Vision Excellence Awards: Fatima Kyari

Fatima Kyari is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmic Epidemiology at the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Her key responsibility is leading the development of a new Africa Glaucoma Clinical and Research Network. Fatima Kyari is an ophthalmologist; worked at National Eye Centre Kaduna for 15 years before joining the College of Health Sciences, University of Abuja, Nigeria. She is an Honorary Consultant at University of Abuja Teaching Hospital with special interest in glaucoma and medical retina. She is an adviser for Light For The World, an International non-governmental developmental organisation (INGDO) based in Austria, supporting the development of Glaucoma Programmes in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Mozambique.

She is leading a Pan-African network to develop glaucoma guidelines and toolkit, and clinical capacity. She is coordinating the piloting of the toolkit in Gondar, Ethiopia and Abuja, Nigeria. Fatima has been involved in international policy development forums: As lead author of the Commonwealth policy brief on “A sustainable approach to control avoidable blindness and vision loss” sponsored by the Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium and the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust Fund in collaboration with staff at ICEH, LSHTM; editorial committee member of the World Health Organization’s “World Report on Vision,” the lead consultant for the “Nigeria National Eye Health Policy” and a contributor to the Nigeria National School Eye Health Guidelines.” She is currently a contributor and co-author for the Lancet Global Health Commission on Global Eye Health, which will report in October 2020.

In her voluntary role as the West Africa (Anglophone) sub regional Chair of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), Fatima has been involved in high level advocacy, influencing decision-makers on eye health policy and planning in Nigeria and West Africa. Fatima had her medical training at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and ophthalmology residency training at National Eye Centre, Kaduna, Nigeria. She completed her MSc in Public Health for Eye Care and PhD at the ICEH at LSHTM. After her PhD, she has also been involved as the Coordinator for setting up a new medical school and College of Health Sciences at Baze University, Abuja, Nigeria.