Stronger Together

The ECV was established in 2012. It is a coalition of the willing with the shared aims of raising the importance of eye health and vision up the health and political agendas at the European level and in member states. WMIDO met its President: David Hewlett.How did the idea to create the European Coalition for Vision come about?Four years following the 2008 financial crisis, with an ageing population and only nugatory progress being made towards Vision 2020 goals, some of us felt it was time for the whole the eye health sector – in all its aspects – to make common cause and speak with a united voice to determine whether we could together make a greater impact. Hence the founding of the ECV.What makes the ECV unique is that we bring together all parts of the sector including ophthalmologists, optometrists and opticians as well as manufacturers and distributors, academics and researchers, patient and user voices, public health experts and charities. About half our members are pan-European, a quarter are global bodies and the remaining quarter come from single European countries.What are your objectives?Our formal aims are to raise the profile of vision and eye health, to help prevent avoidable visual impairment and to provide support to those with irreversible blindness or low vision in Europe.We may not have much money – even though we fight for the whole sector and could do much more with more support; membership of the ECV is free and donations are voluntary, usually linked to specific projects. However we do have dedication, strong wills, big hearts and a shared passion for eye health and equality for all.You were elected in June 2016: how is your team organized?I was fortunate to take over as second ECV chair in 2016 following Peter Ackland of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Peter’s are big shoes to fill but I am lucky to be supported by an excellent Vice Chair in Jean-Félix Biosse Duplan and a very committed Executive Group. This is important as the challenges facing us have not become any less since 2012 and, in many ways, have worsened as austerity has bitten into European health systems at all levels, with the most vulnerable suffering most.What were the main activities of your office this year?Over the last year we have therefore focussed on making World Sight Day a rallying point in the European Parliament and calendar to remind all EU citizens to have regular sight tests and to optimise their vision correction to improve their quality of life. As part of the programme of activities we actively supported the Marrakesh Treaty to enable printed materials to be made more widely available to blind and partially sighted people – a massive breakthrough in equality and fairness. We seek to do this in low cost ways and make use of innovative platforms, like social media, to reach as many people as possible. This approach brings us together as a coalition of hundreds and thousands of people and organisations in Europe committed to better eye care and the avoidance of visual impairment and blindness.When operating in more traditional influencing modes, we work in partnership to attract the widest possible audience and to share costs. Last November we co-hosted a very successful Parliamentary event with colleagues in the European Forum Against Blindness (EFAB) and the European Alliance for Vision Research and Ophthalmology (EU-EYE) on diabetic retinopathy, an area where public health screening programmes are proving to be highly effective in reducing avoidable sight loss.This year we have also joined the European Commission’s European Innovation Project on Active and Health Ageing (EIP AHA), where we are contributing specifically around falls prevention and integrated care. Any member of an ECV member – including WMIDO readers – is welcome to promote their work through this initiative. Please let us help you spread the word about what you are doing and network with potential partners via the various events held in Brussels and across Europe.Are you working on any special projects for the upcoming months?We will continue to press forward on all of these fronts over the next two years. As a Coalition we have kindly been granted access to Eurostat data on eye health, and we have gained agreement from EUROSTAT to create Europe-wide and comparable Member State indicators to support those working for vision and eye health in those countries. We are looking at presenting these data at one of the major European public health conferences in 2018 or 2019.