Call for SRHR Hackathon Participants
Call for SRHR Hackathon Participants IPSF AfRO, IPSF PARO and FIP are pleased to announce the call for participants for the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Hackathon. Background Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is the concept of human rights applied to sexuality and reproduction. It is a combination of four fields that are treated as separate but are inherently intertwined, which include sexual health, sexual rights, reproductive health and reproductive rights. This includes those rights to equitable quality sexual health information and care that adolescents, women, and sexual minorities need. A hackathon is an event of any duration where people come together to solve problems. With a background from tech challenges or solution building marathons, other fields have employed this concept to create competitive environments where solutions to everyday problems can be demystified or ‘hacked’. The healthcare field has not been exempt from this idea of creative problem solving for health-related issues. Goal and objectives The goal of the hackathon is to bridge the knowledge gap in education and training of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights among students and young pharmacists towards improving access to sexual and reproductive health services in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, in line with current global best practice. Below are some objectives in achieving the above goal: 1. To provide a competitive platform for undergraduates and young pharmacists to learn SRHR strategies and imbibe a multidisciplinary teamwork approach from the early onset. 2. To inculcate knowledge on SRHR policy development processes, situation analysis development and review of advocacy and implementation strategies. 3. To identify and better understand the role of pharmacists in the promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH). 4. To identify gaps in pharmacy training curricula across sub-Saharan Africa and the Pan American regions. 5. To provide a platform for SRHR mentors to guide undergraduates and young pharmacists in future careers in the area. Attributes of a good hackathon proposal • Clearly articulated. Projects should have a clear question or problem they are trying to solve plus a reasonably specific proposed solution. • Attainable. Most projects will accomplish about 25% of what they think they can accomplish in the limited time they have. Each project’s goals are managed so participants can feel accomplished at the end of the session. • Led by a stakeholder. A stakeholder (or “subject matter expert”) guides a project to realworld relevance. Projects without a stakeholder can “solve” a problem that doesn’t exist. Ideally the leader (or one of the leaders) is a stakeholder or a good proxy for a stakeholder. Additionally, it is never enough for a project leader to just be an ideas
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person. Beware when the leader is a stakeholder but can’t foresee how he or she might be implementing along with the rest of the team. Organised. For projects with four or more members, the project leader’s role should be to coordinate, ensuring each team member has something to work on.
Timeline and eligibility The IPSF AfRO/PARO - FIP SRHR themed hackathon will be a training and hacking project that will run for two (2) months (from June 21st to August 22nd 2021). For the purpose of this hackathon, members from the IPSF African and Pan American Regional Offices will apply as teams to join the project. Each team will be assigned a mentor (SRHR expert) who shall be responsible for guiding the team through the brainstorming of a problem in the area of SRHR and ‘hacking’ that problem. At the end of the project, a panel of judges shall adjudicate presentations of the hacks from the teams and announce a winner. The members of the winning team will receive complimentary FIP membership for one year. There will also be training sessions on various key SRHR topics from invited SRHR resource persons every two weeks during the project – these sessions will be open to all IPSF members. Participants may apply as individuals to be grouped into teams or as already set up teams with their own team name, SRHR problem, and hack proposal. Each team shall be composed of a minimum of three (3) individuals or a maximum of five (5) individuals. Also, each team shall have at least one member from each of the two collaborating IPSF regions ie. IPSF PARO and IPSF AfRO. The deadline to register for the Hackathon is June 15th 11:59 GMT+0.