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World Health Assembly Resolutions

IAPB together with its members successfully championed a World Health Assembly Resolution on integrated people-centred eye care.

The resolution, adopted in August 2020, was led by Australia and Indonesia and co-sponsored by more than 40 countries. The resolution urges all Member States to implement the recommendations of the World Report on Vision, and specifically to:

The resolution also asked the WHO Director-General to increase support to countries in implementing the recommendations of the World Report on Vision; support the creation of a global research agenda for eye health; and to work with Member States to develop global targets on eye health for 2030 at the 74th World Health Assembly in 2021.

We now have the 2021 WHA resolution, where world health leaders agreed to adopt two new ambitious global targets for 2030. The targets address the two leading causes of blindness and vision impairment, cataract and refractive error.

The targets cement the World Health Assembly resolution on eye health adopted in 2020, and provide a vital mechanism to monitor global progress on eye health and to hold governments to account.

Of course, this is just the first step. What is critical now is for countries to implement the World Report on Vision and report their progress to the World Health Organization.