Climate-resilient, gender-responsive eye care: why we need an integrated approach now

The World Health Organization recognises human-made climate change as the single greatest global health threat of the 21st century. Its impacts on eye health are already being felt.

Rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, worsening air pollution, increasing food insecurity, and more unpredictable and severe extreme weather events are driving heightened risks to vision and eye health.

But the impacts of the climate crisis on eye health are not felt equally. Harmful gender norms, poverty, disability, age, geography and displacement can intersect to shape both risk and access – meaning the same climate risks can have very different consequences for different people. Women and girls may face higher exposure to infectious eye conditions due to caregiving and water collection roles; people with disabilities can face barriers to information and evacuation during disasters; and older people may be more vulnerable to intensifying heat and smoke that worsen chronic eye conditions.

If climate action and eye care planning are not deliberately inclusive, they can reinforce inequities rather than reduce them.

Climate Resilient, Gender responsive Eye Care: An intersectional guide is a new practical guidance and advocacy tool for advancing integrated action on climate and eye health, grounded in an intersectional gender equity approach, published by IAPB. It is designed for decision-makers, planners and eye health actors who want to embed eye health and equity into climate and health planning and to strengthen services in ways that protect access, while building resilience.

Eight practical recommendations for inclusive, equitable, climate‑resilient eye care for all

1. Elevate eye health in climate-sensitive health planning. Make eye health visible in national health strategies, health-sensitive adaptation plans and disaster risk management – so that risks to vision (and continuity of care) are anticipated, budgeted and coordinated.
2. Apply an intersectional equity lens. Ask “who is most at risk, and why?” Use risk and barrier analysis, disaggregated data, and meaningful participation to target resources where they are needed most.
3. Strengthen climate-resilient primary and community eye care. Integrate eye health into platforms that already reach women and underserved groups (for example maternal and child health, WASH, and community health programs), and build readiness for climate risks within primary health systems and awareness raising.
4. Use outreach and telehealth strategically. Reduce inequities and emissions by designing inclusive outreach and tele-services that cut unnecessary travel, support follow-up during disruptions, and close digital access gaps.
5. Embed eye health into disaster preparedness and response. Include eye injuries, spectacles replacement, and continuity of care for chronic conditions in emergency protocols, anticipatory action and recovery planning.
6. Partner with women’s organisations and organisations of people with disabilities (and LGBTQIA+ organisations where safe and appropriate). Work through trusted, locally led groups to co-design accessible services, strengthen accountability, and reach people who are commonly excluded.
7. Design facilities and systems for resilience, accessibility and dignity. Invest in climate-smart, universally accessible infrastructure and maintenance planning so services can continue through heat, floods and power disruptions.
8. Invest in women’s leadership and inclusive workforce development. Remove structural barriers to leadership, create enabling environments, and build climate-and-equity competencies across the eye health workforce.

If you work in government, for an NGO, an eye hospital, a professional association, or a climate and health team, you can use the guidance note in three simple ways:

• Start with your next planning process. Bring eye health into the room when health and climate plans are being updated – especially adaptation planning, emergency preparedness and primary health care reforms.
• Plan for service continuity in the face of climate risks, especially for those most vulnerable. Use the recommendations as a checklist: what happens to referrals, outreach, electricity, water, supplies and follow-up during heatwaves, floods or smoke events – and who is most likely to be left behind?
• Build partnerships for more participatory design of climate sensitive eye care services. Identify and resource women’s organisations and OPDs to help co-design and monitor climate-sensitive eye care, using accessible feedback mechanisms.

Climate change is already reshaping the conditions in which eye health services have to operate. Rather than being reactive, scrambling after each shock, this guidance note offers a practical path forward: make eye health a climate and health priority; design services that can withstand disruption; reduce emissions where possible; and centre the people who face the greatest barriers to care.

If we take this integrated approach seriously, climate action can become a catalyst for better eye health systems – more accessible, more equitable and more sustainable. As the sector builds momentum on climate and health, we invite health planners, policy makers and service providers to use this guidance to turn commitments into action, so that climate-sensitive eye care protects sight, strengthens resilience and leaves no one behind.