VISION 2020: The Right to Sight—India

Quarterly Report April-June 2013

Greetings to all members of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight – INDIA.

It has been an eventful quarter to begin the year with. We successfully conducted the 9 th an-
nual conference at Bhopal. What we started in the previous conference in Madurai was contin-
ued this year as well. The conference had 8 tracks, 7 sessions in each track, and a total of
nearly 520 participants.

We are thankful to Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital our member from Central zone for taking up this
mammoth responsibility and conducting the conference with such aplomb.

Their effort needs a special thanks and appreciation as for the hospital this was first of such a
conference at such a large scale. It is an example of team work that saw their other sister or-
ganisations: the Management College, Hirdaram Girls College and College of Naturopathy &
Inside this issue: Yogic Sciences put in their effort to make the conference such a grand event.

9th annual 2 We are specially thankful to Ms. Sujaya Krishnan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family
conference : a Welfare (MoHFW); Dr. N. K. Agarwal, Deputy Director General (opth) MoHFW; Dr. (Prof)
report Rajvardhan Azad, Chief, Dr. R. P Centre, AIIMS; Dr. Pararajashegaram, Past President, IAPB;
Dr. V. Rajasekhar, Ophthalmologist, Safdarjung Hospital and Dr. G. N. Rao, Chair, LVP Eye In-
Interview with 4 stitute; our Executive, Board and General Body Members and others for their valuable inputs
Mr Peter Ackland
and participating in the conference.

V 2020 India Ac- 6 We also are grateful to Dr Ravichandran, Director, IIM, Indore and his team members for shar-
tivities ing their valuable inputs at the conference. We would also like to thank Mr Nitin Desai for being
a part of the conference. We would like thank the state Health Department for encouraging par-
ticipation.
Announcements 7
But most importantly, we would like to thank our members and speakers who attended the
conference in such a large numbers. Without their participation such a success would not have
Member 8 been possible.
Information
We would like to thank the government of India and MoHFW for an increased budget allocation
under the government’s 12 five year plan for blindness programme in the country. At a global
level the action plan for 2014 – 2019 was passed at the World Health Assembly. We are bring-
ing you an interview with Mr Peter Ackland, CEO, IAPB explaining the details of the Action Plan.

We take this opportunity to congratulate Dr TP Das and Dr S Natrajan for being conferred with
Padma Shri.
We are glad to share that the next year’s conference which is a landmark year as it will be the
10th conference will be held on June 14 & 15, 2014 at Little Flower Eye Hospital and Research
Centre, Angamaly, Cochin, Kerala. We hope to have an equally invigorating learning experience
there .

