CANDIDATURE FOR
Vice-President for Capacity Building Khalid Al-Sadder 2018-2019
Dear IFMSA family, Being the nerdy kid I was (and still am, but just older), I grew up as a shy person stuck in my comfort zone avoiding the world. I could sit all day playing video games and watching movies and series without flinching. I dreaded to go play football with the other kids.... (I was horrible in football if you’re wondering.)
My name is Khalid Al-Sadder, a 5th year medical student in the Jordan University of Science and Technology and I’m honored to present to you what motivates me to become your Vice President of Capacity Building and serve you and the federation with all my power.
Why VPCB? Capacity Building is the most I grew up thinking about the heroes of the world interesting aspect of IFMSA for me. It is not both real or fictional and wondering my place in limited by anything and supports everything, it’s the world. I had many dreams but didn't believe a part of everything and everything is a part of it. It is like the water that makes all the forest alive that I’ll achieve any of them because I did not around it. believe in myself. Water is fluid and I myself admire water and aspire to be like it in my life because I always try And then, came a change, I discovered an organization, didn’t know much about it or what to be happy and make those around me happy by going with the flow but when it’s time to work it does but I knew that this organization was something special, It made me shine and at last I become as relentless and unforgiving as ice. Water is fluidity and strength at the same time. have an impact on lives other than mine, I became one of the beasts of the middle east! Its only by supporting and uplifting capacity building that we can tackle the problems the I quickly began to take more and more federation is facing. responsibilities and I regained the sense of wonder I had as a young child. I was the most surprised at this. I began exploring new things and taking up challenges that I didn’t do before. I started to believe in a saying I heard when I was young, it goes “instinct is a lie told by a fearful body hoping to be wrong” meaning that if you base your expectations only on what you see you blind yourself to the possibilities of a new reality. This is what I have become, an adventurer, a seeker and a challenger. It was easier for me to try new things. I stepped out of my comfort zone.
It was half a year ago when I ended my term as a Training Support Division Director in my NMO, IFMSA-Jo. During the term I’ve been through heaven and the blue hell, there were a lot of ups and downs but in the end I was so happy with the experience and took the next step to go international. Do I have what it takes? “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me". - Ayn Rand After my term I delved right back into the trainer life, which I had to somewhat sacrifice for the tasks related to the management office. I delivered numerous workshops and sessions in international meetings and Sub-Regional Trainings, where I found my skills and experience to be valuable and continued growing with them. Currently I’m coordinating the Capacity Building Issues workshop in the Pre-MM, which means that I’m conducting this workshop for two out of three times it has been conducted. CBI is where for the first time we come together and work on developing those skills that make CB happen. I learned how to be a CB Officer the hard way, but now future CB Officers: local, national and international have a place to develop and gain the special set of skills needed for this. I will also deliver a new workshop in the PreEuRegMe, whose aim is to convert all the work of standing commitees and link it directly to the skills we gain. Additionally, I’ve also attended presidential sessions in AM17 in Tanzania and NMO management sessions in MM16 in Malta.
Despite all of this experience, I understand that some of you have your doubts about me not holding an Executive Board position before, and I understand where you’re coming from, it’s always hard to bet on the unknown. However, I assure you after almost 5 years of work, I’ve seen, dealt with and shadowed my fair share of Executive Board members and became experienced enough to collaborate in their work. As a CB officer you have the task to support each and every member of your board from the National Officers to the president. This is the beauty and essence of CB. You are a jack of all trades. I’m therefore well aware of what being an Executive Board member actually means... it’s not a privilege: it’s a responsibility, people count on you to do your job and take action on various situations because it’s your responsibility to move forward with the organization and pave the way for a better future of the organization. Much like a trainer delivering a workshop, people look to you and you can’t let them down. How am I going to ensure success? When it comes to me working in IFMSA, you’ll find out that there’s no calm in the eye of my storm. I’ll do anything to achieve my goals and work for the sake of the federation. In my plan of action I will go into more detail. Thankyou for taking the time to read my candidature
