EU RO P EA N T O O LK IT

ON

POLICY
MAKING
AND USAGE
A D K N O W LED GEM EN TS

This toolkit has been created by the IFMSA European

Regional Team of 2016/2017. It is the result of a work
plan funded by the European Youth Foundation of the
Council of Europe.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

CO N TEN T

In t r odu ct ion

Policy Docu m en t s in IFM SA

How does IFMSA take a stance?
IFMSA Policy Documents
How are Policy Documents used in IFMSA?

Nat ion al Policy Docu m en t s

Why should you have national policy documents?
What should be included in a national policy
document?
Research and evidence
Should policy documents be broad or specific?
Who should make policy documents?
Gathering the input of your members
Getting feedback
Adopting your policy documents
Examples

An n ex 1 - Policy Docu m en t Tem plat e

IN TRO D U CTIO N

As medical students and future medical professionals, there

are certainly issues which fall under our domain of work and
for which we want our voices to be heard. We have learned a
long time ago that health is not just a result of individual
factors, which is why we have to advocate for healthy
communities and effective health systems in order to provide
an opportunity for everyone to reach the highest attainable
standard of health.

Every National Member Organisation (NMO) has its own

priorities and every NMO chooses how and when to get
involved in certain topics. These could be different areas of
work, from stances already written in the constitution and
bylaws, to emerging medical problems - what matters is that
the NMO has decided to do something about it.
All the external work an NMO does actually provides an
opportunity to take a stance - either through a policy
document, a partnership with a stakeholder or by giving input
on a certain document. This guideline is designed to help your
NMO voice its opinion in an inclusive and transparent manner -
through the magic of policy documents!

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

 H O W D O ES IFM SA TA K E A STA N CE?

IFMSA, as one of the biggest student organizations in the world, representing more
than 1 million medical students, has a lot of opportunities to take a stance. As
IFMSA represents the NMOs and their ideas and opinions, every decision, from
deciding on external priorities to adopting policy documents, has to be voted for by
the NMOs. This is why it is important that our NMOs have good insight on what is
happening in the world, and know how to influence and enrich policy making in
IFMSA to address emerging global health issues.

In IFMSA, the way we express the official opinion of IFMSA and its members is
through policy documents. It is important to know that all the documents used at
the external meetings: statements, policy briefs, media campaigns etc, are based on
the policy documents we all vote for at the IFMSA General Assembly (GA).
Therefore, our NMOs have a vital role in the external work of IFMSA: by creating,
amending and voting upon these documents.
.

IFMSA POLICY DOCUMENTS

An IFMSA Policy Document describes a position reflecting a global health issue that the
federation wants to take a stance on, in line with the IFMSA vision and mission and
bounded by the constitutions and bylaws of IFMSA. It is used by the relevant member of
IFMSA Team of Officials and representatives of IFMSA at external meetings, guiding both
the external and internal work.
Since AM16, there is a new system of policy documents, which includes Policy Statements
and Position Papers. You can find out more about our new Policy System in the webinar
HERE. To find out more about how to write policy documents in general, continue reading
this guideline or skip directly to the section titled ?National Policy Documents?

