GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS (GAP)
The Global Alliance for Progress (GAP) in haemophilia is a 10-year healthcare development project, launched in April 2003 and the brainchild of our very own Mr. Brian O’Mahony when he was President of the World Federation of Hemophilia. GAP’s main goal is to increase the diagnosis and treatment of people with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders in developing countries.
The project aims to close the gap between the number of people born with haemophilia and those who reach adulthood, the gap between the estimated and actual number of people diagnosed with haemophilia, and the gap between the amount of treatment product needed versus what is available.
GAP country programmes are designed to improve five main areas:
- government support,
- the care delivery system,
- medical expertise and diagnosis,
- quality and quantity of treatment products,
- and the national haemophilia organisation.
The first GAP countries were Egypt, Georgia, Mexico, and the Philippines, followed by Armenia, Russia, and Thailand. Azerbaijan and Jordan then joined the project in 2005 and Lebanon in 2006.
The Irish Haemophilia Society is committed to the WFH Global Alliance for Progress programme. We continue to believe that this is an excellent programme offering the hope of real sustainable improvement in care and hope for the future to so many people with haemophilia and related bleeding disorders. The Irish Haemophilia Society also contribute financially to the WFH in relation to this programme. The I.H.S. has been significant financial contributors to the GAP programme since 2006. Vietnam officially became a GAP country in 2016.
TWINNING
The WFH Twinning Programme links haemophilia organisations and treatment centres in developing and developed countries and has improved treatment for people with haemophilia in many countries. One of the main goals of the WFH Twinning programme is to help and encourage haemophilia care in developing countries.
The Irish Haemophilia Society have to date twinned with various countries including Hungary, Greece, Bosnia & Herzegovina and more recently Vietnam.
The healthcare development work of the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) is carried out in collaboration with its national member organisations (NMO\’s) and a dedicated group of medical and lay volunteers and is based on a comprehensive development model that aims to achieve sustainable comprehensive care and treatment for all.
The WFH carries out its work through country-specific as well as global program and activities. It focuses on:
- Implementing national care programs to achieve sustainable comprehensive care
- Implementing targeted country development action plans
- Expanding capacity to achieve accurate laboratory diagnosis
- Expanding training for health professionals
- Implementing NMO leadership skills training nationally, regionally and globally
- Promoting NMO development
The work of the WFH has a four-tiered approach that can build progressively over time.
- The WFH serves and supports the needs of all of its NMO\’s through its global programs and activities.
- ”Underserved” countries may be considered for a Cornerstone Initiative when they, or their regions, demonstrate initiative, motivation and potential to develop basic standards of care.
- Where there is the initiative, motivation and potential to work more in-depth on improving hemophilia care, countries may be considered for country programs.
- When a country program demonstrates the potential for establishing a national hemophilia care program that is integrated within the health system and covers all areas of hemophilia care development, it may be considered for the Global Alliance for Progress (GAP) program.
Countries can be involved in one or more of these programs and activities over extended periods of time. In 2014, WFH healthcare development programs and activities reached a total of 103 countries worldwide: 66 countries fell under the global program activities category, and 34 countries fell under the GAP and country programs category, as well as three under the cornerstone category.