Plan of Action A lot of talk has been around Capacity Building lately, are we doing it right or wrong. Well to be honest a lot of changes have to be made because our Capacity Building right now is not as efficient and effective as it can be. This term, I will be brave enough to say that I will be revolutionizing the Capacity Building of IFMSA, new ideas, new approaches and new goals. We can’t limit ourselves by the directions of the past and we have to think outside the box. We need to collectively get out of our comfort zone, and as someone with experience in that this is what I have in store. New assistants and a framework of SWG will be formed to make sure that the VPCB and CB IT are the true voice of trainers to the general population of IFMSA. I will also be enquiring about trainers problems and opinion through feedback forms and an extensive needs assessment that’ll serve the purpose of us moving forward with our Capacity Building. I honestly believe that this collaboration between the VPCB, officials, CB IT and trainers will ensure a wide involvement of all the aspects needed and a smooth operation of the work. It is only with this foundation that we can build capacity upon. Now let’s start with the plan of action
Plan of Action
Trainers:
Problem: Trainers have been marginalized for quite a while now and their roles as Capacity Builders is not being brought to full potential. This mainly led to a decrease in our active trainer pool since more and more are being burnt out. Causes: Financial instability, unorganized resources and the lack of recognition and rewards for the trainers. Solution: Due to the rising need of imminent change in this field and compared to other youth organizations, we can still incorporate Capacity Building and trainers more in our operations for a better outcome. The approaches that I suggest are:
Certification Problem: Currently there is no solid certification process except for the TNT, and even that is impractical to a certain degree in terms of follow-up and preparation of the participant to become a full-fledged trainer. Solution: A certificate of attendance is given to participants of such workshop. After that, through an application focusing on activity in training sessions for the following 6 months, follow-up that the facilitator of the workshop devised, recommendations and external experience (if available) the trainer will be certified as a recognized trainer in IFMSA. Periodic follow-up will be achieved through an item mentioned below. This way yes we may have a smaller pool of trainers in the beginning but it will be more than enough coupled with our already existing trainers and it will insure efficiency and quality instead of just having a wide range of trainers that are not active. Funding Problem: Due to the absence of funding for a lot of important events we are finding that rates of trainer participation are decreasing especially around our major meetings (Regional meetings, General Assemblies).
Causes: Funding is a problem in IFMSA, since we’re all students with no steady source of income, a lot of the times there’s a high chance that a trainer can’t attend due to logistical and financial capabilities and not due to a problem in the training capability. This is unfair and defeats the purpose for which IFMSA was created, IFMSA was made for ALL medical students to unite them regardless of their difference in race, culture or finances. Everyone should have a chance and currently that is not the case.
Solution: working towards increasing the funding potential to full coverage or even partial coverage to trainers through working with the VPF on developing a strategy to formulate potential funding budgets whether it was from hosting NMOs or IFMSA itself through rewards or grants. This will not only give the chance for more trainers to apply but also will utilize a tremendous amount of unused knowledge and potential to our benefit.
Plan of Action Trainer Rewarding Problem: A lot of trainers are losing the interest in participating not just because of financial problems, but also because of the lack of rewarding. Causes: Even if we are working in a non-profit organization some sort motivation has to be offered to those who invest time, energy and resources into work especially when it is not a full time job because after all we are all students and very busy ones. In all honesty we are lacking the necessary rewarding for training which can be sometimes exhausting and consuming. Solution: We need to develop a system that keeps track of achievements, scores efforts for a possibility of rewarding and help us in developing our rewarding methods. A small working group shall be created to study the possibility of developing such a system. Rewards through points can be like a chance to attend something or funding for a certain event or trainer of the quarter for example. Trainer Selection Problem: Selection is not regulated or standardised leading to high unpredictability. One of the main complaints of trainers is that they are not even given the chance to apply to events where others are pre-selected due to their experience and for being well known. This will lead to a gross imbalance of trainers delivering countless hours of workshops while others never get the chance but most importantly to loss to the federation of hidden potential of trainers that are not very well-known but might have great and creative ways to deliver. Causes: Due to overwhelming experience, of course this will not mean that the trainer should not be selected he just has to go through all the process like every other trainer. Solution: Regarding trainer selection I would require all certified event to have an open call for trainers shared on official IFMSA Servers. This would help to avoid nepotism and help all trainers to have access to events and being trainers. Trainers should be selected with input from the regional assistant of that region to ensure quality in the workshop delivered and fairness in the selection of trainers. However the final decision will still remain with the OCs as now.Also I will form a SWG that will study the different methods and possibilities to improve the selection process to ensure fairness such as selection criteria, a standardised application form or other tools.