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

HOW ARE POLICY DOCUMENTS USED IN IFMSA?
PREPA RIN G FO R
EX TERN A L EV EN TS
During every external event,
Policy Documents provide the
basis for the stance IFMSA will
take on a certain topic.
Furthermore, the delegates
who attend external events
need to be prepared on
different issues in global
health, and Policy Documents
are a valuable tool to do so.
Well-researched policy
documents will provide
background knowledge, as
well as ideas on how to
formulate strong arguments.
Furthermore they give us
direction and help us figure
out what to focus on at the
meetings (eg different Action
Plans, Side Events etc) as well
as how to phrase our input.
IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE
JO IN T STATEM EN TS
For many of the external events,
IFMSA has its own documents in
order to express our stance as a
Federation. In some meetings,
certain topics tend to be very
?popular ? in terms of giving input,
meaning that a lot of
organizations have more or less
similar stances. In these
situations, we can join our forces
with other organizations and
come up with a joint statement
on the topic. In such situations,
Policy Documents are important
because different organizations
have different views and we need
to make sure that any document
that we do support is in line with
the views of our members. As we
cannot consult our members at
every meeting we go to, we
simply make sure the stances we
support are not in violation of
our Policy Documents.
GIV IN G IN PU T TO
D O CU M EN TS
For some of the biggest meetings
IFMSA attends (World Health
Assembly, WHO Regional
Committees), the documents
which will be voted on are
prepared weeks or months
ahead. In these cases, policy
documents aid us in presenting
our opinions and concerns in
official documents and action
plans. It is difficult to consult
everybody on a huge variety of
topics, especially on such
high-level meetings, and having
policy documents allows us to
submit input towards resolutions
prior to meetings, sometimes
even if we are not present at the
meeting itself.
N ATIO N A L PO LICY D O CU M EN TS

W H Y SH O U LD YO U H AV E N ATIO N A L
PO LICY D O CU M EN TS?
The first question you should ask yourself is why you want to have national policy documents.
There is a range of different ways policy documents can be used, and what your policy making
process looks like should be reflective of the way you intend to use them.

If your NMO intends to participate in advocacy, having policy documents is a way to ensure that
your advocacy is based on the opinions of your members without having to consult them for
every occasion when you want to take a stance on something.

Policy documents can also be a gu ide f or t h e in t er n al w or k of your NMO. There might be things
you want to be incorporated into the work of your NMO without being in the bylaws of your
NMO, or you could use policy documents as a way to elaborate on things mentioned in your
bylaws. For example, you could have a policy document on environmental sustainability and
include guidelines for how your NMO should ensure that NMO meetings are hosted in an
environmentally friendly way.

You could also have policy documents related to your NM O?s act ivit ies. For example, if you have
a project around organ donation, a policy document around organ donation could be useful in
ensuring that the work done in the project is reflective of the opinions of your members and in
ensuring that members who want to work on the project know what position they can and can?t
take on behalf of your NMO in their work.

Policy documents can also be useful when working with ext er n al par t n er s. For example, having
a policy document on ethical sponsorships may help you decide what sponsors you may
approach for your NMO. Policy documents may also help you decide who to partner with for
activities, whose campaigns to support and what externals to invite to meetings. They can also be
a way to show external partners what beliefs you have and what they can expect from your
activities. For example, if you run a sexual education project in schools, the schools may benefit
from knowing what your NMO position is on comprehensive sexuality education to give them a
clear expectation of what you might teach.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

 W HAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED
IN A POLICY DOCUMENT?
To ensure that your policy documents are as useful as possible, it?s good to include a few specific
things. We have also added a template to this guideline (Annex 1) to show you how all of these
parts fit together.

First, you need to define what your policy document is actually addressing. This is often done in
the back gr ou n d or in t r odu ct ion to a policy document, and this is where you explain what the
problem or issue you are addressing is, why it is a problem and why your NMO has a stance on
the issue. If there is complicated or controversial terminology included in your policy document,
you may also want to include a section where you explain what you are referring to when using
specific terms.

Most often, you would also want to suggest specific solutions towards the problem you are
addressing. These can be very broad or very specific solutions. While broad solutions may be
hard to interpret into action, specific solutions may miss out on important aspects. A way to
avoid this problem can be to combine both broad and generic solutions with more specific ones.

When suggesting solu t ion s, it is important to know who the responsible parties for these
solutions should be. There might be several different parties who you would want to address,
but specifying these will make it clearer what changes your NMO is actually hoping to see. For
example, you might want to see changes in national legislation or policy, in the medical
curriculum, in your subnational government, at a specific university, within your NMO or within
hospital administration. Understanding what you want to use your policy document for when
you write it is helpful in making sure that the solutions proposed are within the control of who
you target it towards.

