IFMSA Executive Board 2018-2019 President Batool Wahdani (Jordan) Vice-President for Activities Nebojsa Nikolic (Serbia) Vice-President for Members Fabrizzio Canaval (Peru) Vice-President for Finance Ahmed Taha (Egypt) Vice-President for External Affairs Marián Sedlák (Slovakia) Vice-President for Capacity Building Georg Schwarzl (Austria) Vice-President for PR & Communication José Chen Xu (Portugal)
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 135 National Member Organizations from 125 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) International Secretariat: c/o IMCC, Norre Allé 14, 2200 Kobenhavn N., Denmark
Phone: +31 2 05668823 Email: gs@ifmsa.org Homepage: www.ifmsa.org
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Regions Click on the blue circles to go to your desired region.
The African Region Page 5
The Americas Region Page 7
The Asia-Pacific Region Page 10
The Eastern Mediterranean Region
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The European Region Page 15
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Message from the VPM Fabrizzio Canaval IFMSA Vice-President for Members 2018-19 vpm@ifmsa.org
Dear NMOs, As part of the work that the Regional Directors and I have developed for the beginning of the term, we envision having our plans based not just in ideas but in a proper analysis of the Regional situation. Different regions face different challenges, but at the same time it is important for us to identify the common areas, so we can join forces in order to develop strategies to tackle those issues. The Regional Directors and I envisioned the process of making our Annual Working Plans based and your input but also in SWOT analysis of the regions and the federation from our perspective and merging it with the data we gather in the AM17 NMO report. In this way we were able to create a meaningful document that will be ensure further with the Regional Assessments and the upcoming NMO reports for the MM19 and AM19. Thus, this is going to be a dynamic analysis that will help us to track our progress and see the evolution of the challenges within the year. Last but not least, I would like to clarify that we do not pretend this document to be perfect, are open for inputs and we understand there are going to be different perspectives around the points we are sharing with you, however we tried to be as objective as possible and we want to share this with you to let you know what we consider is a great success towards doing a proper analysis of our regions and members’ situation. We hope you enjoy the read and see in them reflected our intentions to create a guiding document for our work and feel how important is for us to take into consideration your input and opinions in every step we take. Warmest Regards, Fabrizzio
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The African Region a. AM 2018 Report: Out of 15 NMOs that filled the report, there are 10 NMOs (66%) who prefer to English and 5 NMOs (34%) that prefer having French in the President’s sessions. Currently, the number of medical schools in the NMOs ranges from 1 to 50. The financial stability of NMOs is variable between the different NMOs. The varying degree of inflation and currency fluctuations within the countries does bring a challenge to stability to a certain extent, however there is also a need for more involvement as well as an improvement of the accountability and transparency of multiple NMOs.
Almost two thirds of the NMOs have a strong network with partners including the government however there is still room for improvement in terms of the communication. Two-thirds of the NMOs need to improve on the institutional memory, administrative framework, activity enrollment and require support for the formation of a national strategy.
Main areas for focus according to the AM2018 report are External Representation and Capacity Building for the members.
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b. SWOT Analysis: Several issues have hit the African Region, be it visa issues or loss of members due to various reasons. However, with 20 stable NMOs and hundreds of highly motivated members, the region still exhibits tons of potential to reshape the itself and get hold of the multiple opportunities at hand both internally and externally. We do have a severe deficiency of trainers within the regional database and also a lower presence with regards to policy writing and advocacy at both national and international levels.
This can be changed with sessions that shall be held at the ARM to enhance the skills of the attendees for writing and advocacy along with various trainings and external representation opportunities (e.g. WHO AFRO RC, African Union).In order to successfully attend the major events of the IFMSA, the visa hurdle still remains at the top of the table followed by expensive air travel within the region, however with a regional team of highly motivated and well prepared individuals, the support provided to the NMO members shall be strongly in order to equip them well in advance to ensure that the problems are mitigated.
