IAPB

In 2025, the U.S. government shutdown forced Prevent Blindness to cancel its planned World Sight Day advocacy events on Capitol Hill. Instead of giving up, the team found another way to keep eye health on the agenda, turning this unexpected setback into a creative advocacy success. By adapting IAPB's Love Your Eyes campaign for Valentine's Day, they invited advocates to send personal messages to their Members of Congress about what vision and eye health mean to them. Those messages were transformed into customised Valentines, each carrying real constituent voices, alongside policy asks, and hand-delivered ahead of an in-person vision screening event on Capitol Hill. As an IAPB member, Prevent Blindness is part of a global alliance of hundreds of organisations, across more than 100 countries, working together to end avoidable sight loss. Their creative approach demonstrates how members can adapt shared resources and global initiatives to local contexts, amplifying impact and advancing eye health advocacy in new and innovative ways. Interested in joining the leading global eye health alliance? Learn more about IAPB membership: https://brnw.ch/21x4CkC #LoveYourEyes #WorldSightDay

Get involved in World Sight Day, take on the Global Challenge! We’re calling on IAPB members, partners, and the wider eye health sector to deliver screenings and eye health activities between now and 8 October. This year, the Global Challenge is open to all sectors and focuses, from schools and workplaces to parliaments and communities. Choose the activation that best fits your work and help bring eye health closer to everyone, everywhere. Let us know your plans today. https://brnw.ch/21x4BLk #LoveYourEyes #WorldSightDay

Have you made your #LoveYourEyes pledge yet? 👀❤️ Join people around the world taking action for their eye health and help inspire even more people to protect their sight. Every pledge is a voice calling for eye health to be prioritized. With the Global Summit for Eye Health taking place in November, these voices matter more than ever. Add your pledge today and share with your network: https://brnw.ch/21x4A5V #WorldSightDay

Every pledge counts. Every story matters. When you pledge to #LoveYourEyes, you're joining a global community calling for better eye health for everyone. This year, we're aiming for 5 million pledges before World Sight Day. Every pledge adds to a global movement calling for accessible eye care, whether it's made through a school, workplace, parliamentary or community event, or online. Behind every pledge is a person and a story. Share yours today. https://brnw.ch/21x4q1p #WorldSightDay #EveryStoryCounts

The Children’s Eye Health Coalition, which includes IAPB and 13 other civil society and industry organisations has responded to the European Commission Expert Panel report on ‘Child Safety Online: Protecting and Empowering Minors in a Digital World’. They have raised concerns about the report's statement that there is "no strong evidence" linking screen time and myopia. As current research tells a different story. Studies show a clear and consistent link between spending long periods of time on close-up activities, including screen time, and higher rates of myopia in children. Evidence suggests that children spending more than three hours a day on digital devices face a significantly increased risk of developing myopia. In our latest blog, we explore why children's vision deserves evidence-based digital policy and share the Coalition's response to the report. Read it here: https://brnw.ch/21x4ypn

Want to make a commitment to help accelerate progress towards ending avoidable sight loss globally, in the lead up to the first-ever Global Summit for Eye Health, but not sure where to begin? A commitment is a public pledge that sets out how your organisation will take action to advance eye health and help reach the goal of eliminating avoidable blindness worldwide. It could focus on strengthening services, training the workforce, improving access to care, advancing research, driving innovation, building partnerships or influencing policy. To help organisations develop meaningful commitments, IAPB has created a simple three-step process: 1. Inform: Understand the eye health landscape, including relevant priorities, policies, plans and challenges in the communities you serve. 2. Align: Identify where your organisation's expertise, resources and partnerships can make the greatest contribution to advancing eye health. 3. Develop: Turn your ideas into a clear commitment with defined actions, measurable outcomes, a realistic timeline and a plan for tracking progress. The most effective commitments are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. They don't have to be large-scale, just meaningful, actionable and backed by a genuine commitment to create change. Every commitment submitted will contribute to a global movement working towards a future where everyone, everywhere can access the eye care they need. 📅 Submit your commitment by World Sight Day, 8 October 2026 🔗 https://brnw.ch/21x4xL7 #GlobalSummitForEyeHealth #2030InSight

Be a #LoveYourEyes campaigner. World Sight Day is a global moment for action, and we’re inviting organisations and individuals everywhere to take part. Everything you need to get involved is here: - Campaign assets - Social media tools - Posters and resources - Ideas to activate your community Download the resources and start sharing today: https://brnw.ch/21x4vDo #WorldSightDay #EyeHealth

“The glasses were very good. I just saw well – I can read, I can see small things. I’m just happy, I can do anything.” Every Story Counts gathers the real, lived experience of eye health from around the world. Each submission helps make the case, to policymakers and the public, that eye care cannot wait. A big thank you to Sightsavers for sharing this powerful story and helping bring these lived experiences to light. Read more stories and add your own: https://brnw.ch/21x4r7y #EveryStoryCounts #WorldSightDay #LoveYourEyes

Every pledge counts. Every story matters. When you pledge to #LoveYourEyes, you're joining a global community calling for better eye health for everyone. This year, we're aiming for 5 million pledges before World Sight Day. Every pledge adds to a global movement calling for accessible eye care, whether it's made through a school, workplace, parliamentary or community event, or online. Behind every pledge is a person and a story. Share yours today. https://brnw.ch/21x4q1p #WorldSightDay #EveryStoryCounts

🌍 Five years ago, the world made history. All 193 countries at the United Nations agreed that everyone should have access to eye care. It was the first time the UN had ever passed a resolution on vision, and it was a huge step toward making sure that everyone, everywhere has access to quality eye care. 👁️ Since then, progress has been building. Countries are starting to include eye health in their national plans, invest in key services, and recognise that vision is essential for education, work, safety, and overall wellbeing. Much of this momentum comes from the leadership of our members and the countries championing eye health on the ground, including the UN Friends of Vision co-hosts Antigua & Barbuda, Government of Ireland and Government of Bangladesh. Showing what’s possible when policy turns into action. Now, we’re at a crucial moment, as we have just four years to reach our global 2030 In Sight ambition - a world where avoidable sight loss has been eliminated. This November, leaders, experts, and advocates from around the world will gather at the first ever Global Summit for Eye Health, in Antigua and Barbuda. It’s our chance to act and make commitments to eye health globally, allocate the correct resources and accelerate progress and partnerships, to make sure the promise made at the UN becomes a reality for millions of people. Find out more: https://brnw.ch/21x4nmp #GlobalSummitforEyeHealth #ValueofVision #2030InSight