jordan), Mohamed Khozima (Sudan), Mauro Henrique Camacho (Brazil)
By 2035, we expect a shortage of 12.9 million health workers. In order to counter this shift, we need effective workforce planning to guarantee the right distribution between specialities, countries, rural and urban areas. We need to ensure the right learning and working environment to keep our health workers safe, offer them opportunities and encourage them to stay in their communities. Moreover, health workers must have the right set of knowledge, skills and competences from accredited schools to ensure quality care of our population. Investment in the health workforce is a step towards socioeconomic gains in quality education, gender equality, decent work and inclusive economic growth. The health sector is a growing source of employment and an increased opportunity for all, especially women and young people. As physicians of tomorrow, IFMSA foresee the global challenges related to health workforce planning, deficit, quality assurance, distribution, and migration. Therefore, HRH was chosen as one of the four streams of the Youth PreWHA Workshop of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA). The objectives of this stream were the following: • Underline the importance in HRH in the SDG Framework and Universal Health Coverage • Thoroughly annalyse the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth Report • Master the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 • Get familiar with the WHO Global Code of Practice on Recruitment.
• Get insight on the challenges of health workforce retention in remote and rural areas • Display IFMSA’s actions as a youth-led organization in addressing HRH with relevant stakeholders • Get inspired to get involve in HRH as the youth The later were achieved through high quality sessions given by experts in the field of HRH which include: • Introduction to HRH by Aline D. Khatchikian, stream coordinator: This short presentation introduced the main concepts of HRH and brought forth the appropriate WHO documentation on this topic. • Investing in #HealthWorkers for health, equality, jobs and growth by Tana Wuliji and Christiane Wiskow: Participants learned about the interagency coordination to amplify health and social workforce investments and intersectoral action to support attainment of the 2030 Agenda. Discussions were directed towards the consequences of chronic underinvestment in the health workforce. • HRH Panel with Dr. Amanda Howe, Dr. Otmar Kloiber, Dr. Remco van de Pas, Chiara Zanette, Aline D. Khatchikian: Through a dynamic panel discussion, participants listened to expert advice on the future and current challenges of HRH. In sum, participants worked together in order prepare for the WHA70 discussions on Agenda point 13.1: Human resources for health and implementation of the outcomes of the United Nations' High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth. Not only did they enrich their knowledge on Human Resources for Health, they also developed advocacy, communication and teamwork skills.
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Visibility and Social Media Merchandise: Merchandise in the form of pens, notebooks, Organizing Committee (OC) shirts, tote bags, banner, and lanyards were created for the preWHA event. All merchandise (except for pens and the OC shirts) contained sponsorship logos.
Social Media and Advocacy: A presentation was prepared by the Social Media and Public Relations Rep on the OC regarding social media and advocacy. The goals of this presentation were to help delegates: 1) Recognize social media as a useful and effective advocacy tool 2) Analyze cases where social media has been utilized for advocacy purposes 3) Encourage participation in IFMSA preWHA 2017 social media advocacy efforts 4) Supply tips for effective social media use for advocacy and awareness
Humans of #yWHA Campaign: A social media campaign was trailed this year during the PreWHA and the WHA70. Humans of #yWHA is a campaign loosely based off of “Humans of New York.” The purpose of
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this campaign was to generate awareness of the preWHA and the astounding delegates from across the world that were selected to attend. It is the hope that NMO representatives would become informed of their colleagues attending the PreWHA and WHA70 on their behalf and have the opportunity to seek them out for more information in the future. Nearly 20% of IFMSA preWHA delegates participated in this project which included an informal interview, photo-shoot and approval generated infographics for IFMSA preWHA advertising via twitter and facebook.
Visibility of IFMSA at the preWHA and WHA70: All participants were encouraged to to use #yWHA and #WHA70 throughout the duration of the preWHA and WHA event. In Summary, IFMSA as a student groups dominated the hashtag #WHA70 according to “Top #WHA70 Influencers” on twitter analytics, ranking 5th by mentions (1,689) and 6th by number of tweets (445). IFMSA was tagged in tweets from @UNAIDS and @Michel Sidibe the current Executive Director of UNAIDS. A twitter highlight from the preWHA was a twitter follow from @davidnabarro, a candidate of the WHO-DG election in 2017. The hashtag #yWHA was used 500+ times during the PreWHA.
Data Evaluation and Outcomes We hardwired impact evaluation into the preparation and execution of the Youth PreWHA, administering surveys to the participants before and after the preWHA. The surveys underpinned IFMSA’s vision and mission as well as our goals for the event. The chart on the next page shows the aggregated results. Of note, for all items the average score after the PreWHA was higher than before the PreWHA, suggesting that participants have been equipped with the relevant tools and skills in the realms of global health diplomacy and advocacy. There was strong agreement among respondents that the PreWHA provided a good venue for preparing for the World Health Assembly. We expect that many of the metrics will increase further during the WHA, as delegates put into practice the tools and knowledge they have obtained.
Algeria (Le Souk) Antigua and Barbuda (AFMS) Argentina (IFMSA-Argentina) Armenia (AMSP) Australia (AMSA) Austria (AMSA) Azerbaijan (AzerMDS) Bangladesh (BMSS) Belgium (BeMSA) Benin (AEMB) Bolivia (IFMSA-Bolivia) Bosnia and Herzegovina (BoHeMSA)
Congo (MSA-DRC)
Kenya (MSAKE)
Denmark (IMCC)
Korea (KMSA)
Dominican Republic (ODEM)
Kosovo (KOMS)
Ecuador (AEMPPI)
Kuwait (KuMSA)
Egypt (IFMSA-Egypt)
Latvia (LaMSA)
El Salvador (IFMSA-El Salvador)
Lebanon (LeMSIC)
Estonia (EstMSA)
Libya (LMSA)
Ethiopia (EMSA)
Lithuania (LiMSA)
Fiji (FJMSA)
Luxembourg (ALEM)
Finland (FiMSIC)
Malawi (UMMSA)
France (ANEMF)
Mali (APS)
Gambia (UniGaMSA)
Malta (MMSA)
Georgia (GMSA)
Mexico (IFMSA-Mexico)
Lesotho (LEMSA)
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Morocco (IFMSA-Morocco)
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Colombia (ASCEMCOL)
Peru (IFMSA-Peru)
United States of America (AMSA)
Costa Rica (ACEM)
Ireland (AMSI)
Peru (APEMH)
Uruguay (IFMSA-URU)
Croatia (CroMSIC)
Israel (FIMS)
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Poland (IFMSA-Poland)
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Portugal (ANEM)
Zambia (ZaMSA)
Democratic Republic of the
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Zimbabwe (ZimSA)
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Russian Federation - Republic of
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