Col (retd) Dr M Deshpande Dr G V Rao

President CEO
Page 2 Quarterly Report April - June 2013

9th annual conference

A platform for sharing of knowledge and best practices

E
xchange of knowl-
edge and sharing
best practices across
8 tracks, 7 sessions
in each track, and a total of
nearly 520 participants that
is the 9th annual conference
in a nutshell that concluded
in Bhopal recently.
The two – day conference
‘Achieving Excellence in
Comprehensive Eye Care
Management’ held on April 6
& 7 and hosted by Sewa
Sadan Eye Hospital, Bhopal
included a range of topics
and received a tremendous
response in terms of partici-
pation from our members.
“The sessions covered many Seated from L to R: Dr GV Rao, Dr GN Rao, Dr (Col) Deshpande, Prof Azad, Sidh Bauji, Mr Kailash
areas of interest and I feel Joshi, Mr Jeetendra Daga, Dr Pararajsegram, Mr Nitin Desai and Dr TP Das. Dr Sashi Rai is at the
confident that it did stimu- podium.
late a lot of enthusiasm es-
pecially among the young Director - Eye Health, Opera-
In addition to the regular The third one was a two
audience” said Dr Parara- tion Eyesight Universal (India) – hour hands on training
sessions, the conference
jsegram of the conference. said, “This is perhaps the session on the intrica-
hosted three special ses-
only conference in ophthal- cies of HMIS from the
Commenting on the exclu- sions: ‘Forum of Visionar-
mology that provides an
siveness of the conference, ies in Eye Care’ that fea- master himself, Dr V
opportunity to the support-
Dr Santosh Moses, Assistant tured Dr Pararajsegaram, Rajasekhar. The session
ing staff in an eye hospital
Consultant Ophthalmolo- was chaired by Ms Su-
to attend a conference and
gist; Prof Rajvardhan Azad, jaya Krishnan, Joint Sec-
more importantly, an op-
Chief, RP Centre, AIIMS; retary, MoHFW, Govern-
portunity to share their
Dr GN Rao, Chairman,
thoughts.” ment of India.
LVPEI who deliberated on
the road ahead for VISION Dr NK Agarwal, DDG
“The sessions covered The participants for the (O), NPCB, Government
2020: The Right to Sight –
many areas of interest conference included head of India Chaired a ses-
India
and I feel confident of organisations, ophthal- sion in the Outreach
that it did stimulate a
mologists, administrators,
A special session was by track and participated in
programme managers,
lot of enthusiasm the management guru, Dr panel discussions.
optometrists and in addi-
especially among the N Ravichandran, Director,
tion to this, 123 manage-
young audience” said IIM, Indore.
ment students from local
Dr Pararajsegram of host organisation!
the conference.
One more award instituted this year
While continuing with the award that was instituted last year: Shri Dharamsey Nansey
Oman Award for Outstanding High Quality High Volume Comprehensive Eye Care Ser-
vice Delivery, a new award to promote equity in eye care was instituted this year:
Shri S.N. Shah award for Equity for providing comprehensive primary eye care
screenings with a focus on women and children.

Both the awards were presented at the inaugural of the annual conference. The Shri
Dharamsey Nansey Oman Award for Outstanding High Quality High Volume Compre-
hensive Eye Care Service Delivery award was given to Shri Sadguru Nethra Chikitsa-
lya, Chitrakoot while the Shri S.N. Shah award for Equity: to provide comprehensive
primary eye care screenings with a focus on women and children went to Pushpagiri
Eye Institute, Hyderabad. We thank Mr N P Pandya for making the award possible.
 Quarterly Report April - June 2013 Page 3

Able support from

our Members.

A conference of this mag-

nitude is not possible
without able support.
And our members have
made it possible. We
thank all who have lent
their time and valuable
Dr BK Jain receiving the Shri Dharamsey award and Mr Govind Hari receiving the SN Shah award. inputs to make the con-
ference a success.

The track on ‘Towards

Inaugural function of annual conference Quality Excellence in Op-
eration Theatre’ was
Manual on Leadership released made possible with the
The annual conference was
support from Dr Usha
inaugurated on the eve- As part of our Resource Centre activity, the manual on Gopinathan and Dr RR
ning of April 6, 2013. Shri
Sudhir.
Kailash Joshi, MP & ex-
Chief Minister of Madhya
The entire track on
Pradesh was the chief
‘Optometry: advocacy,
guest while Mr. Jeetendra
refractive errors and vis-
Daga, MLA was the guest
ual fields’ was designed
of honour and from the
by Dr Lakshmi Shinde,
host organisation, Shri
CEO, Optometry Council
(rev) Sidh Bauji graced the
of India with very valu-
occasion as special guest.
able inputs from Dr RD
Ravindran and Dr Asim
At the inauguration, Dr TP
Sil.
Das and Dr S Natarajan
were felicitated for being
Mission for Vision de-
conferred Padma Shri: one
signed session on Patient
of the highest award by
Leadership that was developed with the support from Auditing and Sight Life
the government recognis-
ORBIS International and was released during the confer- session on Eye Banking.
ing professional excellence.
ence inaugural. The manual was released by the Chief
Guest for the evening in the presence of Dr Rahul Ali, The VISION 2020: The
India Country Director, ORBIS and other dignitaries pre- Right to Sight – India
sent during the inaugural. members from central
zone provided able sup-
Trade Section inauguration port: Sri Sadguru Netra
Chikitsalaya; MGM Eye
Institute; Choitram Eye
Hospital; Sadguru
Sankalp Netra Chikitsa-
lya; Gomabai Eye Hospi-
tal; INGO Sightsavers and
Dr Das (above)& Dr Natarajan many other central zone
( below) receiving being felici-
members gave their valu-
tated at the conference. able inputs and were part
of the core committee.

