Where the world saw the value of vision
Five years after the adoption of United Nations General Assembly resolution 75/310, Vision for Everyone: Accelerating Action to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the Summit marked an important step from global recognition towards implementation. With more than one billion people still without access to the eye care they need, leaders united around the opportunity to close this gap, transform lives and generate an estimated US$447 billion in economic benefits each year.
Culminating months of international engagement and preparations, the Summit brought together hundreds participants from dozens of countries, including Heads of State and Government, ministers, and leaders from development institutions, business and civil society. Together, they presented concrete commitments to strengthen national policy, increase investment, expand access to eye care and accelerate delivery through 2030.
191 Commitments to eye health spanning over 115 countries
173 The Global Compact for Eye Health was endorsed by 173 stakeholders, including 40 governments
48 Governments committed to embedding eye health in national health systems
25 Governments committed to prioritising child eye health
We asked leaders
The Summit challenged leaders worldwide to recognise the value of vision by asking them to:
Act
- Commit to leadership and action from the highest levels of Government to embed eye health into health systems.
- Activate nationally owned eye health plans to deliver change and an integrated approach.
- Implement policy changes to address vision, recognising it as a whole-of-life issue that needs a holistic, whole-of-government approach.
Allocate
- Increase resources in eye health, recognising the return on investment that is possible both nationally and internationally.
- Explore innovative funding mechanisms and new ways to fund eye health.
- Foster partnerships with the private sector.
Accelerate
- Collaborate across the public and private sector and wider society to harness the educational and societal benefits of addressing poor sight.
- Implement the 6 accelerator interventions quickly and as a minimum and scale these up as progress is made.
- Harness technology and fast-track research and development in this area.
Eye Care Accelerators
Leaders were encouraged to make commitments designed for rapid impact that were guided by The Value of Vision: The case for investing in eye health six key accelerators. These accelerators can boost not just eye health, but overall health, learning, employment, and productivity – and achieve one of the best returns on investment in global development.
Eye care accelerators guiding commitments are:
