St Vincent's Declaration (SVD)
Implement your National Diabetes Programme
Re-awakening the Saint Vincent movement
Questionnaire
Representatives of government health departments and patients' organizations from all European countries met with diabetes experts under the aegis of the WHO Europe and the IDF Europe in St Vincent, Italy, in October 1989. They unanimously agreed on general goals for people with diabetes and on a lot of five-year targets in the framework of the St Vincent Declaration (SVD).
‘Diabetes Care and Research in Europe: The St Vincent Declaration 1989’ and ‘Istanbul commitment 1999’. In the nineties:
- St Vincent became a real concept in the diabetes world
- About 50 official national liaison people were appointed for the SVD Action Programme
- About 15 working groups of the SVD Action Programme were set up
- About 40 national diabetes action plans were formulated
- European Meetings for the Implementation of SVD were organized (Hungary-1992, Greece-1995, Portugal-1997, Turkey-1999).
The EASD joined the St Vincent movement, and IDF/EASD co-operation continues to thrive today, as demonstrated by the EU 6th Framework Campaign.
For several reasons, including the organization of SVD, the outcome of improved recording of diabetes itself and of the complications (as mentioned in the SVD-targets), and the accessing good information about the progress of the national action plans were very difficult.
Since the meeting of the 10th anniversary of SVD in Istanbul (1999), the movement of SVD was very quiet for practical reasons and no meetings were organized. But at the same time WHO Europe, IDF Europe and EASD realized how important the concept of the St Vincent Declaration still is. Even stronger : SVD is more needed than ever. It is still used as a guide to national diabetes service developments. In addition, the epidemic growth of diabetes and the tremendous increase of complications and of the very serious socio-economic impact of diabetes in the many countries of the European Region of IDF and WHO demand a response at national and regional levels.
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