Dr Rajiv Raman, heading

the scientific committee
provided his support for
screening and selecting
the abstracts.
The annual conference saw a good participation from the
industry: pharma, equipment manufacturers and related A new feature this year
was on industry sessions.
companies. The trade area was inaugurated by
W e t h a n k
Ms Sujaya Krishnan, Joint Secretary, MoHFW, Govern-
Optomed and Bausch and
ment of India. The stalls saw participation from nearly 25 Lomb for participating in
companies, while a number of companies participated in the session.
the trade stall and also through advertisement in the
souvenir brought out for the occasion.
Page 4 Quarterly Report April - June 2013

Special Feature
An Interview with Mr Peter Ackland, CEO, IAPB

T
he 66th World Health Assembly (WHA) concluded on 27 May, 2013 with
agreement on a range of new public health measures and recommendations aimed
at securing greater health benefits for all people, everywhere.

At the WHA “Towards universal eye health: a global action plan 2014-2019” – was
endorsed by delegates. This is an action plan that aims to further improve eye
health, reduce avoidable visual impairment and secure access to rehabilitation services. The
global target is to reduce the prevalence of avoidable visual impairment by 25% by 2019.
Mr Peter Ackland, CEO, International Agency for Prevention of Blindness ( IAPB) was at the
WHA. We posed some questions to him to understand the global action plan better and what
it means for India. Following is the text of the Q and A with Mr Peter Ackland.

V 2020 India: The global action plan 2014-2019 towards universal eye health for all was endorsed during the
recently concluded WHA. This is a big achievement for the eye care fraternity. Can you share with our readers
the importance of the action plan, especially with year 2020 approaching?

Peter Ackland: The new Global Action Plan (GAP) is now the most important strategic document that we have
in the field of eye health at global level. It builds upon and replaces previous VISION 2020 and 2009 - 2013
Action Plans. It is important because it keeps eye health and the elimination of avoidable blindness and visual
impairment on the radar of health policy makers. With so much current international interest in the Neglected
Tropical Diseases and the four priority non-communicable diseases (cancer, respiratory diseases, heart diseases
and diabetes) we have to fight for attention for our cause of better eye health.

V 2020 India: What are the unique features of this action plan?

Peter Ackland: The GAP has an overall target – which is to reduce the prevalence of avoidable visual impair-
ment by 25% by the year 2019 from the baseline of 2010. This is important as once achieved it will continue
the downward trend we have seen in the age standardised prevalence rate of both blindness and moderate &
severe visual impairment in the period 1990 to 2010.
The GAP is structured around three clear objectives:
The first objective focuses upon generating evidence on the magnitude and causes of visual impairment and on
the state of eye health services and using this evidence to advocate for greater political and financial commit-
ment by national governments to eye health.
Objective two encourages the development of policies, plans and programmes to enhance universal eye health.
It refers to the need for integration of eye health into strengthened health systems.
Objective three stress the need for multisectoral engagements and effective partnerships.
Each objective has a number of proposed actions for national governments, the WHO Secretariat and Interna-
tional Partners – IAPB and VISION 2020 India would fall into this latter group.
Overall the GAP summarises well current thinking within IAPB and its’ Members as to how we are most likely to
raise the profile of eye health, vision impairment and rehabilitation and establish the services required to bring
eye health to the most marginalised and poorest groups in society.

V 2020 India: Can you briefly describe the steps towards drafting the action plan and who all were involved in
the entire exercise?