If you build your policy document around statements or publications by different sources, you
should also include references to the original publications.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

RESEARCH AND EVIDENCE
Often, policy documents will be made to address specific problems. Using statistics, research and data
(hereafter commonly referred to as ?evidence?) is a way to strengthen your policy documents.

You can use evidence to ch ar act er ise t h e pr oblem you?re trying to address and explaining why it?s a
problem that is relevant for your NMO. For example, you can use evidence to show why climate change may
be a health issue, to show the negative health effects of stigmatization or to show the numbers of people
affected by non-communicable diseases.

You can also use evidence to suggest eviden ce-based solu t ion s to the
Pr o t ip: IFMSA policy
problem.This way, you can make sure that the solutions you?re arguing for are
documents all contain
actually likely to make an improvement on the problem and you will be able to evidence, so if you don?t know
address common concerns around your proposed solutions. For this, you can where to find evidence about
look at what evidence exists for different sorts of interventions and how other a certain issue, you can check
countries have tackled the problem and how that has worked. For example, the relevant IFMSA policy
document
you could use evidence to look at if restriction of alcohol sales affects
alcohol-related diseases and injuries or if euthanasia legislation affects patient
trust in doctors.

If there is little evidence for the solutions you are proposing, there might be evidence around how affected
groups feel about the solutions or, alternatively, there might be evidence about similar solutions when
applied to other problems. For example, you can look at surveys on the attitudes of HIV risk populations
towards certain prevention methods or you can look at the effects of public awareness campaigns around
diabetes to draw conclusions around what the effect of public awareness campaigns around cardiovascular
disease may be.

When using different kinds of evidence in your policy documents, remember to have the same approach as
you would when writing a research article - check your sources critically, use references and make sure that
you accurately explain what the original source says, and what your own conclusions are. Some
organizations prefer not to include references in their final policy documents, but virtually all of them use
evidence when writing the document. We recommend you do include references in your policy documents,
however, as it adds legitimacy to your claims and allows you to use your policy documents as tools of
education, and not just advocacy.

You can also gen er at e you r ow n eviden ce. This may be most suitable when addressing quite specific
problems, although if you have the time and resources to conduct research around larger public health
issues, you can also do so. For example, if you believe that medical ethics is lacking in your national medical
curriculum, you could survey medical students to see how many think they?ve gotten enough education
around this or how many are aware of specific ethical frameworks.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

 SHOULD POLICY DOCUMENTS
BE BROAD OR SPECIFIC?
There are some different advantages to writing policy documents that are very broad, or that are
very specific. For example, a policy document on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights could
be very broad and cover a lot of different topics, while you could also have a more specific policy
document only addressing access to contraceptives.

You can make very broad policy documents to have a large basis of agreed opinions of your NMO, to
be able to address a wide range of issues. Broad policy documents are often not something you
would present to an external entity as a whole, but you could use them as a foundation for writing
policy br ief s - documents expressing your NMOs stance on a more specific issue or expressing your
NMOs input towards a specific process or legislation.

For example, if your NMO has a general policy document on Discrimination, you could use that as a
basis for writing policy briefs on discrimination towards certain genders, towards undocumented
migrants, towards people living with HIV, or towards certain ethnic groups, rather than having
separate policy documents for all of these specific groups.

As another example, if your NMO is giving input towards what the medical curriculum in your
country should look like, several of your policy statement might be relevant. You could then use your
policy documents as a basis for putting together a policy brief on your position on that specific
issue.

A downside with having broad policy documents is that they may be so generic that it is unclear
what your stance would actually look like if implemented. It may then become hard for your NMO
members and Officials to know how to use the document, and to know what the position of your
NMO actually is. For example, if your policy documents is about health equity, there might be very
differing opinions on what that means in reality, and what solutions may be required to achieve
health equity.

