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East Timor Eye Program evaluation The East Timor Eye Program (ETEP) is one of the RACS Global Health Programs and is supported by the RACS Timor-Leste Country Office. It is situated in Hospital Guido Valdares Nacional (HNGV)—the national hospital in Dili. In 2021, this successful program was independently evaluated by the Nossal Institute for Global Health with the evaluation noting: ‘Perhaps the most impressive element of the approach, and a major contribution to efficiency, has been the extent of collaboration and partnership among those organizations and individuals engaged in supporting the eye health sector, including local and international NGOs, WHO, and international eye care professionals. This has resulted in a consistent and integrated approach to the development of eye care.’ Since its establishment in 2000, the ETEP has supported the Government of Timor- Leste and the HNGV to manage and develop eye care services focusing
on cataracts, refractive error, and ocular trauma. The ETEP delivers a wide-ranging set of in-country training activities in ophthalmology, optometry, eye care nursing and allied eye health specialties. It also facilitates capacity building of the national eye health workforce through education and clinical service delivery coupled with on-the-job mentoring and training. The context for eye care and health services in Timor-Leste has been evolving over the period of support provided through the various iterations of the eye care projects. The key aspects of that evolving context have been the development of eye care and health system strategies by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the increasing capacity of the ministry to deliver health services, including eye care services. The current ETEP program for the period 2017 – 2023 sets out to achieve the
reducing of preventable blindness in Timor-Leste. The program aims to help Timor-Leste build a sustainable and effective eye health system for the East Timorese people. The current focus of the ETEP is to: • work with the National Eye Centre and MoH to establish district clinics • focus on workforce planning and capacity building of the eye health workforcethrough formal education and participation in clinical services. This includes scholarships for domestic postgraduate studies and overseas specialist training in ophthalmology • support the provision of general and sub-specialty eye health equipment and instruments, improvements to patient record management systems, and referral pathways including training for district GPs. In assessing the contribution of the ETEP, the evaluators have considered the longer trajectory of the program
