Bringing about social change through activism and advocacy is a key part of Professor Fred Hollows’ legacy. He was influential in breaking down systemic barriers, and fighting for social justice.
Today, The Foundation’s advocacy agenda is vital to our sight-restoring work and our mission to end avoidable blindness. This work is done a number of ways, including through lobbying governments to commit budget to eye health, shifting public attitude through education, or amending policies and laws.
Working in partnership with like-minded organizations, we adopt a coordinated and evidence-based approach in influencing governments, international organizations and other decision makers to bring about sustainable change.
What methods do we focus on?
- Encouraging in-country government support for better resources
- Creating financial systems that ensure services are affordable and available to everyone – from cities to remote villages
- Generating local and global public support for eye health through campaigns and movement-building
- Empowering local workers to implement effective, safe and quality eye interventions
- Strengthening national health systems with a focus on eye health
How do we campaign for change?
- Work with partners to increase awareness both in-country and globally
- Build a movement of one million supporters around the world who take action on and care about eye health
- Use our research to help communicate results and create messages about avoidable blindness
- Train a workforce which will drive sustainable and improved eye health services from within affected countries
- Collaborate to be even more effective – with communities, other organizations, individuals or governments.
Our impact
This is some of the impact we’ve had through advocacy in some of the countries where we work, as shown in our 2019 annual report:
In Afghanistan we provided regular support to the National Committee for Eye Health to support an integrated eye care system in the country. This committee provides technical guidance, strengthens coordination and advocates for resource mobilization.
In Bangladesh thanks to advocacy led by The Foundation, the first ever National Strategy and Action Plan on Diabetic Retinopathy was endorsed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and presented to the President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Our advocacy efforts also secured support from USAID to replicate The Foundation’s Maternal Child Health model into 10 clinics.
In Cambodia we have strongly advocated for increasing the government budget for eye health. The planning department within the Ministry of Health asked The Foundation to help cost a primary eye care model which could, if implemented, see a significant increase in eye health funding. It is the first time an NGO has been asked to provide input to the government’s budgeting process.
In China The Foundation, in cooperation with the National Institute of Hospital Administration, co-hosted the second China Eye Health Conference. It attracted more than 650 ophthalmologists and professionals working on the prevention of blindness. The conference built The Foundation’s reputation with national decision makers and allowed us to forge new relationships.
In Eritrea The Foundation’s lobbying and advocacy has seen the Ministry of Health include a trachoma indicator in the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Reporting system. Data on trachoma will now be collected every month as part of the integrated disease surveillance and reporting.
In Ethiopia The Foundation’s efforts have brought together a range of partners from government and civil society to review progress on joint initiatives to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem in Ethiopia, in support of the Federal Ministry of Health’s Trachoma Fast Track Initiative. The partners also explored plans to eliminate trachoma and The Foundation’s initiatives to expand support to comprehensive eye health services to help millions of people exposed to preventable blindness and extreme poverty.
In Kenya four out of the six counties where The Foundation works have incorporated eye health into the County Integrated Development Plans, meaning that resources for eye health will be resourced in the future. Our advocacy has led to Turkana County hiring an ophthalmologist, West Pokot producing vitreo retina specialists and Migori cosponsoring an ophthalmologist training.
In Nepal advocacy by The Foundation and our partners has helped achieve several key milestones for establishing a national framework for integrating diabetic retinopathy in health care. The Ministry of Health recently approved three National level documents that will facilitate the effective integration of eye health within diabetes care.
In Pakistan following a successful Foundation school eye screening project, the district government in Toba Tek Singh has made eye screening compulsory for all children in schools district-wide. Additionally, ongoing advocacy by The Foundation to the Sindh Health Department has helped secure the inclusion of diabetes and diabetic retinopathy in training for Lady Health Workers. The Foundation also successfully advocated to Azad Jammu & Kashmir to equip the health department for a five year eye health plan.
In The Philippines we partnered with L’Occitane Foundation for World Sight Day to engage the public on blindness prevention which resulted in features on television, in newspapers and on social media. We also organized a forum on Overcoming Inequity in Accessing Eye Care Services in the Asia Pacific Region with the World Health Organization.
In Rwanda The Fred Hollows Foundation has taken the lead in developing the National Plan of Action for Eye Health. The Foundation has also advocated for including eye health indicators into the Health Medical Information System.
In Vietnam our advocacy through the Better Quality for Eye Care project has contributed to the development and approval of a new National Protocol for Cataract surgery by the Ministry of Health which will be applied nationwide from 2019. We also helped influence the development of the Ministry of Health’s new school eye care program guidelines for school nurses.
Our work is ongoing
We continue to seek to make eye health a priority for international donors and governments. We are leveraging our position as a respected provider of eye health services at country levels to address regulatory or legal barriers in order to improve eye care as required.