Strategy 2014-17
IFMSA’s Vision A world in which all medical students unite for global health and are equipped with the knowledge, skills and values to take on health leadership roles locally and globally.
IFMSA’s Mission IFMSA unites medical students worldwide to lead initiatives that impact positively the communities we serve. IFMSA represents the opinions and ideas of future health professionals in the field of global health, and works in collaboration with external partners. IFMSA builds capacity through training, projects and exchange opportunities, while embracing cultural diversity so as to shape a sustainable and healthy future.
Why does IFMSA need a strategic plan? All organisations evolve. Even without an overall plan for where the organisation is headed, new ideas will emerge, new initiatives will kick off, and a lot of work will be done, although these efforts may not be very wellaligned. Working strategically is about prioritising your energy, and identifying and executing relevant actions. It is perfectly fine to work without a strategic plan if no major changes are needed to optimise the organisation. But, if such changes are needed, it is necessary to plan how to properly implement them. The strategic plan helps the organisation implement structural changes that transcend individual leaderships. Indeed, as these structural changes cannot be implemented in the course of a single term, it is key to ensure that future leaderships follow up on and conclude the implementation. The strategic plan will also help future Executive Boards and Teams of Officials align their work with the longterm interests of IFMSA as an organisation. It will help aspiring Officials write relevant candidatures when they run for positions in the leadership of the Federation. And it will help each Executive Boards document how they have expended IFMSA’s resources and why. Two things signify IFMSA’s volunteers: independency and selfmanagement. The strategic plan will guide the collective work of each Team of Officials to achieve IFMSA’s longterm strategic goals defined by the National Member Organisations. Yet, it is crucial to leave enough room for each volunteer to realise her or his own ideas. This way every individual who devotes time and energy to IFMSA will benefit personally and will play a key role in the continuous strengthening of the Federation. So, by letting the strategic plan guide the annual work plans of future Teams of Officials, the strategic plan will ensure continuity, transparency and accountability in the work of IFMSA’s elected and appointed leaders. That is why IFMSA needs Strategy 201417.
What is a strategic plan? The strategic plan is a tool to help the organisation realise its mission. This also means that the strategic plan is not supposed to cover every aspect of the mission and, consequently, not all aspects of the mission will be strategic priorities. Rather, the strategic plan will focus on structural improvements that, in the long run, will help the organisation to realise its mission. In the most strict understanding of strategic planning [1/5]
you devote all your time to activities that fall under the strategic plan, and nothing else. With this approach strategic planning will lead to a topdown leadership culture with no room for volunteers’ creativity leading to new activities. It has never been – and will never be – the intention that strategic planning should instil such a culture in IFMSA. Indeed, the engine that drives IFMSA is fueled by the initiative and passion of our volunteers and members. And it is from this grassroots layer new ideas and activities emerge. This means that the Executive Board, Team of Officials and Supervising Council run the organisation with the help of international assistants, and that projects are 100% led and run by volunteers. The fact that volunteers are able to lead and execute projects on a massive scale when they are allowed to – and sometimes with a bit of professional support – is a fundamental characteristic of the culture in IFMSA. By working strategically, the Federation asserts to cherish and further this unique quality of our international volunteer organisation. Hence, IFMSA employs a “soft” approach to strategic planning. This means that the plan has a narrow scope on structural changes that cannot be realised in one term, and it leaves room for each Team of Officials to also work on their own shortterm objectives.
The process This year, the Executive Board made it a priority to finalise a threeyear strategic plan for the Federation, to be launched when the Team of Officials 201415 takes office. The process of developing a strategic plan has been ongoing for many years. Urgent issues have, too often, interrupted and delayed the process considerably. A positive effect of these delays is that a huge amount of data has been collected over the years. This data was used to develop a set of open questions and a toolkit for consultations that took place during Regional Meetings in this term, and through an online crowdsourcing process on IFMSA’s Facebook page. It was a huge success, and yielded a massive dataset on which this strategic plan is founded.
The anatomy of the Strategy We wish to make sure that all stakeholders are on the same page when we communicate about the strategic plan. Therefore, the use of terms is consistent and stringent throughout this document. Strategy 201417 has three themes. Under each theme you find the aim and a number of strategic goals that will help IFMSA achieve this aim. These strategic goals have been chosen carefully, are presented with individual motivations to explain why they made it to the final strategic plan, and they satisfy the SMAAT criteria: they are specific, measurable, appropriate, ambitious and timebound. We have chosen not to develop indicators for the strategic goals, mainly because all strategic goals but two are either attained or not. Defining how to gauge the extent of attainment of the remaining two strategic goals by the end of the strategic plan’s period is almost impossible at this point. Indeed, they both instil new working methods in IFMSA, and the situation of IFMSA will likely be so different in three years that qualitative and/or proxy indicators developed now will be meaningless and unable to capture the progress and properly evaluate the degree of attainment of these strategic goals in 2017.
