Dr. Harper joined Sightsavers as CEO in 2005, following a career in the oil and gas sector, bringing with her fresh perspectives on leadership, partnership and innovation.

Over the past two decades, she has helped grow the already-successful organization to be synonymous with eye health across the development sector. Her career is a testament to how courageous leadership transcends industries and can elevate an organization to tackle big challenges.

With a PhD in energy studies from the University of Cambridge, her approach to leadership centres on leveraging local strengths and partnerships.

Operation Eyesight is proud to partner with Sightsavers on projects in Africa, and together with others we have helped pioneer the SAFE strategy to eliminate blinding trachoma, which is a leading cause of vision loss and blindness in the region.

I caught up with Dr. Harper in Mexico City in June 2024, at the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness’ 2030 IN SIGHT LIVE event, where she offered valuable insights on women leaders and the future of leadership in the global eye health space.

What role do women leaders play when it comes to making and leading global change, like achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, for example?

In my experience, particularly in the global eye health sector, there are quite a lot of people at the senior levels who are women, and it’s pretty good in terms of gender balance. Many leaders of some of the big International NGOs, such as Helen Keller International and the Cure Blindness Project, have been women. 

What I have found more interesting are some of the challenges women face at the country level.

In meeting with women’s networks, we’ve realized that a lot of the challenges have not been in the actual workplace itself; but women trying to be leaders have faced pressures due to cultural expectations. In Asia, some women I spoke with have family who say to them, “How can you travel? How can you go on your own to a hotel? You know, that’s not decent.” Or, they may be expected to look after the home rather than pursue a career.

Women have shared with me that this is a big challenge; whereas at the global level, I think the gender mix of leaders is pretty equal.

Having worked across industries, have you ever found that as a woman you had to work harder or speak louder in order to be heard?

Well, I’ve always felt very loud, so I think that’s just kind of me anyway.

When I was getting my job with Sightsavers, I was coming from the private sector of oil and gas, and I thought, “Why are they going to want me? I haven’t got eye health experience. I haven’t got development or even charity experience.” So, I needed to stand out.

And so, I was very loud – I wore a bright blue silk jacket with huge earrings, and I was, in England you call them “Marmite candidates.” Half the trustees loved me, and half the trustees thought, “My, she’s loud.”

That was more about trying to be convincing in an environment where I thought I wasn’t the natural player, more than because I was a woman.

Coming from an oil and gas background, are there skills or experiences that have served you well in your role leading Sightsavers?

I think everybody assumes it’s hugely different, but it’s stunningly similar. You’re running an organization, so that means that it’s all about managing people. And people are people, you know. They have similar motivations – they want to do a really good job, they want intellectual stimulation, they want to feel they matter – and so, that was the same.

Actually, when you look at project management, there are a lot of similar skills in managing a project in oil and gas and managing an INGO program. Fundraising is basically sales and marketing, building relations and making people feel good that they’ve done something. It’s like selling anything; it’s very similar skills. Then of course, you’ve got financial management, IT and so on; it’s the same.

For me, the skills that I learned running an organization, working with people, were very translatable across industries. There are a few differences; people care more about salaries, or money, in the corporate world, while I found that in INGOs, people care more about status, or job titles. You still have all kinds of interesting challenges.

What do you think the development sector could learn from the private sector?

The biggest contrast I found between the two sectors was the speed of action. When I came to Sightsavers, I found the NGO sector was very slow and very consensus-driven, so they wouldn’t make decisions until they had consulted with everyone and had everyone in agreement. Sometimes that led to a solution that was perhaps not as bold as it could be, to avoid controversy.

Whereas the corporate sector often has a decisive, get-things-done, move-ahead approach. Sometimes, of course, that means the corporate sector does leave people behind, because that approach doesn’t depend on building consensus.

This is the difference that really struck me when I came into the sector, and this is where the two sectors can learn from each other.

What role do you think the private sector can play in achieving 2030 IN SIGHT?

The private sector has a huge role to play in 2030 IN SIGHT, particularly in the refractive error side, where the private sector’s the big player in the provision of eyeglasses. There is a lot of potential for growth in this area in middle-income countries. For me, this is the area where they probably will make the single biggest contribution.

