At The Foundation, we’re working to see a world in which no person is needlessly blind or vision impaired, which is part of our commitment as a responsible global citizen.
Restoring sight transforms lives. It can enable individuals and families to lift themselves out of poverty, help people to return to work or school, and overcome the inequity, marginalisation and exclusion that blindness and vision loss often perpetuate.
Download the full contribution report
We have produced a contribution report reflecting The Foundation’s pledge to better understand its role within the SDGs, and to lead by example through publicly committing to further strengthening our engagement.
It describes our core contribution to specific SDG targets across The Foundation, illustrates how we are impacting the lives of real people on the ground, and provides public accountability for stepping up action in the coming years.
What are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
The 2030 Agenda is framed by 17 goals, known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The SDGs are the successor to the Millennium Development Goals applying to all countries, and will be pivotal in informing international aid and development agendas over the coming decade.
The SDGs are used to guide action and measure progress across a range of development priorities, and reflect the myriad of complex social, economic and environmental factors which impact health and wellbeing, at both an individual and population level.
Enabling the attainment of the SDGs
The Foundation’s work is focused on the development of eye health services and strengthening health systems, the benefits of which extend far beyond good health.
Vision is the primary sense that we all rely on as humans to engage and interact with the world around us. How we live, what we create, and the enjoyment we derive from our daily interactions – whether in our personal, family or professional lives – is made exponentially more effective and possible with the gift of sight.
Currently 43.3 million people around the world are blind and 1.1 billion live with some form of vision loss. About 90% of those affected live in low and middle income countries.
If we don’t act now, by 2050 it is estimated more than 61 million people will be blind because of the growing and ageing population. However, we can fix the problem. More than 90 per cent of vision loss is preventable or treatable and we can address it using highly cost-effective interventions.
The new and improved services needed by this group of people are at a scale that can deliver significant social and financial returns on investment, while contributing to the SDGs.
Good sight allows individuals and families to engage fully and meaningfully in work and education, and overcome the inequality and exclusion that blindness and vision impairment often perpetuates. The work of The Foundation impacts on, and is impacted by, the pursuit of SDGs.
What SDGs is The Foundation addressing?
The SDGs are indivisible – progress in one area can often catalyse success across others. The Foundation has a unique and critical contribution to make.
As an organisation with an eye health focus, our work is integral to the attainment of the targets contained within Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
However, the preeminence of sight and its critical enabling role in our everyday lives means that The Foundation’s sight-restoring work creates impact far beyond good eye health. Our work is a fundamental foundation for many of the 17 SDGs, most notably:
- Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
- Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
- Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
- Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
- Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
- Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
- Goal 17: Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
Our key focus is Goal 3
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages
Goal 3 is all about good health and well-being. It calls for progress in all domains of health, across prevention, treatment and access to appropriate specialist, and primary care services.
Its indicators track progress related to reductions in the global burden of maternal and infant mortality, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and environmental diseases. It also seeks to reduce disparities in health outcomes and access to health services which exist between population groups.
Achievement of Goal 3 would mean a world in which neither health outcomes nor access to health services are determined by who you are, where you live or your financial circumstances.
The Foundation contributes to this through restoring and improving people’s sight across 25 countries and undertaking local, national and global advocacy and research initiatives which build capacity and help to strengthen national and local health systems towards universal health coverage.
The Foundation will prioritise taking a health system strengthening approach aimed at improving equity, quality, efficiency and sustainability. We have a strong emphasis on engaging communities and patients, advocating for policy and priority change, and innovation to accelerate change.
Our goals also contribute to to Goal 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12, and 17
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
The loss of sight acts as a severe impediment to people's livelihood and economic empowerment. Preventing the loss of, and improving sight is critical to lifting people out of extreme poverty and ending it in all its forms.
The Foundation contributes to ending poverty in many ways across our country programs, in our global and national level advocacy, and in many of our research projects.
Since its inception, The Foundation has prioritised sustainable and affordable eye care accessible to the most under-resourced and marginalised communities, who otherwise would not be able to access comprehensive eye care.
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Education, especially for children in primary and secondary years, provides an essential foundation for economic participation across the life course. Good vision is critical for participation in education and the lifelong benefits it provides to individuals, their families, and communities.
In recognition of gender disparities in vision and education, ensuring girls have access to quality eye care services underpins not only girls educational attainment but their future livelihoods, including their economic and social empowerment. Focusing on children’s eye health, especially girls, is essential for attaining the SDGs.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Closing the gender gap that prevents women and girls from accessing eye health is an immediate area of focus for The Foundation.
