• Child Wellbeing

This report is a product of the partnership between our two organisations, a partnership that aims to advocate for better access to quality eye health and treatment for Africa’s children. It is unacceptable that most blind children in Africa have lost their sight due to preventable causes. Many of the visually impaired children that live in Africa today need not have lost their sight if they had been diagnosed early and had access to quality treatment and follow-up. Children’s vision is a major component of their cognitive development and overall wellbeing and when impaired has far reaching implications for their life situation, their immediate family and their communities.

Preventing and treating children’s blindness and visual impairment is rooted in the realisation of children’s rights, specifically to the right to the highest attainable health and ensuring their protection against preventable infections. While we commend collaborative efforts by African governments, development partners and the civil society organisations on the successes - particularly on the achievements in expanding immunisation against measles and vitamin A supplementation - which have impacted positively on child eye health, there are many remaining challenges - such as poor sanitation, inadequate services for eye care, inadequate referral systems - that negatively affect and compromise children’s vision in Africa. We hope this report will stimulate debate and contribute to national and continental efforts to promote action to enhance child eye health and prevent further blindness and vision impairment among children.