In your 2018 TED Talk, you noted that, when it comes to the focus on trachoma, we don’t compete, we collaborate. Do you find that sometimes we do get a bit competitive in the eye health sector, and is there room for more collaboration?

Trachoma is the biggest example of collaboration. Both Sightsavers and Operation Eyesight are members of the International Coalition for Trachoma Control, which received funding from The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and the British government. This has been shared and is one of the best examples of collaboration in the international eye health sector.

But we [INGOs] also compete, and because of the way that funding mechanisms are set up, I think it’s inevitable. There are not enough resources for all the people who want them. So by definition, we are competing, not just within the eye health sector but across the development sector.

Sometimes we pitch projects together. For example, we have collaborated with the Fred Hollows Foundation, CBM and Orbis, and pitched jointly for funding. Sometimes we’re successful, and sometimes we’re not.

Different organizations from different parts of the world work in different regions globally. Even though Sightsavers has often been the grant maker and the leader, we make sure to bring in all the other organizations, because they may be better placed than us in some countries. For example, we’re working with Operation Eyesight in Narok, Kenya, along with other NGOs. 

What does partnership with organizations like Operation Eyesight mean to Sightavers?

At Sightsavers, partnership is absolutely at the heart of everything.

The most important partnerships are with governments in the countries because governments are the duty bearers. Whether it’s health, education or another government ministry, they’re the ones that have to lead. And for us, that’s the most important partnership. We never work in a country unless we are partnered with the government, because they have to want us there.

You also have to include players that bring different skills to the table, so we have partnerships with other NGOs that might have a different geographic footprint, skill or specialty. And then there are other partners like researchers. For example, we’re close with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and also with universities in countries where we work, particularly in Nigeria, where we have strong partnerships.

Sightsavers has specific skills, but we can’t possibly do everything. Partners bring different things to a coalition or bilateral arrangements. 

Then of course there are donors, particularly donors who have been working with us for many years, whose relationship with us is genuinely about partnership rather than simply contributing funds.

At Operation Eyesight, we have put ourselves on the path to growth through our Global Strategic Plan. As a growing organization, what is it that we should never lose sight of?

At Sightsavers, we grew quite quickly; we took on a lot of additional funds about 10 years ago. One of the most important things we learned is that, if you’re on a growth trajectory, as you grow your money, you must ensure you grow your implementation capacity at least as fast.

Your board of directors plays a critical role in supporting your ambitions. The board needs to remain at a high level and think about the overall strategy and how it’s going to hold management to account. They should ask, what are the key measures we’re going to use to see whether management is delivering? It’s also about having the right board members and encouraging them to work as a team.

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Thank you, Dr. Harper, for taking the time to chat, so we can all learn from your wealth of experience. We look forward to continuing to work with Sightsavers and other partners to eliminate avoidable vision loss. Together, we are empowering communities, strengthening health systems and addressing the root causes of avoidable vision loss, such as poverty, poor sanitation and gender inequality – For All The World To See.

Interested in partnering with Operation Eyesight? Learn more at operationeyesight.com/partnerships

The post Bold vision, courageous leadership: an interview with Sightsavers CEO Dr. Caroline Harper appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

When I travel to our countries of work and to the target villages, I see that eye health is about far more than sight. I have learnt that eye health is about children being able to learn, play at school and practice hygiene. It is about adults being able to work and run businesses, access clean water, herd animals, grow crops and care for children. It is about seniors who can meet their friends, travel and chase after their grandchildren. Eye health is about reaching everyone in a community, addressing all the avoidable vision loss issues and empowering the community to take care of their eye health themselves. Often, this is the impact of partnerships between organizations and governments, hospitals and communities with a shared vision to improve quality of life. Actually, health and partnerships are so important that they have been identified in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) as necessary for a peaceful and prosperous world.  

