Fighting Avoidable Blindness in Niger through a South-South Cooperation Model

Niger

This project aimed at enhancing access to and quality of eye health care in Niger building on the activities undertaken by the Alliance to Fight Avoidable Blindness and benefiting from the recently introduced IsDB “Reverse Linkage” program. The project entailed two main components: the construction of an ophthalmic unit at the Lamorde Hospital in Niamey district, and providing it with the necessary equipment; in addition to training around 40 local eye care specialists, including 10 ophthalmic physicians; in order to help build the country’s health sector’s capacities and ensure the sustainability of this intervention. It is expected that the project will directly benefit 30,000 patients. Project Outputs: The beneficiary hospital has been fully equipped and is now operational. The purpose of the OPEC Fund grant, namely the activities planned under this contribution (i.e. procurement, shipping an installation of medical ophthalmic equipment and some furniture), were successfully implemented. Full details of the equipment and breakdown of expenses are available in the supporting documents.