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The timeline Aug 2014 Oct 2014 Sep 2015 Oct 2015 Sep 2016 Oct 2016 Sep 2017 Feb 2017 Mar 2017 Aug 2017 Sep 2017
Adoption of Strategy 201417 (AM2014) First annual work plan based on Strategy 201417 Second annual work plan based on Strategy 201417 Third annual work plan based on Strategy 201417 Execution of Strategy 201417 finalised Interim Evaluation of Strategy 201417 (MM2017) Adoption of Strategy 201720 (AM2017) Evaluation of Strategy 201417 shared with stakeholders
Three Themes: Sustainability, Impact & Relevance Theme #1: Sustainability Aim IFMSA is a reliable organisation with efficient internal processes, and it ensures coherence between its past, present and future. By providing adequate support for its volunteers the Federation ensures that more medical students feel they can serve the Federation. IFMSA provides tailored support to its members, who actively engage in the development of the Federation. Strategic Goals ● By February 2016, the Federation has a clearly defined long term strategy for its regions ○ Motivation: In 2002, it was decided to divide IFMSA into five regions. The reasons behind this decisions have been lost, but the regionalisation of the Federation may provide a strong basis for capacity building in National Member Organisations. Therefore, we should reidentify what we want from the regions, and how to get it. ● By October 2016, the Federation expends its resources rationally, and has sufficient inflow of funds, to adequately support Officials in carrying out their duties ○ Motivation: Hitherto, IFMSA has not provided enough resources to its volunteers, which means that many individuals have spent hundreds or thousands of euros on serving the Federation. We need a system that ensures that its leaders are selected based on their merits and passion, and are not excluded because of their personal economic situation. ● By February 2016, the Federation has a wellfunctioning Secretariat that plays a natural role in the daily life of the Federation ○ Motivation: The Federation has almost outgrown itself in geographical span and level of activity. Thus, it is now clear that professional, continued organisational support is needed to sustain IFMSA as a wellrun organisation, for the benefit of its members. This necessitates gradual establishment of a secretariat, in which the ideas and visions of our volunteers direct the practical work of the staff, not the other way around. ● By February 2017, the new leadership structure of the Federation is fully implemented and a sound evaluation scheme is developed and employed
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Motivation: Successfully implementing a new leadership structure takes more than one term. By making this a strategic goal of IFMSA we ensure that it stays a central task for future generations of IFMSA leaderships, and that they devote sufficient energy and time to this task to ensure a successful implementation. ● By February 2017, the Federation has initiated the implementation of an NMO membership development scheme ○ Motivation: IFMSA should be the platform where our National Member Organisations can obtain advice from peers and professionals to develop and improve their organisations and activities. Systematising these efforts allows the Federation to provide relevant, highquality support to its members.
Theme #2: Impact Aim IFMSA actively promotes collaboration amongst its members in their respective fields of work and provides a link between their initiatives, while collecting and showcasing their best practices and results. The services provided by and mechanisms instituted within the Federation serve as a reference of quality to its members, who also seek to improve themselves following the example of the Federation. Strategic Goals ● By February 2016, the Federation has fully implemented the Programmes model for its activities, to ensure consistency in the work of the Federation ○ Motivation: The activities in IFMSA suffer from unnecessary bureaucracy, which also impedes the ability of IFMSA to effectively support the activities. This has led to lower quality of IFMSArecognised projects, and has limited the positive impact of IFMSA on the grassroots level. It is crucial for IFMSA to implement the Programmes model because it tackles these issues. ● By February 2017, solid quality assurance mechanisms for IFMSA Programmes are developed and implemented ○ Motivation: We want to have a positive impact on our communities. At the same time, it is at the heart of our activities that the same communities do not suffer from our presence, and that we eliminate the potential downsides of our activities. The Federation wants to put in place mechanisms that will help us realise this aspiration, for the benefit of our communities and volunteers.
Theme #3: Relevance Aim IFMSA has developed a brand that underpins its work, and allows medical students to benefit personally, academically and professionally from their involvement in IFMSA activities. The Federation can act as an agendasetter in health related political processes, by basing its advocacy priorities on the needs of its members, mobilising the national grassroots level, and increasing its media exposure.
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Strategic Goals ● By February 2015, international institutions that could endorse experience acquired through involvement in IFMSA have been identified, and 50% of these formally recognise such experience by February 2017. ○ Motivation: Volunteers invest thousands of working hours in IFMSA to help it thrive. We believe that our national member organisations can leverage the recognition of IFMSArelated experience by international institutions to provide their local volunteers with similar nationallevel professional and academic recognition of their work and experience. ● By February 1st, 2017, the Federation’s activities are underpinned by and aligned with priorities identified critically and independently, and relevant to its members ○ Motivation: IFMSA is not here to mimic other large actors on the global health arena. Rather, we are here to represent our National Member Organisations, do what we can to put medical students’ real pressing problems and challenges on the agenda, and make sure it is done on a solid basis supported by evidence. This may mean that we need to reorganise the way we plan and conduct our policy work and capacity building.
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