• Item type: Guideline/policy recommendation
• Language: English
• Author: Fred Hollows Foundation
• Publication Date: Feb, 2013
• PwC 1. Price of Sight Final Report 2013.pdf(1.64 MB)

The Fred Hollows Foundation (FHF) as the lead representative of a consortium of non-government organisations (NGOs) — the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), Sightsavers International, CBM, Operation Eyesight Universal, and Light for the World — engaged PwC, with the assistance of Three Rivers Consulting, to estimate the global costs of eliminating avoidable blindness.  This work follows the initial 2008 IAPB estimate which focused only on developing countries and the cost of providing treatment services (not including primary health care or preventative health services) but used a broader scope.

This report is an important contribution to the global efforts to eliminate avoidable blindness. It establishes a costing methodology which can be debated, refined and complemented. It highlights the increasingly recognised need for better eye health data and data collection methods and systems, a need shared by all areas of national and global health efforts. It draws attention to the vast difference in costs between developed and developing world settings. And finally, recognizing the numerous limitations and generalizations necessary to reach a conclusion, it puts forward an estimate of the global “price of sight”.