The World Health Organization (WHO) was established as a specialized agency of the United Nations 70 years ago, on April 7th, 1948. Every year, this day is commemorated as World Health Day (WHD), to bring focus on a theme of importance for public health.

The WHD theme for 2018 is Universal Health Coverage (UHC): ensuring that all people have access to needed health services, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that people do not suffer financial hardship when paying for these services. WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, recently underlined that “UHC is not just an option. It is the only way to realize health for all”.

For WHD 2018, WHO Country Office for Myanmar is holding a Photo Essay Competition on “UHC through Programme lenses” under four categories:

Reproductive, maternal, child, adolescent health (RMNCAH) and immunization
Communicable diseases
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
Health systems
This Call invites entries for the Competition as follows:

Each essay must include:
3 photos of high resolution (to print, upload on websites). Photos may be in black and white or colour.
Captions with a maximum of 150 words in total (50 words x 3 photos) to tell a single, continuous UHC story for the selected programme category.
Each contestant may submit up to two (2) entries in the same or different category.
Any camera type may be used to take the photos. Work created with digital technology shall not be considered.
Each entry must be accompanied with:
Photo credits.
Full and unconditional permission for WHO to use all materials submitted (photos and caption text) with appropriate credits/ acknowledgments.
Name, contact telephone, email and address of the entrant.
The Competition is open to everyone– as individuals (not representing any organization).

Criteria for selection:
All entries that meet the above-mentioned guidelines shall be accepted.
In deciding on winners, the following shall be considered:
How well each photo illustrates its caption; and, how well that caption captures a UHC experience in the programme are selected.
The relevance of the overall story told by the photos and their captions together for “UHC through programme lenses”.
The top submission in each category shall be displayed as part of WHD 2018 commemoration activities. Awards shall be announced on 7th April as follows:

Overall winner (from one of the 4 categories) USD250.
The winner in each remaining category (3 awards) USD100 each.
Entries should be sent by email to semmr-at-who.int on or before 5:00 PM on 15th March 2018. Please include “UHC Photo Essay” and the relevant Programme Category of the entry in the Subject of the email.

Additional Information:

Further details on UHC may be found at http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs395/en/.
WHO’re Fact Files provide useful examples of the use photographs to convey public health messages and may be found on http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/en/

Scholarship Link