IDF General Assembly

OUR TEAM VISITS LISBON

Last December, DNZ CEO, Heather Verry, and DNZ Service Development Manager, Liz Dutton, travelled to the 26th International Diabetes Federation General Assembly in Lisbon, Portugal.

The International Diabetes Federation General Assembly hosted 229 delegates and was followed by the IDF World Diabetes Congress which attracted over 5600 onsite and online participants from 175 countries. Our team attended as delegates.

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) is an umbrella organisation of more than 230 national diabetes associations in 170 countries and territories. It represents the interests of the growing number of people with diabetes and those at risk. The Federation has been leading the global diabetes community since 1950.

The General Assembly is IDF's general guiding body. It normally meets every two years, at the same time as the World Diabetes Congress.

At last year’s Assembly, President Boulton provided his report, which covered two years. This was due to Covid-19 requiring the extension of the mandate of the Board by a year. Over this time, the Board reviewed the Strategic Plan which covered a 10-year period from 2011 to 2021.

Professor Hussain (President Elect from Norway) gave an overview of the IDF Strategic Plan, covering the period 2023–2026:

The 2022–2021 plan operated under the Vision established for the organisation in the mid-2000s. The Vision, ‘Living in a world without diabetes’ was aspirational but has, at least over the last 15 years, felt unachievable and, subsequently, less than inspirational. The data from our Atlas reports attest to a flooding tide of diabetes that, regretfully, shows no sign of ebbing any time soon.

Over the past 15 years, advances in therapy, the organisation of care and, in particular, the introduction of new technologies in monitoring and delivery, suggest to some that we are closer to gaining control over diabetes than we have ever been in the century since the discovery of insulin. Some may feel that science is bringing us ever closer to a cure, at least for type 1 diabetes. However, from the global perspective, the better the care for those fortunate to afford it, or otherwise living under a healthcare regime that provides sufficient health coverage, the wider the gap between the haves and the less fortunate have-nots. The battle lines are now drawn around issues of access and availability. IDF must play its part in promoting the adoption of universal health coverage and improving access to care worldwide. For this reason, we have proposed a change in our vision to: ‘Access to affordable, quality diabetes care and education worldwide’.

Liz Dutton, Laura Snowden and Heather Verry.

The Delegates were also asked to vote on a change to the previous mission – ‘Promoting diabetes care, prevention and a cure worldwide’ – as it no longer reflected the reality of what IDF wished to achieve. The new Mission statement was passed – ‘Improve the lives of people living with diabetes and prevent diabetes in those at risk’.

The incoming President outlined three strategic aims to support the new Vision and Mission: to promote action to prevent diabetes, to improve diabetes outcomes, and to advocate to support the interests of people living with diabetes.

A three-day Congress followed, where full days were spent in symposia, teaching lectures, panel discussions, and debates.

The IDF Congress is a core activity of the IDF, offering a global platform to discuss a broad range of diabetes issues, from latest scientific advances to cutting-edge information on education, diabetes care, advocacy, and awareness.

Some of the topics covered were genetics of type 2 diabetes, updates on kidney disease, the prevention and remission of diabetes, treating eating disorders, diabetes and mental health, teaching tools and models for managing type 1 and 2, Patient Reported Outcome Methods (PROMS), and sports and diabetes.

We will report more on some of the lectures and discussion that our team went to in the next issue.

Source: https://www.idf.org/who-we-are/about-idf/structure/generalassembly.html