When you have very specific policy documents that only addresses one specific issue, they can often
be suitable for external use with little edition. It will also often be easier to call for very concrete
solutions targeted towards that specific issue, which may not always be easy to do in a broader
policy document. Therefore, if you plan to do a lot of work around one specific issue, more specific
policy documents may be useful to ensure that you have a very good basis for working on that
specific topic. A downside to having more specific policy documents is that they can limit the
different topics you can address, even if they are very similar or related topics.
In this document, we only describe how to develop policy documents in general. In practice, you can
of course also use a combination of different policy documents to address these issues.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

 W H O SH O U LD M A K E
PO LICY D O CU M EN TS?
An important step in your policy process is deciding who should be making and
proposing policy documents. The following is just a few different options you could use,
or use in combination. Different approaches have different advantages. If your
members are the ones taking the initiative to propose policy documents, you may end
up with priorities only reflecting of a few members and have a less inclusive process. If
your Team of Officials propose policy documents, you might get a top-down approach
or miss out on knowledge and expertise your members have. We recommend that
you?re aware of these different advantages and disadvantages and take them into
account when developing a process.

YO U R M EM BERS
You could leave it up to your members alone to independently write and
propose policy documents.

YO U R LO CA L CO M M ITTEES
You could have your local committees be the ones to write and propose
policy documents.

YO U R O FFICIA LS
You could give your Team of Officials or certain Officials the responsibility
to develop policy documents. For example, your Standing Committee
Officers could be responsible for developing policy documents related to
the work of their Standing Committee, or you could have a certain Official
be responsible.

SM A LL W O RK IN G GRO U PS
You could put together a small working group to develop policy
documents, or a specific policy document. These could consist of both
national Officials, local Officials and general members.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

GATH ERIN G TH E
IN PU T O F YO U R M EM BERS

Your national policies are meant to represent the views of all your
members. It is therefore important that you have a process for
getting input from your members about what they think are
important topics for your NMO to have policy documents on and
what those policy documents should say.

There are many different ways that you can get input from your
members, and you can choose to gather input in several different
parts of the process - when deciding upon a topic, when deciding
what stances on the topic should be included, when writing the
actual text, after having a draft ready and through the adoption of
the policy document.

We will suggest a few different methods that you can use to gather
input from your members. You can chose to combine several
different methods to gather maximum input, based on what is
most suitable for your NMO. When using online tools, you may
want to put some effort into ensuring that the input you gather is
actually from members of your NMO.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

O PEN -EN D ED CO N SU LTATIO N S
An open-ended consultation is a facilitated
workshop or group discussion, where the
facilitators use open-ended questions and
exercises to gather the views of participants. The
focus of such consultations should be to create a
space where participants can exchange their
views, raise problems and concerns they see as
relevant for your NMO and identify their own
priorities. It is important that facilitators are
aware of their own potential influence and stay
neutral in discussions. You can use such
consultations both to gather input on priorities,
and to get more technical input on what
solutions participants think are important to
address their priorities. You can engage your
local committees in this by setting up shared
consultation guidelines for facilitators from local
committees and encourage them to hold
consultations.
IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE
TEX T W O RK SH O PS
Use a text workshop when you have a first draft
for your policy document. The purpose of these
workshops is to give concrete suggestions
towards the text, and provide an opportunity to
discuss how it can be improved in a larger group.
O N LIN E SU RV EYS
Online surveys can be made in multiple different
ways to reflect where you are in the policy
making process. You can ask the survey takers to
rank priorities, to answer on a numbered scale
how much they agree with a certain position, or
give longer text answers. You can also make the
surveys are quite open-ended, or more specific,
depending on where in the process you are.
 PRIO RITIES FRO M A CTIV ITIES

The work your NMO members are already doing is often a good indication
of what issues they think are important, and can be an indication of what
areas you may want to focus your policies around. For instance, if your
members work a lot on diabetes awareness, they might also want to take a
stance on better prevention for non-communicable diseases.

O PEN O N LIN E D O CU M EN TS

Tools such as Google Documents will allow you to set up a text document
where members can give comments on the actual text of your policy
document draft, and suggest alternative language.

CO N SU LT YO U R O FFICIA LS

Your national and local Officials will often have a good idea of what your
members think, and know well what would be relevant for their work. Asking
them directly what they consider to be priorities for them, their Standing
Committees and their work can be a good place to start.

