The Fred Hollows Foundation makes bold commitment to eye health

The Fred Hollows Foundation has pledged to support more than 1 million cataract surgeries over the next four years as part of its commitment to the Global Summit on Eye Health. 

Hosted by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda and co-hosted by Bangladesh, Nigeria and Guyana, the Global Summit for Eye Health brings together world leaders, governments, development partners, investors, NGOs and private sector representatives to secure ambitious commitments and accelerate progress towards reaching the 1.1 billion people living with avoidable sight loss. 

The Foundation – as a High Impact Partner at the Summit – is helping drive momentum towards this pivotal moment for global eye health by committing to outcomes aimed at ending avoidable blindness on a global scale. 

Between 2027 and 2030, The Foundation, with support from its partners working in more than 25 countries, aims to: 

• Screen 24 million people 

• Perform 1 million cataract surgeries 

• Dispense 1 million pairs of glasses 

• Reach 61 million people with trachoma antibiotics 

• Train more than 440,000 eye health workers 

The Foundation will focus on tackling key barriers to eye health care including reaching those often left behind, including women and girls, older people, people living with disability, Indigenous peoples and those in remote and hard to reach locations. 

The Foundation is also calling on the Australian Government to commit to closing the gap in eye health between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and non-Indigenous Australians by 2035 and provide an ongoing commitment to assistive technology for vision to support our Pacific Island neighbours. 

Foundation CEO Ross Piper said the first-ever Global Summit for Eye Health represented a landmark opportunity to transform the future of eye health. 

More than 2.2 billion people worldwide are living with blindness or vision impairment, including 1.1 billion people whose vision loss is preventable or yet to be treated. Without urgent action, that number is projected to rise to 1.8 billion by 2050. 

“The Summit comes at a critical juncture – while significant progress has been made through global commitments such at the World Health Assembly and in other forums, implementation and investment have not kept pace with need. 

“As a result, millions of people continue to miss out on a service that is among the most effective and transformative investments in global health and development. 

“Vision is fundamental to people's ability to learn, work, earn an income, care for family members and participate fully in society – yet untreated eye conditions continue to reinforce cycles of poverty, inequality and exclusion, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. 

“Poor vision reduces educational attainment, labour force participation and productivity, while increasing dependency and vulnerability to economic shocks.  

“Women and girls are disproportionately affected, accounting for 55 percent of the 1.1 billion people living with vision loss that could be prevented or treated.” 

Mr Piper said eye health was far more than a health issue. 

“Eye health is a development issue, a gender equity issue and an economic issue. 

“Improving vision directly contributes to progress across multiple Sustainable Development Goals, including health, education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth,” he said. 

Mr Piper said the case for investment in eye health had never been stronger with research from The Fred Hollows Foundation, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and the Seva Foundation showing that every US$1 invested in eye health can generate US$28 in economic returns, placing eye health alongside nutrition as one of the most cost-effective development interventions available. 

“The impact is profound – when people can see clearly, children are better able to learn, adults can participate more fully in the workforce and older people can maintain independence and quality of life. 

“Restoring sight unlocks opportunity, productivity and dignity at every stage of life. 

“Yet eye care remains underfunded and too often absent from national health financing strategies. 

“The Global Summit for Eye Health can change this by elevating eye health as an essential component of universal health coverage, human capital development and resilient health systems.” 

Mr Piper said the Summit also provided a platform to advance new approaches to financing eye health at scale. 

The Fred Hollows Foundation is a Vanguard Investor in a pioneering partnership between the World Bank and the Vision Catalyst Fund (VCF), a global financing platform designed to unlock sustainable investment in eye health. 

“By combining catalytic philanthropic funding with domestic and development finance, the Vision Catalyst Fund helps countries move beyond fragmented, short-term projects towards nationally owned, costed and financeable eye health plans.

“Working alongside governments, the World Bank, IAPB and other founding partners, the Vision Catalyst Fund supports countries to translate eye health priorities into investment cases capable of attracting larger-scale financing. 

“This shift is critical. By embedding eye care into national health systems and aligning financing with government leadership, countries can reach more people, more sustainably, and at far greater scale.”