As defined by DSC, Sickle Cell Advocacy refers to activities and/or initiatives that are designed to promote general public awareness and education about sickle cell, to reduce the global sickle cell burden, to promote greater equity and to promote inclusion of sickle cell control into national and world health agenda by engaging governments, decision makers and other key stakeholders, sharing knowledge, facilitating collaborations & partnerships, dispelling myths and stigmatization and empowering the affected population through effective use of evidence, fund raising, joint advocacy drive, effecting policies and cross sector collaborations, activating the media, cross border initiatives and more..

We are looking to highlight high-impact advocacy stories and initiatives from Advocacy agencies, Patient representative organizations, Individuals or other public/private bodies that demonstrate the tangible results of sickle cell advocacy in relation with any of the following;

1: Enabling Policies and System reform
2: Universal Health Coverage and Sickle cell
3: Public Education and Awareness
4: Equality and access to optimum care
5: Fundraising
6: Inclusion in National and Global health agenda
7. Community Engagement

Advocacy agencies, Patient representative organizations, Individuals or other public/private bodies are welcome to apply.

Submitted advocacy stories or initiatives must include;
– Summary of the advocacy initiative,
– Initiative Title/Theme
– The sickle cell issue addressed by the advocacy activity
– The main messages and recommendations conveyed by the activity
– The result of the initiative

The actual or expected socioeconomic impacts of the initiative.

1. All advocacy initiative submitted must be within 2019 calendar year.
2. Applicants must submit Original photos of their campaign/advocacy initiatives for 2019
NOTE: All Photos must be of good quality Standard and can be in either JPG or PNG Format.
3. Applying organizations or Individuals are required to register to attend the congress event.
4. All entries must be submitted through our online system by September 18, 2019, 11:59 PM West African Time (WAT) in order to be considered as a contestant for the 2019 Sickle Cell Advocacy Contest.
5. All advocacy activities detailed in your submission must be within the 2019 calendar.

Only applicants that meet up to the requirements will be considered for the contest.

Follow @ACSCD_Conf for relevant information and update on the 2019 Sickle Cell Advocacy Contest.

APPLY ONLINE

Please contact us with any questions at info@acscd.org.
The deadline for submissions has been to September 30^th, 2019 (11h59 pm, West African Time).

Submissions will undergo a rigorous assessment of the following criteria:

— Relevance of the sickle cell issue tackled by the initiative;
— Success of the advocacy activity – results achieved;
— Impact and effects on affected people and communities, spillover effects and lessons learned;
— Advocacy strategy – creativity and originality, cooperation mechanisms deployed.

An independent panel will review the submissions and select the top stories and initiatives.

Winning applicants will have the opportunity to present their advocacy stories and initiatives in the “Sickle Cell in Focus” Hub at the African Congress on Sickle Cell Disease.

Winners and honorable mentions will be announced by October 5^th, 2019.