Official Capacity Building Utilities
Plan of Action
Trainer’s Database Problem: Currently some work has been done to collect data about trainers and develop a database, however a database can be used for much more than just documenting and it is not being brought to its full potential. Causes: Officials are extremely overwhelmed with a lot of tasks whether it was EBs, or assistants which in turn is resulting of promising on working extensively on the database with no remarkable progress. Solution: I’ve been looking into this for quite a while and working on it with a few experienced people and I promise you our database WILL NOT BE AN EXCEL SHEET! A database could be so much more than just for documentation as I said before. It can be a method for monitoring trainers progress, a way to introduce trainers to people to make it easier for the process of selection. Also most of externals nowadays are leaning towards investing in organizations that adopt a well structured Capacity Building system so i won’t say more about its content to not ruin the surprise except that It’ll be an interactive interface that’ll provide the organization with information about the trainers while keeping track with progress and providing us with a representable database to our peers or partners that willl draw more attention to our training body. Now in order to do that I will assign a specific dedicated IT position that is in charge of this by collecting data and following up which I will be overseeing. Trainer’s Resource Center Problem: This is another utility that has been on hold for quite a while. It is outdated, disorganized and honestly is not very efficient to use. I don’t recall I ever used it except for my first ever session. Causes: They are the same causes of the lack of progress in terms of database, officials are promising but are inevitably overwhelmed, and they are not to blame because these are jobs that require a tremendous amount of work which simply cannot be achieved with the time that we do not have, and that is from personal experience. Solution: The training assistant will be in charge of leading a SWG that’ll have a bit larger number than usual and it’ll also be overseen by me as the VPCB. It’ll be aiming to develop the resource center, which will be done through deciding on the most important topics and working on them after distributing them over the SWG members and taking input. Also this resource center will have a set of specialized packages for common training workshops including general and specialized topics. Also collection of reports and proposals of workshops may be collected to see if there was some viable content for the center. This will be tackled during the whole term and will be built upon in consecutive terms.
Official Capacity Building Utilities
Plan of Action
Training Templates Problem: Many of new trainers don’t know where to start in their training or what to include in their session. This problem may also be faced by experienced trainers if they work on a topic new to them. Causes: This is because after finishing your TNT you’ll need a way to start and put your foot on the ground. And the resource center may be complicated for a new trainer or even an experienced one to extract Material without setting their priorities for the session. Solution: The training templates will serve the purpose of defining the priorities of every training session. This is in the form of stating in bullet points the main points that are imperative for a session of this topic to be successful. This is by no means aiming to limit creativity on the contrary it’s meant to facilitate creativity by making it easier and more efficient to finish the basics. This will be a part of the resource center and could be the first step of the resource center development before the actual material collection. Capacity Building Calendar Problem: There are many awesome meetings and opportunities to attend in IFMSA and its external partners, however very few people know about these opportunities and possibilities or think that they don’t have the experience to attend them.
Causes: There are no set calls for everything, and calls sent on the NMO server are rarely shared with members.
Solution: A Capacity Building Calendar which is beautifully designed and that has the most important Capacity Building related events whether they are within IFMSA or external of it. All of these events will contain relevant details, a brief description, some instructions and deadlines (if available). It will also be routinely updated by the assistant responsible for updating the trainer’s database as their main job is data collection and update.
Plan of Action Problem: We all know that Capacity Building is a brand new concept that has a lot NMOs of potential, however it is not fully utilized or understood. Causes: Due to the new developed nature of the concept and the high turnover rate of our organization which this system is supposed to compensate for. Due to the lack of knowledge about this concept and how to operate and use it is becoming a deficit rather than a benefit . In order to solve it here are the solutions that I propose. But of course none of these solutions mandate NMOs, they are suggestions for NMOs wishing to participate and those who seek help. Capacity Building Officers Problem : Not all NMOs are familiar with the concept and have their own Capacity Building body. Solution: The CB IT will work with NMOs lacking a capacity building representative or new NMOs to establish their capacity building system. This will be facilitated by the RAs and developed in their plans for their own region. Capacity Building toolkit As said before it’s a new concept and most of us don’t understand it very well.
