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From the WGA Executive Office
Kuldev Singh, MD MPH, Executive Vice President, World Glaucoma Association
The high prevalence of glaucomatous disease combined with the lack of available resources for glaucoma diagnosis and treatment on the African continent remain significant challenges to our profession. In 2009, the World Glaucoma Association Global Projects Committee proposed a meeting in Accra, Ghana to bring attention to this problem. The WGA Board of Governors approved funding for such a meeting, which is scheduled to take place in Accra on August 6-7th, 2010. This meeting will bring together leaders from the global glaucoma and international health communities with local ophthalmic practitioners and other health care providers to discuss ways in which glaucoma care can be improved in Africa. We are hopeful that this meeting will be a catalyst for increased attention and resources directed towards the global glaucoma community's goal of decreasing the morbidity of glaucomatous disease in Africa and all regions of the world. There are many individuals who deserve credit for conceptualizing and organizing this important meeting. In particular, Choka Melamed and Leon Herndon should be commended for their efforts.
The World Glaucoma Association has experienced unprecedented growth over the past decade. With growth comes the challenge of prioritizing what is and is not important for an organization. Over the past year, strategic plans were developed for each WGA Committee. In this process, we discovered that there was an almost endless number of projects that could be pursued to advance our missions of promoting excellence in glaucoma patient care, education, research, and advocacy. It was thus decided that prior to finalizing strategic plans for individual committees, a comprehensive strategic plan for our organization should be developed. To follow up on this, a strategic planning process was initiated under the direction of Arthur Sit (United States) and Tarek Shaarawy (Switzerland). The WGA has retained a firm that specializes in strategic planning for large organizations to facilitate the process. The strategic planning process will involve individuals from all regions of the world at various stages of their careers and with varying roles in the WGA. Such broad participation is necessary to optimally prioritize the distribution of time and resources to further our many missions.