The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. The work of The Foundation, and the eye health and development sectors more broadly, will impact on and be impacted by the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as Global Goals.

What is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

 

Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a universal commitment to end poverty, protect the environment, and ensure prosperity for all. The Agenda is framed by 17 global goals (Sustainable Development Goals), which encompass 169 targets and 232 individual indicators to guide action and monitor progress.

 

Achieving the 2030 Agenda’s objectives would deliver a world in which nobody is living in poverty, basic health outcomes are not dictated by an individual’s wealth or location, and where human and development gains do not come at the expense of planetary health.
 

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.

Glossary of global sustainability terms

• Organizational Governance: the informal or formal system by which an organization makes and implements decisions including the fulfilment of its social and environmental responsibilities.​
   

• Human Rights: upholding and respecting fundamental human rights, the recognition and rights of marginalised and vulnerable groups and respect for the equal rights of men and women as enshrined in the core international human rights conventions including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
   

• Labor Practices: adoption and promotion of the elimination of forced and compulsory labor, including child labor, and the elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation as codified in International Labour Standards established by the International Labour Organization (ILO).​
   

• Environment: the prevention of pollution and emissions, responsible natural resource use and adoption of circular economy practices, renewable energy use, the promotion of climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience and the protection of the environment, biodiversity and natural habitats.
   

• Fair Operating Practices: the application and promotion of ethical and equitable conduct in dealings with other organizations such as suppliers, contractors, partners, customers, competitors, governments and business associations.​
   

• Consumer Issues: adoption and promotion of fair marketing practices, the use of factual and unbiased information and fair contractual practices. Access to essential services such as electricity, gas, water, wastewater services, drainage, sewage and communication is also included.
   

• Community Involvement and Development: supporting the SDGs positive collaboration and contribution to community involvement, respecting the cultural, social and political rights of communities, contributing to the development of low-cost technology and supporting universal access to essential health care services.

What SDGs is The Foundation 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 organization 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: Revitalize 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 ages 

Goal 3 is all about good health and well-being. It 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 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 prioritize 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 SDGs?

GOAL 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

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

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 prioritizing 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 Peoples 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 recognizes 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 recognizes 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 organizations which either share, or can contribute to, our mission to end avoidable blindness.

Our current partners include governments, non-government organizations, philanthropic organizations 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.

 

 

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT - CONTRIBUTING TO THE 2030 AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Our commitment to the SDGs

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, marginalization 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 marginalization, 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 recognized 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.

Need more information about our sustainability activities?

If you need more information about our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, email us at [email protected]