Country Coordination Meetings

Two ILEP Coordination meetings took place in Manila on 9 September. The countries discussed were Bangladesh and Niger.

The Bangladesh meeting resulted in the ILEP Members identifying several areas for possible collaboration in the future. It was agreed that an ILEP Member meeting will take place within the next month to revisit the ideas and recommendations that resulted from this meeting. These recommendations included the ILEP Members gathering to decide on the key inputs / priorities for the next National Leprosy Programme (NLP) strategy and to present these as a collective ILEP position to the NLP, supporting the expansion of the DHIS2 (data collection system), developing a reaction monitoring system, increasing shared active case finding campaigns, exploring joint initiatives and operational research that could lead to shared learning and advocacy points, working with the Leprosy and TB Coordination Committee to influence government budget allocations, and exploring the potential to secure funding to ensure that leprosy identification and treatment is done by the local government in the temporary Rohingya camps.

The Niger meeting resulted in several recommendations which included ILEP Members having an annual coordination meeting to share information, avoid overlaps and share resources, integrating the different strategic plans (Fondation Raoul Follereau supports the national strategic plan while The Leprosy Mission International has its own strategic plan) with a focus on active screening, improving the quality of data and its use, developing an e-learning module to improve the knowledge / training of practitioners and nurses on neglected tropical diseases, collaborating to abolish the existing discriminatory law which excludes children affected by leprosy from education.