This June, I am attending the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) global event, 2030 IN SIGHT LIVE in Mexico. (See above for a photo of my eye health peers and I at last year’s event.) As an elected IAPB board member and someone who has been leading health and eye health care programmes for more than 35 years, I will join hands with fellow experts and organizations in the eye health sector to apply our collective knowledge to address:   

1. What needs to be done to transform the vision of universal eye care into a global reality by 2030? 

2. What ground-breaking approaches will accelerate action and transform eye health? 

3. What steps can we take to embed conscious, inclusive and sustainable best practices across the eye health sector? 

4. What can we do to harness our strengths and diverse skills to increase momentum together to empower change? 

5. To address diverse needs and shape the future of eye health, how can we meet the rising demand and changing landscapes with strategic sustainable solutions? 

My experience has shown me that a key part of the answer to all these questions lies in the power of partnerships. By working together, we can build sustainable strategies that connect international agencies, national governments, hospitals, and health care workers, and extend right down into the communities and each person there.   

Partnerships at the strategic, implementational and program levels will ensure that multiple players can focus on their strengths – from sharing eye health care data with international agencies that set global goals, to working with national governments to include eye health in health care and education policies, to supporting hospitals and training health care workers who treat vision issues, to empowering communities to identify and address vision problems for everyone who lives there. Through partnerships, we stand together so we have more visibility. We have more influence and more funding. We have more technical expertise, and we have more community connections.  

Over more than 60 years, Operation Eyesight has developed a sustainable model of community empowerment. I take great pride in our flagship model, which is not only sustainable but also scalable. This model serves as evidence to the successful implementation of the World Health Organization’s five recommendations outlined in its World Report on Vision 2019: making eye care a part of universal health care, integrating people-centred eye care into health systems, promoting high-quality implementation and health systems research that compliments evidence for effective eye health care interventions, monitoring trends and evaluating progress for effective eye care interventions, and raising awareness, engaging and empowering people and communities about eye care needs. I attribute the success of this model to our dedicated partners and the communities we serve. 

When we partner with others, we become the bridge between health care services and communities. While many organizations work down to the hospital level, we start with the hospital and work down to the community level where we reach all those individuals who are in need of eye care. With the hospital, we identify a service area and build a local vision centre. Next, we train local community health care workers in the community. In our nine countries of work, our network of more than 2,500 community health care workers conduct door-to-door surveys, knocking on doors and identifying people with vision challenges. These workers then refer people to the vision centre for eye exams and prescription eyeglasses or treatment for eye diseases. Those with issues that require services beyond the vision centre, such as cataract, are referred to the local hospital for surgery. Once all avoidable vision loss cases are addressed, the community is declared avoidable blindness-free. The community can then sustain this as they now have ownership of their own eye health care.  

Time and time again we have seen this model work. We are publishing research on the results, investing in resources to replicate it, and harnessing partnerships to bring this model to new communities and new countries of work.  

In Mexico City, I plan to reconnect with current partners and meet new partners. I will learn from them about their perspectives on the five key questions IAPB is asking and share my views with them. Additionally, I will discuss what more Operation Eyesight can do to further strengthen our partnerships and chart a future course that allows us to collectively reach out to many more individuals and communities. I look forward to seeing so many global community members in Mexico City and to working together to answer the five IAPB questions. I believe that together, we have the power to transform eye health care – For All The World To See.    

Join our global community, partner with us and we will transform more lives together.

The post The Power of Partnerships: Seeing is Believing by Kashinath Bhoosnurmath appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

In partnership with Operation Eyesight and others, CBM has just launched the “Vision Impact Project Kenya,” with the goal of reducing the presence of visual impairment and avoidable blindness in five counties.  

We sat down with Dr. Qureshi to learn more about his career and CBM’s approach to providing inclusive eye care.

We know that vision isn’t just about sight; it has a much bigger impact on health care, education, development and more. Looking at your career so far, is there a project or program that stands out for you in terms of its impact? 

One program, which started as a project, that stands out for me is the Pakistan National Eye Care Program, a major success story in terms of scalability, applicability and government ownership. It started as a simple yet complex question: how do we ensure people all over the country get eye care?  

Through a small situation analysis, we learned that there were good tertiary eye care centres that had been developed and that the primary (community) eye care was there, albeit patchy. But there were either no secondary units available, or where there were secondary units present, secondary eye health services (medical, surgical and optical services) weren’t available. This was because the unit didn’t have enough equipment or human resources, or it didn’t have the proper infrastructure. People from the communities would go to a secondary centre only to discover that they couldn’t get the service they needed and had to travel hours to a tertiary centre instead.  

