International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness

The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) is a coordinating, umbrella organization to lead an international effort in mobilizing resources for blindness prevention activities. It was set up on January 1, 1975, by the late Sir John Wilson, the Founder President. The founding members were the World Blind Union, and the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (now the International Council of Ophthalmology).

IAPB aspires to link professional bodies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), educational institutions, and interested individuals, with national programmes for the prevention of blindness.

According to the WHO (2010), 285 million people are visually impaired, of whom 246 million people have low vision and 39 million are blind all over the world. It has been estimated that the number of the visually impaired could rise. About 80% of blindness is avoidable (it can be prevented or cured). The treatment of cataracts, which accounts for about half of all blindness, is one of the most cost-effective health interventions known.

The first major achievement of IAPB was the establishment of the WHO Programme for Prevention of Blindness (WHO/PBL), with which, it then entered into an official relationship.

In order to formalise a collaboration between the International NGDO community and WHO/PBL, the Consultative Group was formed, an elected body of 10 NGDOs from the Partnership Committee. The Consultative Group met every two years with WHO/PBL, from 1986 to 1994. This body made important contributions to strategies for preventing blindness, but it was limited in what it could achieve due to a lack of designated funding.

In 1994, at the Fifth IAPB General Assembly in Berlin, the Consultative Group was replaced by a "Task Force for Prevention of Blindness". The founder members were CBM International, and Sight Savers International, who were soon joined by Helen Keller International, and Orbis International]. During the period 1996 to 1998, through a series of consultations between the Programme Advisory Group (PAG) of WHO, the Partnership Committee, and the Task Force, the document, "Global Initiative for the Elimination of Avoidable Blindness", was developed and adopted. The document sets out priorities and strategies to eliminate avoidable blindness.

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