About Focus on Gender Equity

Women and girls make up 55% of the world’s vision impaired, meaning that over half of the population is unable to reach their full potential due to vision loss. In many countries ​women cannot access services and assistive products with the same frequency or ease as their male counterparts.

With a landmark UN Resolution for Vision and strong links to the Sustainable Goals we want to bring awareness and drive action with both policy makers and the eye health sector.  Together we can lead the agenda and help others take steps to support this global eye health priority.

As part of this programme we will be delivering an event, a webinar as well as curating expert opinion pieces and case studies that focus on this important issue.

Jennifer Gersbeck Co-chair of the IAPB Gender Equity Work Group said “For many years, the IAPB Gender Equity Work Group has been actively raising awareness about the inequity in eye health.  We have produced a Gender Equity toolkit, we conduct an annual survey which measures the state of gender equity in eye health, and we organise webinars to share and increase knowledge – much of this work culminates on International Women’s Day; however, with our year-long Focus On Gender Equity program we look forward to capitalising on our existing knowledge and increasing this important area of our work.”

IAPB wants to hear from people and organizations that are working in these two areas and learn more about initiatives that are advancing child eye health and gender equity. For more information contact Saloni Nagpaul at  [email protected]

Focus On Gender Equity is supported by Santen.