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The Americas Region Out of the 30 NMOs of the Americas, 27 answered the AM18 NMO Report. We have 3 potential candidate NMOs which are Anguilla, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. a. Surface Analysis > Language used in Presidents Sessions : - The majority of NMOs (78%) marked feeling comfortable with the English Language > Regional Strategy - 14 NMOs (52%) had an overall knowledge of the Americas Strategic Plan and this denotes we need to keep familiarizing the Strategy with them. > NMOs with National Strategies - 63% of NMOs (17) have National Strategies which means we still need 1 NMO to achieve the - 70% set in the Americas Strategic Plan. - 89% is keen on developing a Buddy System for supporting the development of the national strategy.
> National Financial plan - 59% of NMOs (16) have developed a national financial plan, therefore we still need 5 NMOs to start developing this plan for the term to reach 80%. Fortunately, 91% (10) of the NMOs who answered NO are keen on developing a strategy. > Memorandum of Understanding - 59% of NMOs (16) have elaborated MoUs. > Policy Documents - 67% of NMOs (18) stated they have developed Policy documents which surpasses our 50% goal set on the Strategy.
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> LEAD Regulations : - 93% of NMOs (25) declared this should be established for the term. b. Characteristics to be improved The NMOs reported that the following characteristics need to be more improved than others: - Financial Stability. - Clear Strategy. - Sustainable. - Programs/Activities.
c. Development of NMOs in different topics > Internal Development - 37% reported a score of 4 which translates in no critical issues but still follow up is needed > External Representation - 41% of NMOs reported a score of 3 which means we are in need of more capacity building spaces and teaching skills in External Representation.
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> Activities and SCs - 26% reported needing improvement in this category > Capacity Building - 34% chose a score of 4 which means there are no big issues, however, we still need to aim for teaching CB. d. Help in developing topics > Internal Development - 41% of NMOs had a score of 2 which means there are no big issues in Internal Development, however, we still need to provide tools and developing skills for this purpose. > External Representation - 18% of NMOs reported a score of 5, therefore, a closer follow up needs to be done on them. > Activities and SCs - 34% reported a score of 4 which translates on to more efforts in developing SCs in these NMOs. > Capacity Building - The answers here were heterogeneous. 23% reports a low score, 23% refers a 4, 23% on a score of 3, 27% has a score of 2% and only 4 has a score of 1. This means there are different levels of development in Capacity Building so there is a need in adapting CB to the NMOs’ needs.
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The Asia-Pacific Region There are currently 18 NMOs in the region, 2 of which are candidate members and 1 is associate member. All these 18 NMOs in the region has conducted the NMO reports for AM18. Other than that, the RD has also approached some NMOs to further evaluated the status of NMOs and assisted them to set national analysis and strategies. a. Overview of NMO Reports AM18 The NMO report included several parts of questions on NMO overview, programme enrollment, and Standing Committee status. According to reports submitted, most of the NMOs are satisfied with their progress made in the year. They have also clearly stated their expectations on the field including management on NMO finances, projects/activities, and active members that they were looking forward to keep moving forward. NMOs are also looking forward to engage more to IFMSA and IFMSA’s projects with external partners.
The report indicated that the domestic organisations of Standing Committee activities were going well, yet the engagement of international document (policy documents) or resources (programme support) was relatively low.
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Besides, 4 NMOs do not have the LC structure yet, some other NMOs are still working on fostering structures and strengthening IFMSA- and NMO- promotions at the local level. The general ideas toward the TO-NMO buddy system was not very satisfied. The average points toward the performance of TOs in this system is 6/10 with 2 NMOs giving only 1/10. Besides, most of them are not familiar or satisfied with the concept of buddy system. Only 50% of NMO presidents found themselves worked well with the TO-NMO buddy. Most complaints were about the low-frequency of communication within the group. NMOs also raises some of their expectations toward the regional team and international team, including enhancing the accessibility of International Team members and capacity building to the NMOs on management and financial topics. The NMOs averagely reported 5.7/10 on their experiences working with International Team of Capacity Building and Standing Committees. b. Analysis of NMOs’ self evaluations In the NMO reports, NMOs were requested to conduct self-evaluation on the SC work as well the NMO management.
