INTRODUCTION
The Fred Hollows Foundation (The Foundation) is an international development organization based in Australia and committed to ending avoidable blindness and improving the health and well-being of disadvantaged communities. Operating for over 30 years in more than 25 countries across Australia, The Pacific, South and South-East Asia, and Africa, The Foundation champions health equity, community empowerment, and sustainable health systems. Recognizing the rapid global ageing trend and the growing burden of eye and related health conditions in older populations, The Foundation has increasingly focused on this population group. For example, in 2023, The Foundation implemented projects in five countries - China, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Viet Nam – to expand access to eye care and integrated services for older adults. More recently, The Foundation has designed country projects that will deliver WHO’s model of Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) as a means to deliver Integrated People-Centered Eye care for this population group. To support implementation, there is a need for a concise, modular training package that can be used at country level to build the necessary competencies among health providers and others working to implement ICOPE. This package must be clear, practical, and adaptable to different country contexts, and should align with the ICOPE Handbook (2023) and other relevant resources and guidance.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
By 2050, the global population aged 60 and over is expected to reach 2.1 billion, almost doubling since 2019. Notably, most older people live in low- and middle- income countries today and, by 2050, it is estimated that 80% will live in these settings. Evidence suggests that person-centred and integrated care is the best approach for implementing the spectrum of interventions needed in older age. Yet, in many countries, healthcare services are lacking for older populations; those that do exist are inappropriate for this population group because they were designed to cure acute conditions or symptoms in younger age groups; and coordination is frequently limited across care providers, settings and time, leading to disconnected and fragmented care. This results in poor health and wellbeing outcomes as well as avoidable care dependence. The fact that 73% of avoidable vision loss is concentrated in people aged 50 and over reflects existing gaps. WHO’s Integrated Care of Older People (ICOPE) model was designed to address these shortcomings and improve outcomes for the older population. ICOPE was designed to help older people maintain or improve their mental and physical capacities for as long as possible. It aims to promptly identify and respond to declines in any of six interconnected domains of intrinsic capacity: cognition, psychological well-being, mobility, vitality, hearing, and vision. Additionally, it incorporates critical factors influencing older people’s health and quality of life, such as social care needs, caregiver support, and urinary incontinence. It is also a means to deliver Integrated Person-Centered Eyecare (IPEC) in this population group. ICOPE and IPEC are complementary WHO frameworks. Whereas ICOPE specifically focuses on older people’s health, including vision and other physical and mental capacities, IPEC aims to ensure that eye health care is integrated with other services across the lifecourse. Both promote people-centred, integrated, and community-level care, and are grounded in the goals of Universal Health Coverage. In this way, ICOPE can serve as a delivery mechanism for IPEC in older populations — ensuring that eye care is not siloed but embedded in the holistic health services older people receive. Two new country projects were designed to deliver ICOPE in Viet Nam and Ethiopia. Their design is the result of extensive stakeholder consultations and co-design workshops. Upon completion of the design phase, The Foundation is now creating a practical training package designed to build the skills and
competencies of healthcare providers and others involved in delivering the ICOPE model at various levels. The training will target three distinct audiences: (i) Healthcare professionals with specialized education – who will serve as Trainers of Trainers (ToTs); (ii) primary-level healthcare providers – to be trained by the ToTs; (iii) Community-level professionals (e.g., community health workers, population health officers) – to be trained by primary-level providers with ToT support.
PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY
The purpose of this consultancy is to develop a streamlined, easy-to-deliver TOT training package (in English) that will build the capacity of health providers and other professionals in delivering ICOPE. The training package should include essential materials for delivery, testing learning outcomes, and adapting content to local contexts. The consultant will also provide adaptation guidance and simplified templates to ensure the ToT package can be effectively cascaded to primary-level providers and community-level professionals.
Please see the attached full Terms of Reference for further detail.
APPLICATIONS
Interested applicants should submit a cover letter, resume(s), technical and financial proposals all in one single pdf file. Applications should be sent by 26 October 2025 at 17.00h CET. Please include the following as email subject “Training ICOPE” and send to the following email address: vfuentenunez@hollows.org.
The Fred Hollows Foundation (The Foundation) is an international development organization based in Australia and committed to ending avoidable blindness and improving the health and well-being of disadvantaged communities. Operating for over 30 years in more than 25 countries across Australia, The Pacific, South and South-East Asia, and Africa, The Foundation champions health equity, community empowerment, and sustainable health systems.
