2026 High-Level Political Forum Official Side Event

2026 High-Level Political Forum Official Side Event
ACT, ALLOCATE, ACCELERATE: Advancing Coordinated SDG Delivery Through Eye Health

The event will examine how governments and partners can better align policy, financing, and implementation to accelerate progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While SDG 17 highlights the importance of partnerships, progress remains constrained by fragmented approaches that fail to translate political commitment into coordinated action. Affecting more than 2.2 billion people globally, vision impairment remains insufficiently integrated into national development strategies despite its far-reaching impacts on health, education, employment, productivity, inclusion, and safety.

Using road safety as a practical example ahead of the 2026 High-Level Meeting on Global Road Safety, the discussion will explore how integrated approaches across health, transport, and development can address shared challenges, strengthen cross-sector collaboration, and accelerate SDG implementation.

The event will also serve as a key milestone on the road to the Global Summit for Eye Health, to be hosted by Antigua and Barbuda in November 2026. It will launch the Global Compact for Eye Health, a unifying Summit outcome document and voluntary framework supporting implementation of United Nations General Assembly resolution 75/310, Vision for Everyone, while encouraging early endorsement and the development of coordinated national and institutional commitments ahead of the Summit.

Through a moderated discussion featuring government leaders, United Nations agencies, civil society, and other stakeholders, the event will showcase practical examples of partnership and sector integration, elevate eye health as a driver of sustainable development, and identify actionable pathways for coordinated implementation across the 2030 Agenda.