We started with one public secondary centre in a small district of a million people. We made a capital investment into equipment, infrastructure and training, with everything else being run by the government. After two years, the centre had gone from doing about 150 surgeries per year to now providing over 1,200. Seeing this success, we then scaled the program to 10 districts, then to 24 districts with a public-private partnership, and now essentially every district in Pakistan has a good health program with good primary and secondary eye care.  

This has reduced the load placed on tertiary centres, allowing them to focus on research and specialized care. A national survey in 2004 found that the prevalence of blindness was 1 per cent, down from 1.8 per cent in 1989. 

CBM’s work ranges from preventive care, to the treatment and care of people with disabilities, to the inclusion of those affected into society. How can more organizations take an inclusive development approach, especially at the community level?  

We look at eye health from the perspective of, ‘how can we make all of our services and all of our programs inclusive?’ We need to ensure that it is comprehensive and that we address all persons with disabilities and make the environment so user-friendly that it is no more an obstacle for people to come for services.  

We proactively work with organizations of persons with disabilities and communities because they know exactly what is needed, and they guide us sincerely and straightforwardly. For example, the first thing that was brought to our attention was the simple thing that we were communicating through: our Information Communication Education materials. These materials had to be inclusive and therefore, we made them inclusive.  

Then we were again guided by the fact that, after communicating with people in the community and referring them, they would then be visiting hospitals or eye units that also needed to be accessible.  

Then we learned more; it wasn’t just about accessible materials or ramps, it was also about addressing all persons with disabilities, such as those who are deaf or hard of hearing. We needed to ensure that our staff learned sign language, so at least one person in a facility would be available to communicate that way.   

While we focused on inclusion at the community level, we also advocated with the International Council of Ophthalmology to include a piece of curriculum on inclusion into the ophthalmology residency program and to provide training on inclusion in eye health. 

We also advocated with national governments and are continuing to do so as we speak. We’re asking governments to make a task force on inclusion for eye health under their national committees, so that their national programs become inclusive. Together – CBM partners and all eye health organizations – we need to advocate for inclusive national eye care programs and for this inclusiveness to get taken through the different service delivery levels. 

The United Nations eye health resolution set the target for eye care for all by 2030. How can countries make eye care part of their nation’s journey to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, while also ensuring that this journey takes an inclusive approach? What role do you see partnerships playing here? 

The UN resolution was a milestone in the history of eye care. The critical piece is that it takes you from eye health into a whole development agenda; it’s not just all about eye health, but it is actually contributing to the development agenda and translating this international priority into national governance. I think it will take a huge amount of advocacy because when you get to a national level, you find out that the priorities are many and the resources are limited.  

I see the role of civil society as coming together and advocating with the national government – to provide that space, to provide the resources, to provide that position of eye health within their health systems – and then going wider into the development framework.  

The clearest things coming out of the UN resolution are the two indicators that are now there: one is the effective cataract surgical coverage, and the other is the effective refractive error coverage. These are the targets and what we need to achieve. Now, we need to do even more work at the country level, so that countries can actually adopt it and implement it. This is where NGOs and public-private partnerships would work brilliantly, working together to ensure the resolution is implemented.  

Of course, eye care for all by 2030 means just that, eye care for all. How can we ensure that no one is left behind?  

What 2030 looks like for me is comprehensive eye health care being provided in all districts, integrated into the national health systems at the minimum, with the eye health service reaching everyone. And then, that it is specifically including persons with disabilities and all the vulnerable groups. As for the ‘how’, that would need to be contextualized in every country, because each country’s needs would be different, and their structures would be different. 

The COVID-19 pandemic showed us all that diseases are not limited by borders and that global health is truly a global responsibility. How do you recommend we, as a global community, move forward from here?  

The whole COVID era, which still continues, was quite a setback for everyone – organizations, governments and communities. But at the same time, it provided us with an opportunity to reflect and to see how we can still operate in an environment that can suddenly become so difficult that everything actually shuts down. That led us to two major outcomes: patient safety and patient protection.  

