where is the commitment to health? – Day 1 – IFMSA @ the YFJ’s GA
Hello IFMSA,
directly from the second day of the YFJ GA in Maribor Slovenia, we just wanted to let you know what has been going on in the European Youth Forum (YFJ)’s General Assembly in Maribor (European Youth Capital 2013), Slovenia.
What did the IFMSA delegation do in the first day of the YFJ GA?
Yesterday, IFMSA submitted some amendement proposals for the Working Plan 2013-2014. During the GA’s morning session, the progress Report of the Forum (so the recent work of the Forum) was discussed and IFMSA did not let the moment pass without raising the concern that the progress report had health side-lined. And we also asked why the Forum was not present in the last EU Health Policy Forum in October. The Board, unfortunately, replied that the Forum mandated the Board not to work on health as a priority, although it is an important topic, but to support MOs on those topics. We hope that this view can change in the future as health can be applied in many fields and we do believe that the YFJ is tackling areas where health is addressed, so it would be beneficial to also show that part of the YFJ’s work. Also, this also puts a greater focus on NMOs to be active in their National Youth Councils so that they can at that point also push for a greater focus on health.
In the afternoon we were part of two Policy Commissions (they are sessions where in paralel documents related to policies to be developed or adopted are discussed, so a perfect opportunity for IFMSA to try to include IFMSA’s policy statements in topics from all sorts from the Forum). We were present in the one about “Resolution on the Recognition of the NFE Quality Assurance” and the one on “Policy Paper on Youth Rights”, where we were able to include some suggestions, mainly on Reproductive Health rights.
After that, the candidates presentations took place and IFMSA also contributed to the discussion by asking some questions regarding putting health back in the action of the Forum and how to improve the international collaboration and engagement, specially in advocacy campaigns.
To close the day we also started discussing some of the proposals that we are going to submit for policy documents that will be adopted in the GA.
Today the GA will address Finances, Youth Work, the Work Plan and budget for 2013-2014 and Thematic Squares (we can perhaps compare them to SWG time in IFMSA’s GA:))
More news coming soon.
All the best from Maribor
The IFMSA delegation for the YFJ’s GA
Miguel Cabral – RC Europe
Silva Rukavina – IFMSA PPRC member and YFJ’s NFE SWG member
Agostinho Sousa – LOMEi
Recent Posts
- Healthcare students in HIV response – launching the Declaration of Commitment
- 1st Call for International Assistants, Program Coordinators and Code of Conduct Committee of the term 2023-2024
- SKY Meeting – ANEM Portugal
- Obstetric urgency and emergency workshop – IFMSA-Brazil
- Breaking The Silence (BTS) – CIMSA-Indonesia
Recent Comments