United Nations targets vision for everyone by 2030
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The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution committing the international community to eye care for the 1.1 billion people living with preventable sight loss by 2030.
This resolution is the first agreement from the United Nations addressing preventable sight loss and “enshrines eye health as part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals,” according to a press release from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).
The resolution, which was unanimously supported by all 193 countries of the UN, calls for eye care targets to be included in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
“The resolution creates new expectations for international financial institutions and donors to provide targeted finances, especially to support developing countries in tackling preventable sight loss,” the IAPB said in the release, “and for the United Nations to incorporate eye health into its work, including through UNICEF and UN-Women.”
IAPB CEO Peter Holland said in the release, “IAPB’s members will now work tirelessly to support governments to enact this resolution and hold governments to account to ensure that no one is left behind.”
“In becoming a global patron of the IAPB last year, we believed the organization had the capacity to advance universal access to eye health – including bringing greater awareness and action to the growing prevalence and severity of myopia in children, CooperVision President Daniel McBride said in another press release. “It’s up to all of us to help fulfill what the agreement sets out – industry, practitioners, institutions and governments alike.”
Prevent Blindness stated in its own press release that the group urged the U.S. to support the resolution.
Prevent Blindness CEO and President Jeff Todd said in a letter to the Hon. Linda Thomas Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, “We know far too well that we exist in a global community and have a duty to bring our voice to bear in advocating for vision and eye health for our neighbors across the world.”
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