Globally, women are 1.3 times more likely to be blind than men – meaning 55% of people who are vision impaired worldwide are women. This discrepancy also contributes to other disparities, including poverty, family and child-health, girls’ education as well as women’s economic empowerment.
In recognition of gender inequity and its crucial correlation to the SDGs, The Foundation is prioritising gender equity and working to promote gender equality through our programs, in our public communications, and in our business practices. The Foundation has launched an organisation-wide gender strategy.
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
The attainment of SDG8 requires a concentration on improving people’s vision enabling them to have productive employment and improved livelihoods.
According to the latest Lancet Global Report, it is estimated that preventable sight loss cost the global economy £287.8 billion GBP in the year 2020 due to lost employment, with the greatest cost in East Asia (£62.9 billion GBP) and South Asia (£48.8 billion GBP). The report also estimated an economic productivity loss of £297.5 billion GBP (purchasing power parity) due to lost income in low and middle income countries.
Vision improves micro and macro level economic outcomes across urban and rural economies in the formal and informal sectors (where the poorest in need of eye-services work).
For instance, access to eye health services can improve the livelihood of workers who are engaged in agricultural production as farm or field workers. This in turn has the potential to improve crop production and quality, which positively impacts SDG1 (ending poverty) and SDG2 (better food security and nutrition).
In industrial settings, such as in garment factories, a pair of glasses can not only ensure people keep their jobs, but it can also increase productivity and income, improving workers’ health and well-being.
In many urban informal economies, micro-enterprises are enabled with improved vision, where people are empowered to run their own small business as a result of improved vision.
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
The Foundation contributes to reducing inequality in many ways across our country programs, in our global and national level advocacy and in many of our research projects.
In addition to a strategic focus on gender equity, The Foundation prioritises reducing the gap in access to eye health services between low and high income countries as a priority over the next five years as it works towards zero prevalence in avoidable blindness and vision impairment.
Our work in Australia to close the gap in eye health between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and non-Indigenous Australians provides an example to demonstrate our targeted efforts in combating inequality.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are three times more likely to be blind than other Australians. We work with local Aboriginal community controlled health services to close the gap and advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights.
Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
The Foundation recognises the cross-cutting nature of sustainable consumption and production and its impact on the SDGs.
Our global procurement policy specifies the objective to support the achievement of the SDGs and the revised internal procurement framework and selection criteria considers the most positive environmental, social and economic outcomes across the full life cycle of a service or product.
Goal 17: Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
The SDGs require diverse financial support and collaboration between all government and non-government organisations, philanthropic foundations, and the private sector in order to attain the SDGs in low and middle income countries. The financing gap for this endeavour is estimated to be £181 – 217 trillion per year.
However, financing sustainable development is an exciting opportunity. Evidence shows that investing in the SDGs makes economic sense, with the United Nations estimating that achieving the SDGs could open market opportunities to the value of £8.7 trillion, while creating 380 million new jobs.
Such financial investments represent opportunities for building a better world together. The Foundation recognises that it cannot achieve its core mission of ending avoidable blindness by working in isolation. Our programs are delivered with local partners. The Foundation pursues strategic global partnerships with organisations who share or contribute to our mission. We work in collaboration with governments, non-government organisations, trusts and foundations, academic and research institutes, sector bodies and the private sector to create sustainable models of eye care delivery, whilst creating opportunities for economic empowerment, improved education and primary health care.
The Foundation also works to build innovative coalitions with technology providers, finance institutes, social impact investors, government entities, and private businesses.
Building coalitions where the governmental, social, business, and development goals combine – in new ways with innovative models – is essential if the global community is to work together to direct the resources and knowledge needed to deliver the SDGS.
Our commitment to the SDGs
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides an invaluable and transformative opportunity to build a better future for generations to come.
Equity was at the heart of all that Fred Hollows did, and it remains the driving force behind his enduring legacy – a legacy that has seen sight restored to more than 2.5 million people, across more than 25 countries. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is, in many ways, a global call to promote equity in recognition of the disparities that exist between and within countries and the need for universal action to eliminate these differences.
The Foundation’s vision of ‘a world where no one is needlessly blind or vision impaired’ aligns with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the achievement of the SDGs and their central call to leave no one behind. No one should have to live with avoidable blindness or vision impairment in the 21st century when we have low cost and proven solutions at hand, yet we know millions of marginalised people around the world are missing out. We all must do better and The Foundation is committed to playing its part and leading by example.
Need more information about our sustainability activities?
If you need more information about our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, please fill out a contact form or email us at fhf@hollows.org