Debate to Update – IMSA-Iran

Name of the activity: Debate to Update

Country/NMO: IMSA-Iran, LEMSIC Lebanon 

Program: Healthy Lifestyles & Non-Communicable Diseases

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: First-time Activity

Category: Capacity Building

Focus area: Prevention of NCDs and Health Promotion

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 4 (Quality Education)

General description:

Social, scientific and technological changes increase the demand for improving health systems and provide an opportunity for public health education to take the lead in achieving these advances. Healthy lifestyle seeks to develop behaviors that are useful for maintaining people’s health. Therefore, we challenged three topics by holding a debate as our method of running this project in which we achieved our goals by increasing people’s awareness around harms and benefits of each topic .

Problem statement:

Medical education is evolving to meet the needs of people demanding health improvements . So we challenged three topics . Interest in medical application of marijuana has increased with the number of individuals consuming it . The more meat we eat , the risk of health issues increases but many foods that aren’t made of meat are still unhealthy. Agricultural biotechnology have focused on the risks of GMF on human health .  Therefore we held a debate to evaluate harms and benefits of each topics.

Target groups:

• Medical students

Beneficiaries:

• General population
• Medical students
• Healthcare Students
• Doctors
• Other health professionals
• Youth

Objectives:

1:

• Raise the awareness of 32 medical students regarding factors of healthy lifestyle by 

the end of Aug 2022 in a meeting with 2 groups of them debating

• Increase participant’s interest to participate in field of healthy lifestyle in Aug by pre-test and post-test evaluation 

in Google Form

2:

• Raise the awareness of 32 medical students regarding the medical applications of 

marijuana by the end of Aug 2022 in a meeting  with 2 groups of them debating

• Increase participant’s interest to participate in field of medical application of marijuana

3:

• Raise the awareness of 32 medical students regarding carnivorous and vegetarian diets by the end of Aug 2022 in a meeting with 2 groups of them debating
• Increase participant’s interest to participate in field of carnivorous and vegetarian diets

4:

• Raise the awareness of 32 medical students regarding GMF by 

the end of Aug 2022 in a meeting with 2 groups of them debating.

• Increase participant’s interest to participate in field of GMF

Indicators of Success:

1st :

-Pre & post-test results show a 20% rise in at least 70% of participants about healthy lifestyle.

-At least 60% of them report their confidence level with 4 scores of 5 on the post-evaluation form & a 2 score rise in confidence level of 60% of them.

2nd :

-Pre & post-test results show a 20% rise in at least 70% of participants about marijuana. 

-At least 60% of them report their confidence level with 4 scores of 5 on the post-evaluation 

form & a 2 score rise in confidence level of 60% of them.

3th :

-Pre & post-test results show a 20% rise in at least 70% of participants about diets. 

-At least 60% of them report their confidence level with 4 scores of 5 on the post-evaluation form & a 2 

score rise in confidence level of 60% of them.

4th :

-Pre & post-test results show a 20% rise in at least 70% of participants about GMF.

-At least 60% of them report their confidence level with 4 scores of 5 on the post-evaluation form & a 2 score rise in confidence level of 60% of them.

Methodology:

Phase 0

• we held an OLM with the LC of Lebanon & our LC to set topics.
• more conversations will be done to set dates, methods and commitments.

Phase 1.1

• Meetings will be on ZOOM.Debaters will 

be selected by Google form & will be given a pre & post-test form for evaluation.

• A “”how to debate”” session to explain the process of main debates. 

Phase 1.2

• We have 3 main debate sessions.First 32 participants in 8 breakout rooms each with 4 people 

(2 in favour and 2 against ) discussing medical use of marijuana. In 

each room there will be a judge to select winners with checklist.

Phase 1.3

• While half of participants succeed to the next level , they will

debate on vegetarian & carnivorous diet in 4

rooms,each with two teams.

Phase 1.4

• The top 8 people (4 in favor and 4 as

Opponents) will hold a debate on GMFs in front of all participants.At the end of the third session winner will be announced.

Phase 2 

• Certification of winner & OC will be followed 

through & evaluation will be done.

Plans for evaluation:

After the main sessions of the debate , the evaluation process will be defined with : 

scale questions for each topic also open end questions for getting feedback. the answers of 

the scale questions will be compared and the 2 score increase is expected. 

SWOT analysis

Stakeholders analysis

Time line mapping with the help of Gantt chart so that main activities be modified continuously.

This project is held with a pre-test and post-test quantitative questions that each question 

has a score and there will be a number to compare the results of pre-test and post-test also , one target is defined for each of the index . Activity consists of 32 participants , selected 

out of the call form they’ve filled .Main debate sessions have 3 parts that in the last session 

all the participants can attend .

External collaborations:

none