REA CT TO EX ISTIN G PO LICIES

If you plan to use your policy documents to influence different public

policies, legislation or practices of other entities (such as your university,
hospital or government), you can ask your members to give their input
directly towards these policies. You can then use this input to create policy
documents targeted to what changes you?d like to see in these policies.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

 GETTIN G FEED BA CK
When you have written a draft for your policy document, you
may want to take the opportunity to get feedback from your
members to ensure that what you have written is in line with
their position. You can do this using most of the different
methods for getting input, depending on what is most practical
for your NMO.

A D O PTIN G YO U R
PO LICY D O CU M EN TS
Your policy making process will need to include a process for
adopting policy documents. You might want to leave this up to your
Team of Officials, or to the highest decision-making body in your
NMO, depending on what is practical for your NMO. You could also
ask each of your local committees to vote on adopting policy
documents.

If your Team of Officials are the ones adopting policy documents, you
may want to take extra consideration to ensure that your policy
making process is transparent and inclusive of members outside of
your Team of Officials.
You will also need to decide how long your policy documents will be
valid for, and if and how you can make changes to already adapted
policy documents.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

EX A M PLES

This is an example of what a timeline could look like.

On lin e su r vey to gather input

from members on what they
believe are important topics for
your NMO
Decidin g on a t opic based on
the input

Pu t t oget h er a t eam of w r it er s
with knowledge and interest on
the topic

Host a con su lt at ion with your

members during an NGA

Wr it e t h e f ir st dr af t for your
policy document based on the
consultation

Sh ar e t h e dr af t online for
input

Revise t h e dr af t based
on the online input
Adopt t h e policy docu m en t in
you NMO, for example by a
board decision

COMPANY PRESENTS | HOW TO FIND SUCCESS

EX A M PLES

Alternatively, a policy writing process could look like this:

Local pr esiden t s appr oach t h e

execu t ive boar d about an issue
they are facing, which requires
government intervention to solve
On lin e su r vey t o gat h er in pu t
f r om m em ber s on whether your
NMO should take action and
attempt to have a stance on this
If m em ber s agr ee you move issue
forward with the issue

Pu t t oget h er a t eam of w r it er s
with knowledge and interest on
the topic
Wr it e t h e f ir st dr af t for your
policy document based on the
knowledge of your team

Sh ar e t h e dr af t online for
input

Revise t h e dr af t based
on the online input
Adopt t h e policy docu m en t in
you NMO, for example by voting
on it during your National
Assembly

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

 And that?s it! You now have a better
understanding of how to make and use policy
documents.

Make sure to keep developing that knowledge,

and to use it for the sake of healthy and
sustainable societies.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE

A N N EX 1 : PO LICY TEM PLATE

NAME AND LOGO

Make sure that the name and logo of your organisation is either at the very beginning of your
policy document, or just after the title.

TITLE
The title of your policy document should be descriptive and ensure that the reader
immediately knows what it?s about.

SUMMARY
Having a very brief summary in the beginning of your policy document can be useful to let the
reader immediately know what problem you are trying to address, and what your most
important stances are. We suggest to keep this to five sentences or shorter.

BACKGROUND
The background is where you show the motivation behind your position. You can use this to
make the argument of why the problem you are addressing is important, show what evidence
exists to support the solutions you are proposing and explain your reasoning. The background
is likely to make up the bulk of your document, and can range anywhere from one page to over
5 pages depending on your preferences and the complexity of the problem.

YOUR STANCE
Your stance is the opinion you are expressing. This is where you explain the changes you think
need to happen solve the problem that your policy document is addressing. When creating a
stance, keep in mind who would be responsible for the changes you want to see, and make
this clear in the stance. Example: ?we call on governments to fulfil the responsibilities set out in
the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.?

REFERENCES
This is where you tell the reader what sources you have used. When you include different facts,
make sure to include reliable sources for references and clearly mark your references.

IFMSA EUROTEAM | POLICY MAKING AND USAGE