Your World video competition

The theme for the 2022-23 Your World video competition is Good Health and Well-being, linking directly to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 3.

As the world recovers from a global pandemic, the lasting effect it has had on health and wellbeing is still being felt. This year's theme is a chance to reflect and address how our communities can tackle this. There is a shortage of health workers in many regions and health workers have been stretched to their limits by the pandemic. It is estimated that per 10,000 people in Northern America there are 150 nurses and midwives. For the same number of people in Sub-Saharan Africa it is estimated there are only 10 nurses and midwives. 

If current trends continue, only 39 per cent to 63 per cent of the global population will be covered by essential health services by 2030. Illness and death from communicable diseases is therefore expected to spike. In addition to this there has been a surge in mental health issues around the world.

To overcome these challenges, we need to first promote and protect our own health, raise awareness in our community about the importance of good health, healthy lifestyles and then find solutions to pressing health concerns described above. To do this we need to innovate through ideas that will help us address these issues, the Your World video competition is the perfect place to start.

By choosing to ensure healthy lives and promoting well-being we will build prosperous societies. For instance, by solving the shortage of medical staff, whether through recruitment, training, retention or other strategies, there will be greater access to healthcare for populations, leading to improved health throughout the community. 

Another example may be that by establishing ways to promote mental wellbeing within the community through a structured plan, the burden on the health sector could be reduced and experts could be developed within the field.

Therefore, we need to creatively rethink our view of health and well-being. Your social action project should aim to improve health and well-being through actions that deal with an issue for a community of your choice, highlighting an issue and its impact on an identified community. Your identified community could be the local community or even your school community. 

Your social action project could explore one of the following ideas:

• Raising awareness in your community about the importance of good health and healthy lifestyles
• Improving mental health through creating support groups
• Lowering the transmission rates of communicable diseases
• Ensuring communities recover from healthcare disruptions from Covid-19, including recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce

Or any other idea that looks at improving health and well-being of a community, big or small including your school over the long term. 

In completing the project, you might want to speak to experts or ministers in the fields your project is exploring. Experts might also be persuaded to look at ideas in more depth.

Develop a vision for yourself, your local community, and your country. 

Guidelines

Due to the rapidly evolving Covid-19 situation across countries, teams have the choice of producing either a live action video or animated style video. The aim is to give as much flexibility as possible in the type of video that teams can produce according to the situation. Teams need to keep Partner Schools informed about plans around the video and ensure that they keep within both school and national guidelines throughout the making of the video.

Assess local needs

The live action video or animated style video should highlight how the issues have been identified, how it is relevant to building a brighter future within a defined community and, most importantly, how strongly the public message has been conveyed through this video. In addition to identifying a key area, students in their teams should suggest possible solutions for the highlighted issues in their video. The community could be their country, town or city, school or any other group of people, large or small.

Students need to think about the following questions when planning their three-minute live action video or animated style video:

• Have local needs been identified accurately?
• Do the outcomes of the assessment justify the proposed idea?
• Is the issue a priority for the target community?
• How innovative or unique is the live action video or animated style video?

Feasibility

The video needs to demonstrate that the issue highlighted is real and suggestions/recommendations achievable in its approach and intended impact.

Impact

The video needs to present the impact well and demonstrate the positive changes it would bring about if put into action and that community considerations have been taken into account. The aim of the impact should be long-term.

Dos and Don’ts

Dos

• Students should feel free to interpret the theme in any way they want.
• The video should be vibrant and interesting to watch and ideally include people from the community being described.
• They should always keep in mind that students and other people from very different cultures will be watching. Students should let them see something that really captures the essence of their community.

Don’ts

• Students should not make a short documentary about a distant topic – for example, the charitable work of Bill Gates unless this work directly impacts their community.
• In this competition, ‘Good Health and Well-being‘ refers to our present-day and future lives. Students shouldn’t make a video about figures from history
• Students should not include their names within the video or video title

The Your World video competition is open for students aged between 14 and 17.

Each school can submit one entry in the age category above. Students must work in groups – as this is a collaborative effort – in teams of between three to five students. Students can also seek the advice and support of teachers in their school in producing this three-minute live action video or animated style video.

Benefits of participating in this global competition:

• Cross curricular focus
  The theme of Good Health and Well-being can be related to many of the subjects that students study at school such as science, physical education, business studies and global studies. Students can draw upon their knowledge of these subjects to produce a truly exceptional live action video or animated style video that highlights their skills and learning while making it.
• Core Skills Development
  By participating in this competition students will develop the following essential skills which will enable them to grow into well-rounded and creative citizens, ready to engage with job markets and shape the future for themselves and future generations.

Applications for overseas studies

It is increasingly common for students to demonstrate activities they do outside of the classroom in support of their applications. This competition will demonstrate a commitment on behalf of students to developing themselves proactively in their free time and their awareness about social and environmental issues around them.

Students have to submit a live action video or animated style video, 3 minutes long, focused on their world as they experience it. There is room for a great deal of creativity. We are looking for a live action video or animated style video of imagination and originality that will appeal to other students from a very different country.

The video should have been made specifically for this competition. Production quality is not included in our judging criteria. Criteria of selection will be based on:

• Content: the originality of the idea
• Structure: the way the idea is organised, laid out and presented
• Visual design: the look and feel of the live action video or animated style video
• Overall experience: message comprehension, impact on audience
• Cultural sensitivity: presentation takes into account sensitivities of other cultures, countries and regions and must not contain content that others might interpret as offensive
• The live action video or animated style video should focus on the impact on the community and how strongly the public message is conveyed. The video must avoid political issues

Rules and regulations 

In order to ensure a smooth, transparent and fair delivery of this competition, please refer to the terms and conditions document which you need to read carefully and sign before you take part.

All students who take part in the competition will receive a Certificate of Participation.

Country winners will be entered into regional and global finals to decide global winners. The British Council is offering a range of exciting prizes to recognise the efforts and success of the global winning team and the school.

Exciting global prizes include:

• Film Course: The winning team will receive an online film course delivered by an internationally recognised film school from the UK.
• iPads: Each member of the winning team will receive their own iPad.
• Trophy: The global winners will be awarded a trophy for their school. There will also be an exclusive opportunity to be hosted on our Facebook live event to celebrate the success of the winning Partner School and their students in the Your World video competition 2022-23.

The British Council is committed to:

• Valuing, respecting, and listening to children and adults, maintaining confidentiality, and acting proportionately.
• Maintaining strong protection systems, procedures and minimising and managing situations where abuse could occur through planning, risk assessment and safeguarding systems.
• Sharing safeguarding best practice and information regarding safeguarding concerns with relevant parties and involving children and adults where appropriate.
• Actively investigating suspected abuse.

It’s important that students know how to report any concerns they may have about posting online. It is important that measures are taken to minimise risk to students by staying safe online.