IAPB - International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.

The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness is a UK-based charity whose mission is to eliminate the main causes of avoidable blindness and visual impairment by bringing together governments and non-governmental agencies to facilitate the planning, development and implementation of sustainable national eye care programs based on the core strategies of disease control, human resource development and infrastructure development, incorporating the principles of primary health care.

 The IAPB was established in 1975 as a coordinating, umbrella organisation to lead international efforts in blindness prevention activities. Its first major achievement was to promote the establishment of a WHO programme for prevention of blindness, with which it has remained strongly linked, and which is now embodied in the global initiative, VISION 2020: The Right to Sight.

Vision:  A world in which everyone has access to the best possible standard of eye health; where no one is needlessly visually impaired; and where those with irreparable vision loss achieve their full potential. Mission: To achieve universal access to eye health, by:

• adding value to and maximising the impact of the individual and collective work of our Members, including those who strive for the inclusion and rehabilitation of those with vision loss, 

• promoting knowledge and awareness of comprehensive eye health system development, particularly at country level.

IAPB divides its global network into seven regions, based on the World Health Organizations’ geographical division of the world into six regional offices (with the only difference that we divide the Americas further into North and Latin America).