Peter Ackland: The first important step was that made at the World Health Assembly Executive Board meeting
of Jan 2012 when a decision was made to ask the WHO Secretariat to prepare a new Action Plan to succeed the
2009 -13 Action Plan. A few months prior to this meeting IAPB had established a work group to advocate to
Member States represented on the Executive Board for a new Plan, so we were very happy with this outcome.
The WHO then prepared a discussion document and invited stakeholders to express their views as to what
should be included in the new Action Plan. IAPB and many of our Members responded to this online consulta-
tion. At the World Health Assembly in May 2012 the Australian delegation and IAPB hosted a lunch time semi-
nar which was very well attended. By June, WHO had posted a “zero draft” of the new Action Plan and estab-
lished a web-based consultation process. By September the “First draft” had been prepared followed by two
Quarterly Report April - June 2013 Page 5

Interview contd.…...
a web-based consultation process. By September the “First draft” had been prepared followed by two meetings in
October where Member States and NGOs in official relations with WHO, including IAPB, were able to comment on
the content and the targets. The penultimate draft was then prepared for the Executive Board meeting of January
2013 where it was heartily endorsed and recommended for adoption. This subsequently happened at the WHA in
May 2013.
Overall the consensus has been that the process was genuinely consultative, that views and comments were taken
on board throughout the process, and that the final draft adopted at the WHA was very good content wise.

V 2020 India: The preparation involved several stakeholders. Were there any challenges that you faced while the
proposal was being drafted?

Peter Ackland: The key challenge was to ensure that the process to develop and promote the new GAP was
driven by Member States. WHO has over the past couple of years been engaged in a reform process that has
stressed that the WHO is accountable to the 194 Member States and not to civil society or private sector interests.
Thus it would have been counter-productive if IAPB had been seen to be at the forefront. Accordingly our advocacy
strategy was to build relationships with Member States and encourage them to promote the GAP at the meetings.
At this point I should pay tribute to the work of Lesley Podesta, the Chair of the IAPB work group, and Sanjeev
Commar, a consultant engaged to help with the work in Geneva – both know the WHO system very well and their
political antennae meant we were able to get the balance right. At the IAPB 9th General Assembly in Hyderabad in
September 2012 VISION 2020 India arranged for us to meet senior Indian government officials and we were able
to talk about the new GAP. Likewise we met the high level Chinese delegation that attended the 9GA. Getting the
support of these countries and the leadership displayed by Australia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia in particular was the
key to success.

V 2020 India: You in your blog have mentioned that now it is time for implementation. So what are the next
steps? And how will this plan be implemented universally?

Peter Ackland: Important though the new GAP is it will only add value if it is now taken up seriously at country
levels and national governments take responsibility for implementing the GAP in their country. Future IAPB advo-
cacy work will now shift to country level – though we would hope all countries will take action the reality is that if
we are to make impact on the global prevalence of blindness and visual impairment some big countries just have
to succeed.
Very obviously India would be amongst those important target countries where we must see real progress. To this
end we are lucky to have VISION 2020 India that is already well established in-country, plus a positive relationship
with the government and many eye health leaders and champions. The development of eye health already in-
cluded in the 12th National five year plan of India already lay a good foundation for implementing aspects of the
new GAP. Unfortunately in many other countries these coalitions and plans to promote eye health are less well es-
tablished. Part of IAPB’s future role will be to help establish strong local capacity to advocate for change.
We have been discussing with WHO how we can catalyse local interest in the new GAP. One thing we have thought
of is to encourage the development of an approved WHO eye health service assessment tool which can be used in
each country as a situational analysis of current provision and identify areas that need strengthening. Another
proven approach has been to encourage localised prevalence surveys, such as RAABs. Global data or even national
level data in big countries like India, can easily seem distant to policy makers and politicians whilst a local survey
that identifies the size and causes of blindness and visual impairment is harder to ignore and more likely to interest
people to want to do something about the situation.

V 2020 India: Vision 2020 India participated toward preparing the draft proposal along with other Vision 2020
programmes. What role do you think all the Vision 2020 programmes around the world can play to take this for-
ward? What are the steps that they can take to successfully implement this action plan?

Peter Ackland: Local advocacy to promote national implementation of the new GAP is the key to success. The
national VISION 2020 bodies are perfectly placed to be the organisations that lead the advocacy in their country.
To a large extent advocacy work is very locally based – it is about knowing how political and policy decisions are
made and who the key people are to build relationships with and to seek to influence. Much of this is culturally
specific. There is no way that this can be led from outside the country.
Page 6 Quarterly Report April - June 2013

Interview cont…..
Though IAPB can share resources and promote learning useful for advocacy based upon experiences of VISION
2020 organisations across different countries, ultimately it is local action that will win the day for us. These are
exciting times and the new GAP provides us with the opportunity to make a lasting impact – I hope everyone
reading this will feel they have something to offer to make this all happen – because you all do!

