Seoul 2011 - UNMDG workshop

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The now well-established United Nations Millennium Development Goals workshop (UNMDG workshop) ran over two and a half days from 25 to 27 September 2011. More than 50 delegates and students from medicine, dentistry, health and rehabilitation sciences, nursing and public health attended the workshop convened by the U21 UNMDG Steering Committee and led by Manuel Perez from Tecnologico de Monterrey and Jung Yul Park from Korea University.

U21 universities represented at the workshop included Korea, Lund, Monterrey, Birmingham, Nottingham, Melbourne, Queensland, Auckland, Hong Kong and Fudan.

Major themes included UNMDG curriculum integration, topics to involve in the UNMDGs after 2015 and student presentations.

The UNMDG workshop agenda [PDF 434 kB]

SUNDAY 25TH SEPTEMBER 2011

During the first afternoon of the UNMDG workshop, participants highlighted the numerous activities carried out in 2011, in the form of workshops in U21 universities and sessions during international conferences to use U21 UNMDG cases with interprofessional groups of students. Among other activities, the initiative´s website was also redesigned and a short presentation on the project was presented during the AMEE conference in Vienna in August 2011.

UNMDG workshop Seoul - February 2011 [PDF 2.43 MB] (JP Park, Korea University)
UNMDG workshop Hong Kong - February 2011 [PDF 641 kB] (Niv Patil, University of Hong Kong)
Asian Medical Students Association Conference - June 2011 [PDF 490 kB] (Niv Patil, University of Hong Kong)
UNMDG workshop Nottingham - June 2011 [PDF 678 kB] (Derek Chambers, University of Nottingham)
UNMDG workshop case study Melbourne - July 2011 [PDF 1.22 MB] (Jacinta Tobin, University of Melbourne)
Fudan University UNMDG Summer School - July 2011 [PDF 744 kB] (Chen Yingyao, Fudan University)
Asian Pacific Dental Students Conference - August 2011 [PDF 604 kB] (Colman McGrath, University of Hong Kong)
AMEE Conference presentation - August 2011 [PDF 809 kB] (Derek Chambers, University of Nottingham)

At the end of the afternoon, Gillian Webb gave a brief summary on the presentations of the day and invited participants to think about the main challenges of the UNMDG initiative for the next years in order to foster discussion for the next two days of the workshop.

Summary UNMDG workshop Seoul - 25 september 2011 [PDF 299 kB] (Gillian Webb, University of Melbourne)

MONDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER 2011

On the second day of the UNMDG workshop, Daniel Palazuelos (Partners in Health / Harvard Medical School / Brigham and Women's Hospital) helped the participants understand the origins of the UNMDGs and Global Health, to then break into groups and think about the topics that should be involved in the UNMDGs after 2015. After a break, Dr. Palazuelos made the audience participate in an interactive presentation on how to carry on the meaning of the UNMDGs after graduation.

What topics should be involved in the UNMDGs beyond 2015? How to carry on the meaning of the UNMDGs after graduation? [PDF 5.8 MB]
(Daniel Palazuelos, Partners in Health / Harvard Medical School / Brigham and Women’s Hospital)

After lunch, the emphasis was made on the activities of the U21 UNMDG student committee with three presentations on the role of the student committee, the student guide and a student committee collaborative project proposal that was very well received by the workshop's participants. Members stressed the importance of student-run projects and reiterated their support to student leadership. Though the proposal still needs a lot of work, members of the UNMDG Steering Committee gave their full support to the student project.

U21 UNMDG Student Committee Presentation [PDF 1.81 MB] (Adriana Valdez, Tecnológico de Monterrey)
U21 UNMDG Student Guide Proposal [PDF 11.6 MB] (Adriana Valdez, Tecnológico de Monterrey)
U21 UNMDG Student Committee Project Proposal [PDF 120 kB] (Jessica Lees, University of Melbourne)

Finally, two presentations were given on the integration of the UNMDGs in the curriculum at Tec de Monterrey and at the University of Queensland.

