WORLD SIGHT DAY 2016
World Sight Day 2016 key messages
World Sight Day (WSD) is an international day of awareness, held annually on the second Thursday of October to focus attention on the global issue of avoidable blindness and visual impairment. The theme of World Sight Day 2016 (WSD16) is: Universal Eye Health.
The theme is in keeping with the WHO’s Action Plan 2014-2019 and will be used for the next couple of years as a rolling theme. Each year, however, we will focus on a ‘Call to Action’, and for 2016 it is: Stronger Together.
Key messages
• 4 out of 5 blind people are needlessly impaired; let’s work together for the elimination of avoidable blindness.
• About 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide. Preventable causes are as high as 80% of the total global visual impairment burden.
• 90% of the world’s visually impaired people live in developing countries.
• Invest in eye health – increase budget allocations to address need.
• Address the human resources crisis in eye health – invest in training, innovation and research
• Integrate eye health at every level of the health system.
• Withdraw user fees to the poorest.