V 2020 India: Thank you Mr Ackland.

Programme Development

Strategic Planning and Team Building

W
ith a view towards building the capacity of our member organisations
and developing effective and efficient operations, we conducted five
Strategic Planning and Team Building workshops in the last quarter:

PMBA’s Kantalaxmi Shah Eye Hospital, Nadurbar expresses our sincere appreciation for
conducting such an inspiring Strategic Planning workshop.
We are in the sixth year of operation. Business review and Strategic Planning was very
necessary for us.
The Strategic Planning helped us to understand our vision, mission, objectives, strengths,
weaknesses, opportunity, threats, gaps, values. Further, the strategic planning inspired us
to change our mindset to build strengths, resolve weaknesses, explore opportunities and
overcome threats.
The workshop brought management and employees together and helped both understand
each other in a better way and everyone felt that they are part of the process. This will go
a long way in bringing our strengths and values together to make us greater than the sum
of our part.
The action plan formed not only directs us for the next five years but shall also shapes our
future for many more years. Our team is motivated to start the journey towards excel-
lence with renewed zeal.
The demonstrative skills of Col Deshpande and you are excellent.
NA Gaikwad Dr Siddharth Kamble
Director – Administration Chief Medical Officer

 Kota Eye Research Centre Society, Kota on. Col (retd) Dr Strategic Planning held at:
Deshpande, Dr GV Rao and Mr Mahaveer Jain conducted
the programme.  Arunodhya Deseret Eye Hospital, Gurgaon.

 Tejas Eye Hospital, Divya Jyoti Trust,

Mandvi, Gujarat.
 Rotary Eye Institute, Navsari, Surat, Guja-
rat.

Role play: an integral part of

Strategic Planning workshop: at
Kota Eye Research Centre Soci-
ety.
Quarterly Report April - June 2013 Page 7

Visit to Member Organisations

T
he visits of team from VISION 2020: The Right to Sight – India to member organisations across the six
zones is a regular feature. These visits provide an opportunity to us understand the working of our member
hospitals, view their facilities and try and understand areas where they require our assistance.

 Col (retd) Dr Deshpande and Dr GV Rao visited Rotary Eye Institute, Navasari, Gujarat. They saw
their facilities at the hospital especially their new OT construction. We agreed to provide further technical in-
puts for strengthening quality and sustainability of their eye care services.

 The team of Col (retd) Dr Deshpande and Dr GV Rao visited Sewa Sadan eye hospital to discuss with the
management team on their plans to construct a new eye hospital as well as strengthening the existing facility
for quality services.
 Dr GV Rao visited few potential members in Chennai, Tamil Nadu: Gremaltes Eye Hospital and Sankara Eye
Hospital, Pammal, Chennai. He also met Sankara Netralaya team members Dr. S.S. Badrinath, Dr. T. Suren-
dran, Dr. RR Sudhir and had discussions on V2020 India programs.

Other Highlights

 Dr GV Rao attended a CSR workshop on April 16 & 17, 2013 at Mumbai. The aim was an opportunity to net-
work with like—minded organisations.

 Dr GV Rao and Ms Sridevi Sunderarajan visited one of our member organizations: Arunodhya Deseret Eye
Hospital, Gurgaon to participate in a felicitation programme for volunteers from the USA who had come to
study the problem of eye care in India.

 Dr G V Rao and Ms Sridevi Sunderarajan attended the ACOIN 4th national CME at Amritsar, Punjab. The one
day CME had ophthalmologists from across the State and also from Haryana. Dr Rao made a presentation out-
lining the role of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight – India in eliminating avoidable blindness.

9th AGBM
The 9th AGBM was held in conjunction with the 9th annual conference at Bhopal. Fifty three organisations partici-
pated in the AGBM. Some of the highlights of the AGBM were: The MoA committee presented their recommendation
that had been presented in the 36th board meeting.