UNMDG Curriculum Integration-University of Queensland [PDF 549 kB] (Meg O'Connell, University of Queensland)
UNMDG Curriculum Integration-Tec de Monterrey [PDF 2.77 MB] (Martin Hernández, Tecnológico de Monterrey)

TUESDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER 2011

The third and last day of the UNMDG workshop was mainly dedicated to students. In the morning, six students from Nottingham, Melbourne, Queensland and Monterrey participated in the UNMDG student award by presenting one of their UNMDG experience (more information on the UNMDG awards available on the U21mdg4health website).

Cambodia Relief Mission [PDF 12.9 MB] (Nur Hazwani M Jamili, University of Nottingham)
Pediatric Neuro Rehab (Ecuador) & “Cool Projects” (Malawi) [PDF 661 kB] (Jessica Lees, University of Melbourne)
A Multi-Disciplinary Global Health Elective (Vietnam) [PDF 1.98 MB] (Alicia Veasey, University of Queensland)
Sierra Ventana Community Project (Mexico) [PDF 7.71 MB] (Adriana Valdez, Tec de Monterrey)
Obesity and MetS among Mexican children [PDF 12.9 MB] (Gisela Gutierrez, Tec de Monterrey)
UNMDG Pre-electives workshop at UQ [PDF 4.79 MB] (Meg O´Connell, University of Queensland)

Korea University students took the lead of the workshop during two hours to present the KU UNMDG 4 HEALTH project, as well as the three project teams formed to work on UNMDGs 1, 2 and 6:

KU UNMDG 4 HEALTH - UNMDGs in Korea University [PDF 1.21MB] (Dongha Kim)
KU UNMDG 4 HEALTH team project #1: Poverty and Hunger [PDF 632kB] (Noori Na / Yujin Lee)
KU UNMDG 4 HEALTH team project #2: Universal Primary Education [PDF 2.04MB] (Seoungeun Byun / Nuri Chun)
KU UNMDG 4 HEALTH team project #3: Reduce AIDS stigma [PDF 2.5MB] (Sunyoung Lee)

As a complement to the presentations of the day before on the integration of the UNMDGs in the curriculum, Young-Mee Lee gave an overview of the strategy for the integration of UNMDGs in the curriculum of Korea University's health sciences programmes.

How to integrate the UNMDGs in the curriculum: KU [PDF 918 kB] (Young-Mee Lee, Korea University)

Finally, participating members who had divided into groups the day before to discuss case studies, research, evaluation and funding for the UNMDG initiative, reported on the way forward for 2011-2012:

1. Case studies
There is a need to continue the writing of cases with other topics. In reviewing, many cases are about children, while the ageing population or disabled persons are not included. Members agreed that, as an international and interprofessional group, it is a strength for the U21 HSG to keep producing case studies, especially if those are based on students' experiences. Once the cases have been trialed once or twice in U21 universities, faculty members who facilitated the sessions are invited to revise the cases and suggest modifications to help improve them. The case studies were not designed to be kept only for U21 universities. However, discussion arose on how to put the cases on the website once they have been trialed and validated. Should they also be translated into other languages? Some participants suggested to give them a small price to make them attractive to other universities, though no consensus was found on the idea of getting money out of the cases or not. This aspect shall be further discussed by the UNMDG Steering Committee in the coming months.

2. Evaluation and Research
The UNMDG initiative needs to bring recognition to U21 participating schools. The initiative develops global citizenship and social responsibility and is also a tool for internationalisation. Both these aspects should encourage greater engagement from faculty members and Deans in U21 universities. One major question is defining what outcomes need to be produced to continue with the project. Through a research strategy, it is possible to evaluate and measure the impact of the initiative: the impact on the curriculum development in U21 universities but also the impact on students' understanding of the UNMDGs and on their social behaviour and activities. To find robust evidence and measure such impacts, funding is needed to find persons who could be dedicated to the project (for example Master or PhD students working as fellows). The group should also keep disseminating its activities in international medical education conferences (such as the AMEE conference).

3. Funding
In addition to receiving funding from the U21 HSG and potentially U21 central, participants agreed to look at the possibility of obtaining external funding from foundations and/or organizations. If this was sought, the group would create an Ethical Committee to look at the ethics behind receiving funds from outside.