More than 50% of NMOs showed their self-confidence (more than 4/5) on the current development in the fields of capacity building, activities and SCs, and external representation. Based on the answers provided by NMOs, we can see that NMOs’ statuses of development were greatly differed, which was similar with our understanding. The internal development of NMOs was quite equal, which means that if one NMO is well-develop in one of the aspects, generally all the other aspects are also well-constructed; vise-versa.
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The NMOs also raised their concerns and expectations to a better trainer system in the region. Due to limited SRTs in the region and potential difficulties to the attendance of GAs, it is not as convenient for AP NMOs to cultivate IFMSA trainers. Only 44% NMOs (8 out of 18) reported enough trainers for national capacity building events in the past two years. Yet according to private discussions, lacking in IFMSA-certified trainers are not the main concerns, but little opportunities for general members to receive those training activities in the country. Similar situation applies to programme enrollment. NMOs are not very persuaded by the outcome of registration of programmes.
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The Eastern Mediterranean Region a. 14 out of 17 NMOs of the region filled the AM18 NMO report. The numbers below are out of those 14 NMOs. b. Regarding the structure of NMOs, many feel the need to improve their internal structure (9) and their vision and mission (7). 10 NMOs want to increase the number of members. Institutional memory and administrative framework are problems in 5 NMOs each.
c. 13 NMOs have a Training Support Division or similar structure. 7 reported that they need help with their divisions. Only half of the NMOs (7) employ procedures to evaluate the needs for members, and only 6 report that they have sufficient trainers. Most NMOs (7) have had 1-4 CB events in the past term.
d. Half of the NMOs (7) have MoUs with other organizations on the national level, 8 are involved in advocacy on the national level, 5 have national policies. 10 NMOs report that they need help with external representation, 6 NMOs reported that they would like to have policies on the national level.
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d. 7 NMOs have adopted national strategies, the other 7 are planning to create national strategies
f. 9 NMOs have a financial strategy/plan. g. Most NMOs feel the need to improve accountability measures, evaluation, and transparency, and more than half need to improve democracy. Most NMOs also feel the need to improve their internal communication, sustainability, and their programs/activities h. 11 prefer English, 2 prefer French, and 1 NMO prefers Arabic. No NMOs reported severe struggles with English.
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The European Region a. 48 out of 48 NMOs in the European Region filled the August Meeting 2018 report! b. 34 NMOs stated that the increase of members is possible in their organization, other 14 are already officially representing all the medical students in the country. 90% of the NMOs are aware that we have European Toolkit on member recruitment. The total number of members in NMOs did not significantly changed (<5% decrease) comparing to MM2018 and AM2017. c. NMOs feel the biggest need to improve their work in the following areas: i. Financial stability ii. IFMSA Programs and activities iii. Strong network of partners iv. Advocacy and external representation
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d. 30 NMOs are having Memoranda of Understanding signed with another organizations. 30 NMOs are having at least one national policy. 24 NMOs are having both policies and MoU. - There is a downward trend in number of NMOs having any MoU signed. - Most of the NMOs (37) are aware of the European stakeholder map.
e. 31 NMOs have national strategy, out of 17 without a strategy 6 would like to have assistance from the Regional Team.
f. 31 NMOs are having financial plan. 24 NMOs are having both national strategy and financial plan. g. 23 NMOs have a Training Support Division/Capacity Building Division in their structure, out of them 9 have developed a system to evaluate capacity building needs of the members. All of the NMOs held at least one sub-regional training during past 2 years. 17 NMOs stated that they have enough trainers to ensure proper capacity building.
