Abstract
Objective
The 2nd Cleft Summit aimed to understand what policies and actions various cleft-centered non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can adopt to achieve sustainable, patient-centered, interdisciplinary cleft care.
Design
A Summit of global leaders in interdisciplinary cleft care.
Setting
A two-hour discussion within a three-and-a-half-day International Comprehensive Cleft Care Workshop (CCCW).
Participants
Twenty-eight global leaders from various cleft-focused specialties.
Interventions
The Second Cleft Summit was held to collaboratively improve understanding among global cleft leaders regarding the role and responsibility of NGOs to provide sustainable interdisciplinary cleft care.
Main Outcome Measures
The summit's primary objective was to explore and develop strategies to strengthen interdisciplinary cleft care, particularly in resource-limited settings.
Results
Participants agreed on the need to shift NGO focus toward interdisciplinary, patient-centered care that extends beyond a single program to include long-term follow-up. They also strongly encouraged empowering on-site medical providers and teams through bidirectional education (lectures, case discussions) and capacity-building (workshops, simulation). Health system strengthening emerged as a uniformly viable pathway to ensuring sustainable care delivery while diminishing the footprint of international NGOs.
Conclusion
The summit emphasized the need for systemic strengthening of the health delivery infrastructure alongside education and capacity-building. Whenever feasible, NGOs should collaborate with local governments and regional stakeholders through a bidirectional exchange of knowledge and skills.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.