We put a lot of work and thinking behind the safety of communities and the safety and protection of patients – not only from the virus, but then going beyond it as well, using the opportunity to ensure a whole comprehensive safe environment for the person. Then, considering the safety on the other side as well, making it safe for the providers and those on the frontlines; they need to be safe and secure as well so that they can treat people on a regular basis.  

Despite having the initial setback, I think today we have reached an advanced place. We are in a position where I would say we are back 90 per cent and providing services to communities in a safe and secure environment. 

Speaking from a public health perspective, I come from a very simple and straightforward background that, when it comes to global health, nobody is safe until everyone is safe – so we just have to make everybody safe.  

That’s my message to everyone: let’s put in all our efforts and ensure that everybody that we come in contact with and everybody that we can influence, is safe.  

Dr. Qureshi examines a patient. Photo courtesy of CBM.

You’ve been Vice President of IAPB for nearly a year now. Has IAPB made changes to its strategic approach? What were they? 

IAPB has been working very closely, first with Vision 2020, which was launched by IAPB, the World Health Organization (WHO), Ministries of Health and NGOs together; it comes with a lot of history of members that have a very strong insight into the prevention of blindness, into eye health and into the sector. 

Then we were also part of the 2019 World Report on Vision, which would set out a strategic road map by the WHO on what different milestones look like, going forward. This was certainly complemented by the Lancet Global Health Commission on Global Eye Health, which came out in February 2021 and actually gave us the burden of disease. It also pointed to the fact that, apart from other things, we should not forget things like uncorrected refractive error. Yes, there are about 1.1 billion people who are visually impaired, but in addition to that, we’ve got to ensure that we are addressing preventable sight loss, which is 90 per cent in low- and middle-income countries.  

With that context in mind, in consultation with its members and partners, IAPB came up with its “2030 in Sight” strategic plan. If I were to summarize it, there were three main elements to it:  

1) Elevating vision as a fundamental economic, social and development issue; embracing the Sustainable Development Goals framework and setting new targets; and unlocking political will and financing. 

2) Integrating eye health into wider health care systems by taking a people-centred approach; looking at inclusive universal health coverage and the different technological solutions.  

3) Activating or driving patient, consumer and market change, which is where we are looking at building more public-private partnerships and creating the right regulatory model; ensuring that we actually get into the space of public health with a slightly different model; and looking to the private sector to also play its role within the whole framework of development. 

When you look back at the goals set out, what would you say is the key differentiating factor between Vision 2020 and “2030 in Sight”?  

Simply put, I think the biggest shift is that we’ve moved from just being focused on eye health to now focusing on a systems change process with an integrated, development approach.  

For Vision 2020, we were very focused on disease control and management, which is what we knew best. For example, we knew cataract, so we focused on cataract management and did that well. We also focused on trachoma and are reaching the point where we can eliminate it.  

The change we see now is that we’ve realized that we cannot work in silos; we need to look at systems change. It’s going to be a much slower development, as system change will take time, but then it’s there to stay. What we have provided with the 2030 strategy is the road map for the coming decade.  

When you look at the initiatives you’ve led, they have been tremendous in both scale and impact. What do you think has made you capable of being a leader of such tremendous change?  

There are a few factors that influenced my growth to where I am today. One is being a good student. I believe that learning is a lifelong process. I have been very fortunate to have mentors and people who I could look up to, and that’s a big piece in my life that makes the difference. 

Also, my family – my parents for providing me with a secure environment, and my wife and children for being patient with me as I travel away from home and sit in endless meetings at odd hours of the day.  

I also think it has been working as a team player, which counts for a lot. If you are able to work as a good team person, only then can you become a good leader as well. 

Thank you, Dr. Qureshi, for sharing your words of wisdom and supporting us all with our own life-long learning. When it comes to providing access to quality, inclusive eye health services, we are fortunate to have a clear roadmap before us – and to be working with dedicated, forward-thinking partners such as yourself and CBM.

The post Q&A with Dr. Babar Qureshi, Director, CBM appeared first on Operation Eyesight.