The World Report on Vision seeks to generate greater awareness and increased political will and investment to strengthen eye care globally. The report sets out concrete proposals to address significant challenges in delivering eye care. Its key proposal is to integrate and scale-up ‘people-centred eye care’, embedded in health systems and based on strong primary health care.
Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have a vision impairment, and of these, at least 1 billion people have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or is yet to be addressed. As usual, this burden is not borne equally. It weighs more heavily on low- and middle-income countries, on older people, and on rural communities. Most worrying is that projections show that global demand for eye care is set to surge in the coming years due to population growth, ageing, and changes in lifestyle.
The World report on vision sets out concrete proposals to address challenges in eye care. The key proposal is to make integrated people-centred eye care, embedded in health systems and based on strong primary health care, the care model of choice and scale it up widely.
The World report on vision is directed at ministries of health, development agencies, civil society organizations and researchers, practitioners and policy-makers from the field of eye care. It is hoped that by shaping the global agenda on vision, the report will assist Member States and their partners in their efforts to reduce the burden of eye conditions and vision loss and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG target 3.8 on universal health coverage.
Recommendations
- Make eye care an integral part of Universal Health Coverage
- Implement Integrated people-centred eye care in the health system
- Promote high-quality research
- Monitor trend and evaluate progress
- Raise awareness and engage and empower people and communities.
WHO’s World Report on Vision (HD) Video
