EYE FOCUS | NEWS
more to bring good vision to everyone. At the same time,
there is simply no blueprint to achieve our ambition.
This report will provide the necessary guidance while
engaging the different stakeholders towards one goal,”
says Hubert Sagnières, executive vice-chairman of Es-
silorLuxottica and chairman of Essilor International.
“It illustrates our endeavor to take our efforts further by
investigating this vision crisis and uncovering how to
solve it. Governments, NGOs, bilateral and multilateral
organizations, donors, eye care professionals and the
private sector all have a role to play as we have a once-in-
a-lifetime opportunity to end a public health crisis.”
$14B
investment
needed to
eliminate
poor vision
by 2050
Essilor International has published a ground-breaking
report that defines the global scale of uncorrected poor
vision – the world’s largest disability which overwhelm-
ingly impacts the developing world – and outlines for the
first time solutions to eliminate it within one generation.
According to the report, a total investment of $14
billion over the next 30 years is required to eliminate
uncorrected poor vision by 2050.
“As the world leader in ophthalmic optics and a firm
believer in business as a force for good, our ambition is to
eliminate poor vision within one generation. While there
have been many successful initiatives by both public and
private actors in recent years, there is clearly a need to do
24 EYE FOCUS February Digital 2020
Uncorrected poor vision is the world’s most wide-
spread disability, affecting 2.7 billion people across
the globe, 90 per cent of whom live at the economic
base of the pyramid.
It costs the global economy $272 billion in lost pro-
ductivity each year.
By 2050, uncorrected poor vision is predicted to
reach epidemic proportions with over 50 per cent of
the world’s population expected to suffer from myo-
pia, many with serious vision-threatening side effects
and drastic long-term implications.
To gather more evidence-based insight into the scale
of this vision care crisis, accelerate the identification
of possible solutions and mobilize both public and pri-
vate stakeholders, Essilor initiated the report “Elimi-
nating poor vision in a Generation: What will it take
to eliminate uncorrected refractive errors by 2050?”
using analytical support provided by McKinsey.
Its findings suggest that uncorrected poor vision can
be eliminated by 2050 through an investment of $14
billion over the next 30 years, dedicated to creating
sustainable access points to eyecare, innovating for
affordable solutions, funding subsidized and free
services, and raising awareness.
Using the key findings of the report as a starting
point, Essilor hosted a panel discussion, in partner-
ship with the social enterprise and media platform
Devex, on the sidelines of 74th Session of the United
Nations General Assembly. The discussions exam-
ined how public and private stakeholders can jointly
overcome the obstacles to meeting the 2050 target of
universal vision.