Solution: By working with the CB IT, I will release a Capacity Building toolkit that will allow NMOs that don’t have a capacity building system to create their own and those who already have to develop it further and utilize its benefits. NMO sub-teams Problem: We have 136 NMOs representing 1.3 million medical students worldwide. A lot of differences arise in terms of culture or how we operate and deliver our projects. Causes: Due to the cultural variation which is supposed to be a merit and not a drawback. This is resulting from the lack of communication and collaboration between NMOs so knowledge and experience are not being shared adequately. Solution: So this is an idea that I’ve been working on. It can be considered as an extension or a new level of the NMO buddy system. I’d like to randomly divide NMOs into teams of (3) for the NMOs wanting to participate after taking their consent of course and then each team will work on organizing a joint SRT after agreeing between them on all the details. This will help the NMOs to develop their skills in negotiation and facilitation in addition to strengthening their relations and learning from the experiences of each other. I know it is kind of a bold idea but I’m pretty sure it is worth a try in order to not just individually help NMOs but also to have more impactful SRTs.
Plan of Action
Workshops
Problem: The problem with our workshop format is that it is good on the short run, but it is not sustainable on the long run. We have a haphazard distribution of workshops with varying amounts of impact depending on the content. A more standardized approach is crucial to ensure more efficiency and higher impact.
Workshop Format The problem is that Standing Committees workshops for example act as a separate entity from Capacity Building when in the first place CB was meant to support these workshops and precede them to facilitate a more comprehensive approach of the workshop with more in depth content. Instead, these workshops incorporate a considerable amount of general soft skill training that is not even related to the topic when they should be investing the time delivering some more concrete material or even soft skills that are more specialized to the topic of the workshop. This will also lead to a fruitful outcome when it comes to specialized material because even though it has a lot of soft skill training it still focuses more on the actual topic, which in turn leads to these workshops coming short in terms of general soft skills which should be covered by other workshops prior.
Solution: This can be solved if every trainer attends a TNT and then trainers could choose to specialize through different routes if they want to. This way, standing committee workshops will preserve their own essence and will tackle more advanced methods of training instead of tackling the basics of training like they do now. New Workshops New workshops tailored to the need of the organization can be devised. As mentioned before, there is the Public Health Leadership Training of SCOPH which is in my opinion a great pathway to ensure maximum efficiency because it is not necessarily a workshop that produces trainers but a workshop that gives knowledge to people who will need it in training and other endeavors. More workshops can be operated based on that concept. Also a great workshop that is going to happen in the Pre-EuRegMe which I happen to be a trainer for next to two other awesome trainers that is called “Europe in Action� which will deal with regionalization and involving the region more in its communities. So I think it is a great idea for other regions to have a similar workshop.
Workshops
Plan of Action
External Relations A lot of other organizations have training programs that compete with our own and a lot of them have specialized trainers that can help us in many ways. Also many of our trainers have had the opportunities to train in other organizations. However, our IOGs prevents us from collaborating with these people because only a certified IFMSA trainer can deliver a session recognized by IFMSA, which results in the negligence of these opportunities. So we can solve that by allowing ourselves to collaborate with these different organizations by signing an agreement of validation which will create an influx of knowledge from other organizations and also will give us the possibility of holding joint events and establishing a multi-disciplinary approach in addition to representing the organization in the trainers forum. Online Training Studying the possibility and impact of online training webinars and educational videos.
Plan of Action
Evaluation and feedback
This is one of the most important concepts of sustainable development which is in turn one of Capacity Building main pillars. 1- Continuously monitoring workshops through proposals and reports. 2- Routine feedback forms for trainers and participants. 3- Making sure that the facilitators of all the workshops follow up on their participants in a certain manner. 4- Open space for trainers to express their worries and state their problems through discussions.
Executive Board and Team of Officials work
As a member of the EB I will tackle my responsibilities as part of the team very seriously which will include: 1- Following the IFMSA strategy 2017-2020 and working towards achieving it as a VPCB and as a part of the EB/TO. 2- being an active participant in the team and I will share my input and opinions on our discussions and work in and out TOMs which is a hugely underestimated job of anyone who is part of the TO. 3- Working on a handover guideline for each official that will incorporate the competency model that was previously created, which will facilitate the handover of all the officials. 4- Representing the TO during the official IFMSA activities that I attend and doing my job as a VPCB during the GAs from ensuring the quality of the NMO Management session and training sessions through assessing the needs of the NMOs to actively participating in the presidential session.
Capacity Building International Team
As I mentioned above, new assistants will be assigned and a lot of discussions and SWG will involve the CB IT in one way or another. 1- Revising the newly formed Capacity Building IOGs and working towards improving them. 2- Assisting the CB IT with whatever any member of it needs. 3- Routine meetings to develop strategies and discuss updates. 4- Working together on achieving the previous mentioned points in the plan of action.
