The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD) have officially launched the Second Generation of the Alliance to Fight Avoidable Blindness (AFAB-II 2018-2022) during an event organised in the capital of Tunisia, Tunis on 2 April 2018.

The Second Generation of AFAB is built on the success of the First Generation initiated in 2018 and now covers 12 African member countries, namely, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Mali, Mozambique, Comoros, Niger and Togo.

The President of the Islamic Development Bank, H.E. Dr. Bandar Hajjar has described the campaign to bring in partners from around the world to sing on the AFAB-II as an “unprecedented resource mobilisation success”.

“The campaign has succeeded in bringing in partners to implement 1.5 million cases of eye surgery operations and also to help 10 million children in member countries (in Africa) the total cost of which amounts to US $250 million or a quarter of a billion US dollars,” Dr. Hajjar said during his keynote speech at the official opening ceremony of the 43^rd Annual Meeting of the IsDB in Tunisia.

“The outstanding point in the campaign is that mobilizing this amount is the result of our new resource mobilization patterns we managed to record this success which is unprecedented in the history of ISFD”.

The official launching of the Second Generation of AFAB was attended by prominent international figures and representatives of states, such as the Tunisia’s Minister of Health, H.E. Dr. Imed Hammami, Chairman of Prevention Blindness Union, HRH Prince Abdul-Aziz Bin Ahmed Bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud; President of the Islamic Development Bank Group, H.E. Dr. Bandar Hajjar; Director General of the Islamic Solidarity Fund, Dr. Waleed Al Wohaib; the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health of Turkey, Prof. Eyup GUMUS; Interim CEO of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB); Mr. Johannes Trimmel; and Director General of Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and Donors’ representative, Dr. Sidi Ould TAH.

During his welcoming remarks, Dr. Waleed Al Wohaib, Director General of ISFD, considered AFAB a great success in making South-South cooperation a reality in 8 African Counties, and expressed his hope that the Second Generation would size even more success.

Professor Eyup Gümüş, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Turkey, lauded during his keynote speech the success of the Firs Generation of AFAB and promised that Turkey will give all its support for the Second Generation of AFAB.

“Turkey, puts people at the center of all endeavors, therefore, during the 2nd Generation of AFAB, we will give every possible support to one million cataract surgery operations and distribution of 10 million pairs of medical looking glasses while providing 10 ophthalmology scholarships in every target country in the next five years,” the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Turkey announced. He also reiterated Turkey’s readiness and willingness to share expertise with all IsDB member countries in the health sector.

At the end of the launching ceremony agreements were signed with 32 partners from different parts of the world including: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kuwait, Tunisia, Brazil, Morocco, Qatar, Egypt, Azerbaijan, ISFD as well as the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID).