Dear Mrs Tamar Gabunia,

On behalf of the Georgian Chapter of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) let me inform you in November 2020, the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted resolution WHA73.10, which calls for the development of an Intersectoral Global Action Plan (IGAP) on Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders. This resolution provides us with a unique opportunity to place epilepsy at the top of the agenda (Please see attached file of a copy of the WHO Discussion Paper and the WHA73.10 Resolution).

Once adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2022, IGAP will provide a framework to support service planning and funding for care and treatment, and a means to tackle stigma, exclusion and discriminatory legislation through intersectoral action.

The WHO Secretariat has issued a consultation discussion paper that will be used as the basis for the creation of IGAP (Please see: https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/consultation-on-discussion-paper-on-global-action-plan-on-epilepsy-and-other-neurological- disorders).

The WHO Secretariat is seeking comments from governments, civil society, UN partners, academia, and non-state actors on the discussion paper by April 10, 2021. These comments will be critical to the shaping of the IGAP project.

ILAE will provide comments directly on behalf of all departments, and is also working on a joint submission with the International Bureau of Epilepsy (IBE), the World Federation of Neurology (WFN) and the International Child Neurology Association (ICNA).

So we urgently need the support from the Georgian Ministry of Health in submitting comments on the Discussion Paper to support our areas of concern.

To help you please see attached documents:

• A background paper which explains the four main concerns (Comments on the discussion),
• A template letter that you could use/adapt to forward your comments directly to WHO (Suggested text for use),
• A copy of the WHO Discussion Paper and the WHA73.10 Resolution for your ease of reference.

We hope that the MoH of Georgia and personally You show your usual kindness to help people with epilepsy and timely submit your remarks to the WHO, directly to:

·  brainhealth@who.int

·  hqgoverningbodies@who.int

·  Dr Ren Minghui, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage/Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases: renm@who.int

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me –

Prof. Sofia Kasradze – President, Georgian Chapter of the ILA: sofiakas@gmail.com

 or any of

Prof.  Sam Wiebe (ILAE President): swiebe@ucalgary.ca

Prof.  Alla Guecht    (ILAE Vice President):  guekht@gmail.com 

Prof.  Eugen Trinka (Chair, ILAE/ILAE-Europe):  eugen@trinka.at

Thank you in advance for your time and support.

With best regards