IFOS Notes:
Please Work for Adoption of WHO Resolution EB117.R4
As the new President of the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO), I am happy to welcome 22 new societies to membership in the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS). (For a list of the new members, see www.icoph.org/news/sao2.html#members.)
"IFOS Notes" is a monthly e-mail newsletter that we send to the leaders of IFOS member societies. I hope you find it informative and useful.
At the recent World Ophthalmology Congress/XXX International Congress of Ophthalmology, February 19 - 24 in São Paulo, Brazil, it was clear that ophthalmologic societies have an unprecedented opportunity to contribute to prevention of blindness and visual impairment around the world.
In this issue of IFOS Notes, the Council calls on society leaders to contact your ministers of health and other members your national delegation to the World Health Assembly and ask them to vote to adopt a WHO Resolution to increase support for prevention of blindness. See #2 below for more specifics on what we ask you to do.
Also in this issue, we report some highlights from the IFOS General Assembly on February 21 in São Paulo.
I am honored to have been elected to serve as President for the next four years, along with the following new officers:
- Vice President: Akef El Maghraby, MD, of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- Secretary General: Jean-Jacques DeLaey, MD, of Ghent, Belgium
- Treasurer: Yasuo Tano, MD, of Osaka, Japan.
Please let us know how we can communicate with you and serve IFOS Members more effectively.
1. IFOS Discusses Challenges for Ophthalmology
At its General Assembly on February 21, the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS):
- discussed the critical challenges facing ophthalmology in the future, particularly the many places in the world where there is inadequate access to eye care
- endorsed the policy adopted two days earlier by the ICO to support efforts to increase the priority assigned to prevention of blindness and visual disability
- welcomed new members, including 17 international subspecialty societies and related groups and five national societies
- elected 18 members of the Council who are not officers or "ex-officio" to four-year terms starting at the end of the World Congress
- approved minor changes in the Statutes of IFOS (see www.icoph.org/ic/statifosprop.html)
- voted to maintain IFOS dues for each member society at the level of 3 CHF per member of the society per year.
For more news from the IFOS General Assembly, see www.icoph.org/news/sao2.html.
For other reports on the ICO meeting in São Paulo and World Ophthalmology Congress, see www.icoph.org.
Thanks to IFOS Representatives for your participation in the General Assembly and to all IFOS Members for your continuing support.
2. Contact Your National Delegation to the World Health Assembly
The Council is asking every national ophthalmologic society, as well as individual ophthalmologists, to contact your minister of health and other members of your national delegation to the World Health Assembly (WHA) and ask them to support adoption of WHO Resolution EB117.R4 at the World Health Assembly, May 22 to 27 in Geneva.
You can download a sample letter to send to your minister of health from: www.icoph.org/pdf/lettertomoh.doc.
Please:
1. Modify the sample letter as needed
2. Send it to your minister of health and other members of your delegation to the WHA as soon as possible, and then
3. Follow-up with them by e-mail, telephone and, if possible, personal meetings.
We would appreciate receiving a copy of your communications with your WHA delegation.
The support of state governments is critical to ensuring the continued commitment of WHO to prevention of blindness and to the ultimate success of the VISION 2020: The Right To Sight global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020.
3. Documents That Support the WHO Resolution
We suggest sending two attachments with your letter to your WHA delegation:
The latter document was prepared by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), which is spearheading support adoption of the resolution.
For a PowerPoint presentation designed for ministers of health and other IAPB documents that may be helpful as you work to encourage support for prevention of blindness, see www.icoph.org/wha/index.html#more.
4. What the WHO Resolution Requests
Adopted by the WHO Executive Board on January 26, Resolution EB117.R4 on "Prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment" asks WHA Member States (i.e., countries) to:
- reinforce efforts to define national VISION 2020 plans
- provide funding necessary to support those plans
- include prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment in national development plans and goals.
The resolution asks WHO to:
- give priority to prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment
- provide necessary technical support to member states and support for collaboration among countries
- monitor progress on the global initiative and report to the Executive Board every three years.
5. IAPB Asks Ministers for Support
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) sent a letter to each national minister of health on March 16 urging that their delegation to the WHA:
- Vote in favor of adoption of the 117th resolution: EB117.R4
- Support adding Prevention of Blindness activities to the Medium Term Strategic Plan 2008 – 2013 of WHO as well as its Biennial Programme Budget 2008 – 2009
- Support inclusion of Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment activities within the WHO 11th General Programme of Work.
You can download the IAPB letter to ministers of health from www.icoph.org/pdf/iapbtomoh.pdf.
But IAPB does not expect a significant response from their letter. It is critical for the ministers of health and other delegates to hear from national ophthalmological societies and other ophthalmologists as well. As IAPB President Nag Rao, MD, said in a communication to regional IAPB Regional Chairs, "What really works is persistent and persuasive follow-up by people in the region."
If you have questions relating to the WHO Resolution or World Health Assembly, contact ICO Director for Advocacy Hugh Taylor, MD, at mailto:advocacy@icoph.org.
Thank you in advance for your efforts to increase support for prevention of blindness and visual loss.
With warm regards,
Bruce Spivey, MD
ICO President
945 Green Street
San Francisco, CA, 94133, USA
(1-415) 409-8410
Fax: (1-415) 409-8403
mailto:spivey@icoph.org
International Council of Ophthalmology