International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB)

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IAPB Council of Members, September 2014, Paris IAPB Members Showcase • What Next • Overall, the meetings provided a fantastic learning opportunity for all of us and the message running through the various sessions was unequivocal – with a new Global Action Plan in place and a new IAPB strategy now closely aligned to it, implementation is the watchword. • Key areas were identified throughout the meetings were IAPB and members can contribute to make universal access to eye health a reality: • Regional workshops bringing together senior country decision makers and national co-ordinators involved in eye health to review the Action Plan in light of regional priorities and to stimulate interest – two have already taken place in West Pacific and PAHO and three more are coming up in EMR, Africa and South East Asia; • Supporting the roll out at country level of an eye care services assessment tool being developed by WHO – the tool, building on existing methodologies, aims to assess the ‘health’ of in-country eye care services and identify gaps in national eye health systems; • Generating evidence through Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) surveys - the Action Plan has overall targets calling for a 25% reduction in the global prevalence of both blindness and moderate + severe visual impairment. To be able to monitor progress towards achieving this goal more prevalence surveys, preferably the latest version of RAABs, will need to be carried out around the world, and a first step would be to ascertain where members are already planning to carry out surveys and where there are gaps in evidence. • Thanks to all of the delegates who attended the Council meetings in Brighton. It was fantastic to see so many there and hear the positive reactions to the new features introduced this year. We very much look forward to build on this success at the 2014 Council meeting in Paris on 18-21 September 2014. International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) leads an alliance of civil society organisations, corporates and professional bodies in promoting eye health through advocacy, knowledge and partnerships. IAPB’s mission is to eliminate the main causes of avoidable blindness and visual impairment by bringing together governments and non-governmental agencies to facilitate the planning, development and implementation of sustainable national eye care programmes. Following feedback from the 9th General Assembly (9GA) in Hyderabad we set out to make the 2013 Council meeting in Brighton a more attractive, relevant and useful event to all member organisations and their teams – in other words, a mini-GA. The large increase in attendance and positive feedback from delegates (with some talking of a mini-Hyderabad) showed that the Brighton meeting was indeed a game-changer for our annual members’ gatherings. Around 150 participants from over 70 different organisations attended all or some of the 4-days meetings, coming from 27 countries from all IAPB regions. Delegates described it as “inspiring”, “very good” and “very useful”, recognised that it was “good to hear what others are doing”, and praised the overall organisation as “marvellous”, a “great job”. Key highlights Diabetic Retinopathy meeting: the first formal meeting of the IAPB DR Work Group exercised quite a pull; the meeting had a broad agenda ranging from programmes to advocacy, from research to technology and welcomed all interested parties, from in- as well as outside eye health. Themed sessions: to enable members to better share and learn from each other, this year’s Council saw the introduction of themed sessions, alongside the Council plenary and AGM. From providing concrete examples on how international partners can help implementing the new Global Action Plan, to showcasing how organisations are using World Sight Day to support their work, from an overview of programmes and research to bridge the eye health human resources gap in Africa, to the latest methodologies and data sources to support national eye care planning and advocacy, the sessions, developed for members by members, aimed to share practical ways in which we can all take universal eye health forward. Eye Health Leaders: an exciting highlight was the Eye Health Leaders’ celebration – our initiative to help nurture and celebrate the talent in our sector. Introduced in the footsteps of 9GA Eye Health Heroes, it attracted an even larger number of nominations and their stories became the biggest hit in IAPB’s social media history. The focus this year was on ‘new leaders’ with twenty individuals named by member organisations as the potential new generation of leaders in eye health. Thanks also to support from L’OCCITANE Foundation, seven were able to attend and their enthusiasm was a highlight of the meetings. Industry participation: thanks to the platform provided by the online Standard List, IAPB has developed trusted relationships with a wide range of suppliers and manufacturers. They were invited to participate to the Brighton meetings and display their latest offerings during coffee breaks. By leveraging the collective procurement power of the membership, IAPB can help members, and their partners in-country, benefit from lower prices for eye care drugs, consumables and equipment – if you missed the displays at Council meetings, as an IAPB member you can now access the full catalogue of products and equipments, specifically developed for the NGO eye care sector at the click of a button. Thanks to all those who participated for a successful 2013 Council of Members. IAPB Council of Members 2013