Sustainable development goals:

What are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

The 2030 Agenda is framed by 17 goals, known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The SDGs are the successor to the Millennium Development Goals applying to all countries, and will be pivotal in informing international aid and development agendas over the coming decade.
                  
The SDGs are used to guide action and measure progress across a range of development priorities, and reflect the myriad of complex social, economic and environmental factors which impact health and wellbeing, at both an individual and population level.

What SDGs are we addressing?

The SDGs are indivisible - progress in one area can often catalyse success across others. That being said, different actors have unique contributions to make.

As an organisation with an eye health focus, the work of The Foundation aligns most closely with the targets contained within Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

However, the flow-on impacts of The Foundation’s work go far beyond good health, cutting across many of the 17 SDGs, most notably:

• GOAL 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
• GOAL 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
• GOAL 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
• GOAL 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
• GOAL 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
• GOAL 17: Revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development

Let’s take a look at our contribution a little closer.

ADDRESSING GOAL 3: ENSURE HEALTHY LIVES AND PROMOTE WELL-BEING FOR ALL AT ALL AGES.

Goal 3 calls for progress in all domains of health, across prevention, treatment and access to appropriate specialist and primary care services.

Its indicators track progress related to reductions in the global burden of maternal and infant mortality, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and environmental diseases. It also seeks to reduce disparities in health outcomes and access to health services which exist between population groups.

Achievement of Goal 3 would mean a world in which neither health outcomes nor access to health services are determined by who you are, where you live or your financial circumstances. 

The Foundation contributes to this through delivering eye health development programs across 25 countries and undertaking local, national and global advocacy and research initiatives which build capacity and help to strengthen national and local health systems towards universal health coverage for eye health across the world.

As we move forward into the future over the next five years, The Foundation’s efforts will be focused around four impact goals:
 

• effective cataract treatment is accessible to all;
• trachoma is eliminated;
• effective refractive error prevention and treatment is accessible to all; and
• diabetic retinopathy and other eye conditions can be affordably managed.

The Foundation will prioritise taking a health system strengthening approach aimed at improving equity, quality, efficiency and sustainability. We have a strong emphasis on engaging communities and patients, advocating for policy and priority change, and innovation to accelerate change.

HOW IS FRED’S VISION CONTRIBUTING TO BROADER SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS?

The Foundation’s work is focused on the development of eye health services and strengthening health systems, the benefits of which extend far beyond good health.

Restoring sight allows individuals and families to return to work or school, and overcome the inequality and exclusion that blindness and vision impairment often perpetuate. The work of The Foundation impacts on, and is impacted by, the pursuit of SDGs outside of what we would typically consider health domains.
 

GOAL 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

The Foundation contributes to ending poverty in many ways across our country programs, in our global and national level advocacy, and in many of our research projects.

Since its inception, The Foundation has prioritised ensuring that our services are accessed by poor and marginalised communities, who otherwise would not be able to access comprehensive eye care.
 

GOAL 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Closing the gender gap in access to eye health is an immediate area of focus for The Foundation.

Globally, women are 1.3 times more likely to be blind than men – meaning 55% of people who are vision impaired worldwide are women.

In recognition of this disparity, The Foundation is prioritising gender equity and working  to promote gender equality through our programs, in our public communications and in our business practices and has launched a whole of organisation gender strategy.
 

GOAL 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Education, especially for children in primary and secondary years, provides an essential foundation for economic participation across the life course.

Good vision is  critical for participation in  education and the lifelong benefits  it provides to individuals, their families and communities.
 

GOAL 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

The Foundation contributes to reducing inequality in many ways across our country programs, in our global and national level advocacy and in many of our research projects.

In addition to a strategic focus on gender equity, The Foundation is also prioritising reducing the gap in access to eye health services between low and high income countries as a priority over the next five years as it works towards zero prevalence in avoidable blindness and vision impairment.

Our work in Australia to close the gap in eye health between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and non-Indigenous Australians provides an example to demonstrate our targeted efforts in combating inequality.

In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are three times more likely to be blind than non-Indigenous Australians. We work with local Aboriginal community controlled health services to close the gap and advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights.
 

GOAL 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

The Foundation recognises the cross-cutting nature of sustainable consumption and production and its impact on the SDGs.

Our global procurement policy specifies the objective to support the achievement of the SDGs and the revised internal procurement framework and selection criteria considers the most positive environmental, social and economic outcomes across the full life cycle of a service or product.
 

GOAL 17: Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

The Foundation recognises that it cannot achieve its core mission of ending avoidable blindness by working  in isolation.

All of our programs are delivered through local partners, as our strategic approach to program implementation and capacity building. There are cascading benefits of all eye health interventions.

In recognition of this, The Foundation pursues strategic global partnerships with organisations which either share, or can contribute to, our mission to end avoidable blindness.

Our current partners include governments, non-government organisations, philanthropic organisations and the private sector, through coalitions built around mutually-beneficial objectives.

We are committed to constantly reviewing the efficacy of these existing partnerships and horizon scanning for new partnerships.
 

FOR A DEEP-DIVE, DOWNLOAD THE FULL-LENGTH VERSION OF OUR SDG CONTRIBUTION REPORT

OUR COMMITMENT TO THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Restoring sight transforms lives. It can enable individuals and families to pull themselves out of poverty, help people to return to work or school, and overcome the inequity, marginalisation and exclusion that blindness and vision loss often perpetuate.

People living with blindness and vision impairment in developing countries are often poorer and less likely to engage in paid work, compared to those without a vision impairment.

Helping to restore sight has been shown to have sustained economic benefits, raising individuals and their families out of poverty, and increasing the likelihood of people returning to productive activities and paid work.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides an invaluable and transformative opportunity to build a better future for generations to come.

The late Professor Fred Hollows dreamed of a fairer, more equitable world and he understood the transformative potential of good sight to reducing poverty and marginalisation, access to education, and improving livelihoods and economic opportunity. Achievement of the SDGs would help translate Fred’s dream into reality.
 

“Real humanity is shown when we care for others” - Fred Hollows
 

This is why we’re committed to contributing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Looking forward to 2023, The Foundation is committed to leaving no one behind in access to eye health and has placed a renewed emphasis on equity at the heart of our new strategic plan.

We will:

• build on our knowledge and understanding of how we, and how eye health more broadly, can contribute to the SDGs, and we will embed this learning across our program, advocacy, research and business operations;
• focus on reducing the equity gap between access to eye care services and those who need them, with a particular emphasis on addressing gender inequity;
• instigate policies and measurable business practices to achieve and promote low energy demand and low material consumption;
• issue that both contributes to and is impacted by the SDGs. work in partnership across the eye health sector, sharing what we have learned, collaborating and partnering with others to ensure eye health is promoted and recognised as a cross-cutting

Over the next three years, Goal 3 will remain as The Foundation’s unique value offering under the 2030 Agenda, and we will focus our effort on scaling up access to eye health services and strengthening health systems as part of universal health coverage.