The World Health Organization (WHO) and their partners from the eye health sector, including the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and IAPB members, Sightsavers and The Fred Hollows Foundation, launched the much-anticipated World Report on Vision on 8 October 2019 in Geneva.
The report offers clear proposals to address significant challenges in delivering eye care through existing health systems. It builds on the concerted efforts of the past thirty years to propose an integrated, people-centred eye care that strengthens health systems and meets population needs.
Globally more than 2.2 billion people have a vision impairment. Of those at least 1 billion people have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or has yet to be treated. As usual, this burden is not borne equally: it weighs heavily on people from low- and middle-income countries, women, older persons and those from ethnic minorities.
The World Report recognises that solutions must focus on integrated, people-centred eye care. It urges countries to protect their peoples from financial hardship resulting from accessing eye health, with greater cooperation between eye care and allied sectors like education, labour, social services and the private sector.