Program Coordinators
Finally, for program coordinators, we all know there was quite the confusion around this topic and who is responsible for them. This responsibility has been juggled around between the VPCB and the VPA especially due to the excessive amount of responsibilities on the VPA. As a team member, I would like to take this responsibility of following up on Program coordinators to relieve some of the pressure from the VPA. I would also, like to work on a booklet for PCs and SC Directors that will tackle the topic of prioritization and setting their goals, monitoring the work, follow-up and measuring impact, which is the goal the programs system was created for.
Curriculum Vitae Name: Khalid Ahmad Al-Sadder Address: University Street, Irbid, Jordan Country: Jordan Phone Number: +962796675851 E-mail Address: khalidalsadder@gmail.com Skype: khalid.al.sadder Facebook Profile: khalid.sadder Education: • First school name, address, duration: Fajer Al Sabah School, Salmiya Kuwait, 1999-2004. • Second school name, address, duration: Ikhlas Private School, Hawali Kuwait, 2004-2013. • Third school name, address, duration: Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Ramtha Jordan, 5th year medical student. Languages: • Arabic: Native. • English: Excellent. International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) Experience: Positions: • Training Support Division Director of IFMSA-Jo for the term 2016 – 2017. Leader, Organizer, volunteer of local and national projects and events: 1- EMR12 (Social team). 2- Basic Life Support. 3- SCORE national training day. 4- DDH Project. 5- “Pink for October” Breast awareness campaign. 6- “A life after mine” Organ donation campaign. 7- International woman’s rights day campign. 8- Research Gate conference. 9- “I have a dream” project. 10- Mental Health assessment. 11- Neuro-linguistic programming workshop. 12- National Diabetes awareness campaign. 13- Thyroid screening and awareness project. 14- Heal yourself workshop. 15- Diabetic Retinopathy medical day. 16- Cancer awareness project. 17- Tobacco packaging warning effects in collaboration with the King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC). 18- RTA workshop. 19- Effect of smoking on fertility workshop. 20- SAMS (Syrian American Medical Society) Medical mission. 21- Medical Training Ground Conference. 22- Local Research workshop. 23- Testicular cancer awareness campaign. 24- Student’s guide to clinical life. 25- Structural Reform Taskforce member.
Meetings, International Meetings, Activities: 1- National General Assembly 7. 2- National General Assembly 8. 3- National General Assembly 9 (Plenary Secretary Assistant). 4- National General Assembly 10 (OC). 5- National General Assembly 11. 6- National General Assembly 12. 7- Eastern Mediterranean Regional Meeting 12 (OC). 8- Eastern Mediterranean Regional Meeting 13. 9- Pre-EMR13. 10- Pre-MM16. 11- 65th MM in Malta in 2016. 12- 66th AM in Tanzania in 2017. 13- Sub-Regional Training 2017, Bucharest. 14- EMR IOGs/Regulations Small Working Group. 15- Working on the guidelines of the “Capacity Building Issues” workshop. 16- Working on an introductory document for the “Capacity Building Issues workhop”. 17- Member of the Capacity Building IOGs Small Working Group.
Curriculum Vitae Sessions, Capacity Building: 1- NMO Management session MM16. 2- Presidential session AM17. 3- SCOPH Sessions EMR13. 4- National Presidential session. 5- TNT in Pre-MM16. 6- TOT in EMR13. 7- Capacity Building Issues workshop in SRT 2017, Bucharest (Trainer). 8- Capacity Building Issues workshop in the Pre-MM18, Egypt (Coordinator-Trainer). 9- Europe in Action workshop in the Pre-EuRegMe, Austria 2018 (Trainer). Training sessions: 1- Received: Advocacy, Time Management, Project Management, Communication Skills, Team Building and Group Dynamics, Facilitation, Fundraising, Financial Management, Motivation and Empowerment, NMO Recognition and External Representation, Recruitment, Handover, Leadership (Basic), Strategic Planning, Intercultural Learning, Feedback and Evaluation, Creativity and Improvisation, Personal Development, Presentation Skills, Story Telling, Training Design, Graphic Visualization. 2- Conducted: Recruitment, Time Management, Communication skills, Approaching Testicular Cancer patients, Communication Skills and Antibiotic Misuse, Fundraising, Leadership (Basic), Leadership (Advanced), Creative Thinking, Motivation and Empowerment, Strategic Planning, Negotiation, Introduction to Capacity Building, Capacity Building Structure building.
Thank You