Meeting of global leprosy programme managers

Abstract

At the first Global Leprosy Programme Managers' meeting held at the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (‎SEARO)‎, in April 2009, the Global Leprosy Programme developed the Enhanced Global Strategy 2011-2015 for further reducing the disease burden due to leprosy. Although implementation of the Strategy has already started in the Regions and endemic countries, certain aspects of the Strategy need further refining and understanding by the national programmes. In order to address these issues, the second meeting of the global programme managers was organized at the WHO-SEARO on 28-29 September 2011. The meeting was attended by about 46 national programme managers, representatives from partner organizations as well as, including representatives from associations of affected persons and experts. The participants endorsed the plan of action for the implementation of the Strategy and its goal of reducing the occurrence of grade-2 disabilities among new cases. In addition, the meeting recommended that more specific efforts should be made to eliminate stigma and discrimination against people affected by leprosy by, among others, involving persons affected by leprosy in planning, advocacy and monitoring leprosy services.