Monitoring and surveillance of global eye care targets

Interventions that address the needs associated with uncorrected refractive error and unoperated cataract – the two leading causes of vision impairment globally – are among the most cost–effective of all health care interventions to implement. Given the large unmet need for care, coupled with the fact that highly cost–effective interventions exist (i.e. spectacles and cataract surgery), the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly in May 2021 endorsed two global eye care targets for 2030 – namely, a 40-percentage point increase in effective coverage of refractive errors, and a 30-percentage point increase in effective coverage of cataract surgery.

The essential purpose of these indicators and related targets is to drive eye health coverage while delivering care of quality. The ability to collect a large volume of high-quality data from population-based surveys, periodically, and across all relevant target populations and WHO regions, will be critical to ensure robust monitoring of progress towards achieving the 2030 targets.