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Algeria (Le Souk) Argentina (IFMSAArgentina) Armenia (AMSP) Aruba (IFMSA-Aruba) Australia (AMSA) Austria (AMSA) Azerbaijan (AzerMDS) Bangladesh (BMSS) Belgium (BeMSA) Bolivia (IFMSA-Bolivia) Bosnia & Herzegovina (BoHeMSA) Bosnia & Herzegovina – Republic of Srpska (SaMSIC) Brazil (DENEM) Brazil (IFMSA-Brazil) Bulgaria (AMSB) Burkina Faso (AEM) Burundi (ABEM) Cameroon (CAMSA) Canada (CFMS) Canada – Québec (IFMSA-Québec) Catalonia - Spain (AECS) Chile (IFMSA-Chile) China (IFMSA-China) China – Hong Kong (AMSAHK) Colombia (ASCEMCOL) Costa Rica (ACEM) Croatia (CroMSIC) Cyprus (CyMSA) Czech Republic (IFMSACZ) Democratic Republic of the Congo (MSA-DRC) Denmark (IMCC) Dominican Republic (ODEM) Ecuador (AEMPPI) Egypt (IFMSA-Egypt)
El Salvador (IFMSA-El Salvador) Estonia (EstMSA) Ethiopia (EMSA) Finland (FiMSIC) France (ANEMF) Gambia (UniGaMSA) Georgia (GMSA) Germany (bvmd) Ghana (FGMSA) Greece (HelMSIC) Grenada (IFMSAGrenada) Guatemala (IFMSAGuatemala) Guinea (AEM) Guyana (GuMSA) Haiti (AHEM) Honduras (IFMSAHonduras) Hungary (HuMSIRC) Iceland (IMSA) India (MSAI) Indonesia (CIMSA-ISMKI) Iran (IMSA) Iraq (IFMSA-Iraq) Iraq – Kurdistan (IFMSAKurdistan) Ireland (AMSI) Israel (FIMS) Italy (SISM) Jamaica (JAMSA) Japan (IFMSA-Japan) Jordan (IFMSA-Jo) Kazakhstan (KazMSA) Kenya (MSAKE) Korea (KMSA) Kosovo - Serbia (KOMS) Kuwait (KuMSA) Latvia (LaMSA) Lebanon (LeMSIC) Libya (LMSA)
Lithuania (LiMSA) Luxembourg (ALEM) Malawi (UMMSA) Malaysia (SMMAMS) Mali (APS) Malta (MMSA) Mexico (AMMEF) Montenegro (MoMSIC) Morocco (IFMSAMorocco) Nepal (NMSS) The Netherlands (IFMSA NL) Nicaragua (IFMSANicaragua) Nigeria (NiMSA) Norway (NMSA) Oman (MedSCo) Pakistan (IFMSA-Pakistan) Palestine (IFMSA-Palestine) Panama (IFMSA-Panama) Paraguay (IFMSAParaguay) Peru (IFMSA-Peru) Peru (APEMH) Philippines (AMSAPhilippines) Poland (IFMSA-Poland) Portugal (ANEM) Qatar (QMSA) Republic of Moldova (ASRM) Romania (FASMR) Russian Federation (HCCM) Russian Federation – Republic of Tatarstan (TaMSA) Rwanda (MEDSAR) Saint Lucia (IFMSA-Saint Lucia) Senegal (FNESS)
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medical students worldwide
Serbia (IFMSA-Serbia) Sierra Leone (SLEMSA) Singapore (AMSASingapore) Slovakia (SloMSA) Slovenia (SloMSIC) South Africa (SAMSA) Spain (IFMSA-Spain) Sudan (MedSIN) Sweden (IFMSA-Sweden) Switzerland (swimsa) Syrian Arab Republic (SMSA) Taiwan - China (FMS) Tajikistan (TJMSA) Thailand (IFMSA-Thailand) The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MMSA) Tanzania (TaMSA) Togo (AEMP) Trinidad and Tobago (TTMSA) Tunisia (Associa-Med) Turkey (TurkMSIC) Turkey – Northern Cyprus (MSANC) Uganda (FUMSA) Ukraine (UMSA) United Arab Emirates (EMSS) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (SfGH) United States of America (AMSA-USA) Uruguay (IFMSAUruguay) Uzbekistan (Phenomenon) Venezuela (FEVESOCEM) Yemen (NAMS) Zambia (ZaMSA) Zimbabwe (ZIMSA)