30 year old Chayya Gaikwad

Regional advocacy

Sightsavers also influences and collaborates with some regional actors (for example regional development banks, professional associations and NGO networks) in support of country-level and international advocacy and programme initiatives.

Together with our partners we work regionally to affect change.

One example of our regional advocacy was the Regional Leadership Conference for Persons with Disabilities in South Asia, which was organised by Sightsavers, the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education, Special Talent Exchange Program, Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability, the British Council and Telenor Pakistan in August 2010 in Islamabad Pakistan. More than 100 delegates got together from all over Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, and provided a range of perspectives and perceptions about the way forward in addressing disability issues in South Asia.

An outcome document was signed by all partners including the Federal Secretary of Social Welfare and Special Education Pakistan to assure their efforts for ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the establishment of a South Asia Disability Forum and to support regional mechanisms of cooperation and networking.

European Union

African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control

West African Health Organisation

The African Decade of Persons with Disabilities

East African College of Ophthalmologists 

Islamabad Declaration on Regional Networking and Collaboration in South Asia