Education outside the UK

• VISION 2020 workshops
• Short courses outside the UK

VISION 2020 workshops

Evaluation and Planning of VISION 2020 Workshops

The International Association for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) VISION 2020 workshop programme, originally initiated, and now managed by ICEH, has been running since 1999 when it started with 6 regional partners in Pakistan, South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Columbia and India. In 2001 the six partners met to review progress, share experiences and plan for the future. Out of this meeting a programme was developed for the period 2002 – 2005 with the overarching objectives to:

• To undertake 12-15 1 week ‘VISION 2020 planning and implementing’ workshops each year.

• To train local faculty to undertake and teach future courses in 8-12 centres around the world.

In this programme the workshops delivered were of three types and represented the three step process to support countries to develop and implement their National VISION 2020 plans; these were:

• Advocacy or sensitisation workshops for the Ministry of Health, and other key national decision makers.

• National Planning workshops for national planners and policy makers.

• District Level Planning workshops for planners and implementers at District level

This programme has been evolving and growing since 2002 and has successfully secured funding to support this growth. It was in recognition of this growth that it was felt the time had come to take stock of the accomplishments, review the strategy and evaluate progress. In order to do this IAPB and ICEH commissioned an independent consultant to carry out a comprehensive evaluation to help guide the future direction of the workshops. This evaluation was carried out between April – July 2007.

The key findings and recommendations of this evaluation were presented to the programme funders, ICEH and IAPB in August 2007 and the report, "An Evaluation of the VISION 2020 Workshop Program 2002-2006" PDF (200Kb), accepted. The next step was to hold a planning workshop in October 2007, bringing together key regional stakeholders, WHO representatives, ICEH and IAPB staff and representatives from the funding agencies. The objectives of this workshop were to take the evaluation recommendations, combined with the participant’s experiences and knowledge of VISION 2020 in the regions, to review and refine the programme objectives for the coming years, and to make recommendations for strengthening the operating systems of the programme.

The workshop was lead by Professor Allen Foster and stimulated good discussion whilst covering a lot of ground. The outcomes of which are a set of draft regional plans for 2008 – 2010 for each of the WHO/IAPB regions. These draft plans are now being reviewed by regional and national stakeholders, and once endorsed will be submitted to ICEH where they will be amalgamated into a global three year plan.

In order to facilitate future planning and organisation, Regional Coordinators have been identified. They are to be the primary point of contact between ICEH and the WHO/IAPB regions and will be responsible for liaising with regional and national stakeholders to identify needs, finalise regional plans, identify faculty for workshops, monitor progress, and general decision making and ownership of the regional plans.

One of the key recommendations arising from the workshop was a recognition of the strength of the VISION 2020 brand and how important it is that this programme is recognised as an IAPB VISION 2020 programme at the global level whilst ownership is kept at the regional level and managed by the Regional IAPB coordinators.

To summarise it is an exciting time for this programme and in parallel to finalising and implementing the new three year plan ICEH have appointed a Programme Manager who will work closely with the Regional Coordinators to strengthen the systems and procedures and to develop best practice guidelines for the workshops.

For further information on VISION 2020 Workshops please contact: Robin Heber Percy, Programme Manager, VISION 2020 Workshop Programme, Robin.percy@lshtm.ac.uk

For regional information please contact:

WORKSHOPS PROGRAMME

REPORTS

MANUALS

Africa
Prof. Kayode Odusote,
Director of Human Resources Development.
West African Health Organisation,
01 BP 153, Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.
Tel: +226 20970097/20975775 Fax: +226 20970099/20975772
Email: kodusote@yahoo.com, kodusote@wahooas.org

Eastern Meditterranean
Dr M.Babar Qureshi,
CEO and Executive Director CHEF International,
10 E-1 Abdara road, University town Peshawar, Pakistan.
Tel: + 92 915851186 Mobile: +92 3339150532
Fax: + 92 915700365
Email cbmpak@pes.comsats.net.pk

Europe
Dr Ivo Kocur MA MSc
Team Leader
Prevention of Blindness and Deafness
World Health Organization
CH-1211, Geneva 27, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 7911435 Fax: +41 22 7914772
Email: kocuri@who.int
Web: www.who.int

Latin America/Americas
Dr Van C. Lansingh, MD, PhD
VISON 2020 Latinamerica Regional Coordinator
Av. Caamaño sin Numero, UF125 La Pradera II, Villa Rosa, Pilar 1631, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tel/Fax: + 54-2322-458-642
Email: vlansingh@v2020la.org

South East Asia
R. D. Thulasiraj
Executive Director - LAICO: Aravind Eye Care System
President - VISION 2020 The Right to Sight: India
72 Kuruvikaran Salai, Annanagar, Madurai - 625 020, Tamilnadu, India
Tel: +91-(0)452-435 6500 Fax: +91-(0)452-2530984
Email: thulsi@aravind.org
Web: www.aravind.org

Western Pacific
Dr Richard Le Mesurier FRCS FRCOphth
VISION 2020 Regional Coordinator, Western Pacific Region
Centre for Eye Research Australia
University of Melbourne Department of Ophthalmology
32 Gisborne Street, East Melbourne, 3002 Victoria, Australia
Tel: +61 3 9929 8360 Fax: +61 3 9662 3859
Mobile: +61 405 187 756
Skype: riklem
E-mail: riklem@mac.com or rtlm@unimelb.edu.au

Short courses outside the UK

ICEH is involved in the development of two short courses leading to a Certificate Course in Community Eye Health, run at Groote Schuur Hospital, South Africa and the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO), Tanzania. We are grateful to the Nuffield Foundation for funding this 5 year project. For information about this project, please contact Adrienne.Burrough@Lshtm.ac.uk.

Groote Schuur Hospital Certificate Course in Community Eye Health
For information about attending the course in South Africa, please contact Colin Cook at Loukidis@telkomsa.net.

KCCO Certificate Course in Community Eye Health
Date: 13 October – 5 December, 2008
Venue: KCCO – Moshi, Tanzania
Objective: To equip eye health professionals with the skills necessary to develop, implement, and manage a VISION 2020 programme. This includes disease control, planning, human resource development, bridging strategies and budgeting
Target audience: Ophthalmologists, project managers, or other eye care professionals who are responsible for developing and implementing a district - based VISION 2020 plans.
More details are given in the course advert PDF (40Kb). For further information and admission procedures, visit the KCCO website (www.kcco.net) or contact Mr. Genes Mng’anya, KCCO Courses Administrator.
Email: genes@kcco.net