Life Membership: To strengthen the mission of Vision 2020: The Right to Sight - INDIA, and to ease the members
of paying annual subscription the life membership option is made available for any member who would like to opt for.
Policy for signing limit for Vision 2020—India was discussed.

Action points agreed were: To share the audited financial reports with all the members; Submission of MoA Amend-
ments to the Society registrar office Madurai; Approach paper on Corporate social responsibility and how to tap the
CSR Funds ; World Sight Day in Meghalaya; 10th Annual conference 2014 - Kerala.

The services of voluntary faculty for HBP were recognized and were presented with mementoes.

For further information, please refer to the detailed minutes that has been sent to all members.
Page 8 Quarterly Report April - June 2013

Advocacy
In March 2012, a one day workshop was held in Ahmedabad to develop a Diabetic Retinopathy plan for Gujarat.
The workshop was led by National Programme for Prevention of Blindness (NPCB) and Dr. Pran Nagpal, Retina
Foundation and facilitated by VISION 2020: The Right to Sight - INDIA. Dr. R.P. Centre was the technical advisor
for the workshop.
Now a year later a workshop was held at Anand on April 28, 2013 to disseminate the developed plan. The work-
shop was hosted jointly by Anand & Nadiad Ophthalmic Society, All Gujarat Ophthalmic Society, National Pro-
gramme for the Control of Blindness and Vision 2020:Right to Sight Gujarat Chapter.

Dr Uday Gajiwala, President, Vision 2020 Gujarat Chap-

ter revealed that the Government of Gujarat has already
started implementing the action plan initially in four dis-
tricts and later plan to expand to the whole State. Col
(retd) Dr Deshpande and Dr GV Rao attended the work-
shop.

News from Members

Vision 2020: Right to Sight Gujarat Chapter held two workshops - one for the Ophthalmic Assistants at Drashti
Netralaya with 110 participants. The second workshop was for Ophthalmic nurses at Cornea Foundation, Ahmeda-
bad. Both workshops were first of their kind and particularly for that cadre.

Announcements:
LAICO’s 27th batch of Management Training and System Development for Hospital Administrators & Managers is
scheduled from Aug 15th – Sep 14th, 2013 at LAICO. The last date for submitting applications is August 5,
2013. Visit their site for application.

World Sight Day 2013 (WSD13) this year falls on 10 October 2013 (the second Thursday of October). After two
years without any global theme, this year IAPB has decided – on popular demand – to revisit the global theme idea.
2013 is an important year, as it will mark the launch of a new WHO Action Plan on the prevention of avoidable
blindness and visual impairment 2014-19.

In keeping with the main thrust of this new Action Plan, the theme for World Sight Day 2013 is:

Universal Eye Health

VISION 2020: The Right to Sight—India will be observing the WSD at Bansara Eye Care Centre, Shillong.
Page 9 Quarterly Report April - June 2013

Member’s Page

I
t is our constant endeavour to provide information to our members that can benefit them. In the past quarter,
we shared news about NPCB’s new budget, opportunity for funding and fellowship:

The budget allocation for NPCB under the governments’ 12th Five Year Plan was announced in May 2013. A
total amount of Rs 2800 crore has been earmarked for NPCB for in the 12th Five Year Plan. The detailed infor-
mation was shared with all our members.

We also shared with our members some information they can use:

 Seeing is Believing of Standard Charted Bank is providing US$3mn fund to support innovation in eye health.
The deadline for applying for the fund is: 12.00 GMT, 22 July 2013. http://seeingisbelieving.org/
innovationfund/

 The British Council for Prevention of Blindness is calling for applications for its Fellowship programme. These
will build research links between hospitals and universities in developing countries and UK universities or NHS
Trusts, with the goal of building research capacity. http://www.bcpb.org/training.html.

We are on Facebook
VISON 2020: The Right to Sight—India now has its facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/vision2020.righttosight.india
Like the page. We hope to make the page an interactive one to share information, views and debates on eye health.

We thank our Supporters

This quarterly e newsletter is brought by

VISION 2020: The Right to Sight—India
Room No.205A, (2nd Floor)
Enkay Tower B & B1
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Haryana 122016
India

E -mail : info@vision2020india.org