WHO Collaborating Centre 

A logo with the WHO emblem and 'WHO Collaborating Centre for Eye Care and Vision' on it

In February 2026 the International Centre for Eye Health was officially designated as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Eye Care and Vision.

Designation as a WHO Collaborating Centre recognises technical excellence and alignment with WHO priorities. The collaboration enables us to contribute directly to technical guidance, research priorities, and implementation tools that support integrated, people-centred eye care.

Activities covered under the designation include:

 

Assisting WHO in the collection, analysis and reporting of population eye health data, including monitoring of the WHO 2030 targets for cataract (eCSC) and refractive error (eREC)

It was estimated that in 2020 there were 596 million people with distance vision impairment, of whom 43 million were blind. Ninety percent of this vision impairment was due to cataract or uncorrected refractive error.

In 2021 the World Health Assembly (WHA) endorsed two new global eye care targets: (1) a 30-percentage point increase in effective cataract surgical coverage (eCSC), and (2) a 40-percentage point increase in effective refractive error coverage (eREC) by 2030.

ICEH has been at the forefront of proposing and defining indicators for tracking global progress towards these goals. We have also provided technical support for the collection and analysis of the majority of data used for tracking progress through RAAB surveys, and provided estimates for updates towards reaching the WHA targets.

We will continue to coordinate the development, updating and maintenance of the RAAB survey methodology and the management of the RAAB data repository, while providing training and technical support to national eye health teams in conducting national and sub-national surveys.

The work will also support WHO in developing eye health extensions to other survey methodologies to expand the sources of eCSC and eREC data being collected.

 

Supporting WHO in developing evidence to improve global eye health, including epidemiology, intervention strategies, economic evaluations and evidence synthesis.

There are currently important gaps in the global eye health evidence base, particularly in relation to effective implementation and health systems research.

ICEH has a strong 40-year track record in delivering impactful, public health-orientated research and policy leadership. The Centre will assist the furthering of eye health research in several ways.

ICEH is the technical partner coordinating the development of WHO’s global eye health research agenda, identifying the research priorities for the global eye health field for the coming years.

ICEH will also conduct:

• evidence synthesis reviews on subjects relevant to WHO’s research agenda and other topics related to WHO’s programme of work, producing one or more reviews per year
• implementation / intervention research that generates evidence to guide action to equitably increase eCSC and eREC
• policy, implementation and intervention research that generates evidence to guide action to improve child eye health
• the development of standard methodologies for vision-related health economics (HE) studies, new tools for HE data collection and conducting multi-country studies on multiple aspects of HE of eye health. This can help to provide evidence on how investing in eye care secures health, social and economic return
• policy, implementation and intervention research that generates evidence to improve services for diabetic retinopathy, primary eye care and glaucoma

 

Supporting WHO in strengthening the eye health workforce, with a particular emphasis on public health training and capacity strengthening.

In many countries globally, eye health systems lack properly trained staff to be able to meet their eye care needs. Furthermore, there is a lack of trained researchers to provide locally relevant research for improving services.

ICEH has a long history of excellence in education, training, capacity strengthening and knowledge sharing.

As part of this partnership, ICEH will:

• Train eye health professionals in public health through its unique Master’s Course
• Maintain an up-to-date and freely available portfolio of online courses, taken by thousands of people across many countries, while developing new courses on key topics
• Continue to publish the Community Eye Health Journal, a vital resource for eye health professionals globally
• Develop evaluation reports of some WHO training materials